in action in America?"

"No, but I have just crossed the Jerseys with despatches."

She shook her head, her cheeks glowing.

"My home was there when the war began," she explained simply. "Now it is
hate, pillage, and plunder everywhere. We fled to Philadelphia for our
lives, and have almost forgotten we ever had a home. We loyalists are
paying a price almost equal to those men with Washington. 'Tis this
memory which makes me so bitter toward those who play amid the ruins."

"Yet you have seemed to enter into the gay spirit of the occasion," and
my eyes swept over her costume.

"Oh, I am girl enough to enjoy the glitter, even while the woman in me
condemns it all. You are a soldier--a fighting soldier, I hope--and still
you are here also seeking pleasure."

"True; I yielded to temptation, but for which I should never have come."

"What?"

"The dare in your eyes this afternoon," I said boldly. "But for what I
read there I should be out yonder riding through the night."

She laughed, yet not wholly at ease, the long lashes drooping over her
eyes.

"Always the woman; what would you do without my sex to bear your
mistakes?"

"But was this a mistake? Did I read altogether wrong?"

"Don't expect a confession from me, sir," demurely. "I have no memory of
any promise."

"No, the barest suggestion was all your lips gave; it was the eyes that
challenged."

"You must have dreamed; perhaps you recall the suggestion?"

"I took it to mean that you would not be altogether averse to meeting me
again through the kindness of some mutual friend."

"No doubt you have found such a friend?"

"I have scarcely seen a face I know to-night," I pleaded. "I cannot even
guess from what place of mystery you appeared so suddenly. So now I throw
myself upon your mercy."

"I wonder is it quite safe!" hesitatingly. "But, perhaps, the risk is
equally great on your part. Ah! the lights go on again."

"And the band plays a Hungarian Waltz; how better could we cement
friendship than to that measure?"

"You think so? I am not so sure, and there are many names already on my
card--"

"Do not look," I interrupted swiftly, "for I claim first choice since
this afternoon."

"You do?" and her eyes laughed into mine provokingly. "And I had
forgotten it all; did I, indeed promise you?"

"Only with your eyes."

"Oh, my eyes! always my eyes! Well, for once, at least, I will redeem
even that visionary pledge," and her glance swept the room