ome?" he asked, stopping short. There was something
overbearing in his voice and his straight, unwavering gaze.

She didn't know how to take it, how to meet it. Voice and manner
required some proper response which seemed to be beyond her experience.

She did not answer; but a slight pressure of her bare arm set him in
motion again.

The phenomenon interested her; to see what control over this abrupt
young man she really had she ventured a very slight retrograde
arm-pressure, then a delicate touch to right, to left, and forward once
more. It was most interesting; he backed up, guided right and left, and
started forward or halted under perfect control. What had she been
afraid of in him? She ventured to glance around, and, encountering a
warmly personal interest in his gaze, instantly assumed that cold,
blank, virginal mask which the majority of young girls discard at her
age.

However, her long-checked growth in the arts of womanhood had already
recommenced. She had been growing fast, feverishly, and was just now
passing that period where the desire for masculine admiration innocently
rules all else, but where the discovery of it chills and constrains.

She passed it at that moment. The next time their glances met she smiled
a little. A new epoch in her life had begun.

"Where are you taking me?" she asked. "Are we not going to dance?"

"I thought we might sit out a dance or two in the conservatory--one or
two----"

"One," she said decidedly. "Here are some palms. Why not sit here?"

There were a number of people about; she saw them, too, noted his
hesitation, understood it.

"We'll sit here," she said, and stood smilingly regarding him while he
lugged up two chairs to the most retired corner.

Slowly waving her fan, she seated herself and surveyed the room.

It is quite true that reunion after many years usually ends in
constraint and indifference. If she felt slightly bored, she certainly
looked it. Neither of them resembled the childish recollections or
preconceived notions of the other. They found themselves inspecting one
another askance, as though furtively attempting to surprise some
familiar feature, some resemblance to a cherished memory.

But the changes were too radical; their eyes, looking for old comrades,
encountered the unremembered eyes of strangers--for they were
strangers--this tall young man, with his gray eyes, pleasantly fashioned
mouth, and cleanly moulded cheeks; and this long-limbed