f extreme
unconventionality. Noble knew nothing except that this was his dance
with Her.

Then heaven played with him. She came close and touched him exquisitely.
She placed a lovely hand upon his shoulder, her other lovely cool hand
in one of his. The air filled with bursting stars.

They danced.

Noble was conscious of her within his clasping arm, but conscious of her
as nothing human. The fluffy white bodice pressed by his hand seemed to
be that of some angel doll; the charming shoulder that sometimes touched
his was made of a divine mist. Only the pretty head, close to his, was
actual; the black-sapphire eyes gave him a little blue-black glance, now
and then, and seemed to laugh.

In truth, they did, though Julia's lips remained demure. So far as Noble
was able to comprehend what he was doing, he was floating rhythmically
to a faint, far music; but he was almost unconscious, especially from
the knees down. But to the eye of observers incapable of perceiving that
Noble was floating, it appeared that he was out of step most of the
time, and danced rather hoppingly. However, these mannerisms were no
novelty with him, and it cannot be denied that girls at dances usually
hurried impulsively away to speak to somebody when they saw him coming.
One such creature even went so far as to whisper to Julia now, during a
collision: "How'd you get caught?"

Julia was loyal; she gave no sign of comprehension, but valiantly swung
onward with Noble, bumped and bumping everywhere, in spite of the most
extraordinary and graceful dexterity on her part.

"That's one reason she's such a terrible belle," a damsel whispered to
another.

"What is?"

"The way she'll be just as nice to anybody like Noble Dill as she is to
anybody," said the first. "Look at her now: she won't laugh at him a
bit, though everybody else is."

"Well, I wouldn't laugh either," said the other. "Not in Julia's
position. I'd be too busy being afraid."

"What of?"

"Of getting a sprained ankle!"

It is well that telepathy remains, as a science, lethargic. Speculation
sets before us the prospect of a Life Beyond in which every thought is
communicated without the intervention of speech: a state wherein all
neighbours and neighbourhoods would promptly be dispersed and few
friendships long endure, one fears. If to Noble Dill's active
consciousness had penetrated merely the things thought about him and his
dancing, in this one short period of time before the