m white gloved to the shoulder.

Boone Wellver would have fled incontinently from that place had he not
been held there by his anxiety for Anne, which would not be allayed
until the ladies' hunters had been judged, the ribbons pinned on the
fortunate head-stalls and the exit gates swung open and closed. And the
jumping class, with its spectacular dash of danger, was held for the
last, as the climax is held for the curtain of the act.

CHAPTER XXIX

But while Boone waited for Anne to come into the ring he made no
assiduous search for her in the boxes, because, like many other men
whose outward seeming is one of boldness, he was fettered by an
inordinate shyness in this heavy atmosphere of the unaccustomed. Later
Anne accused him of snubbing her. "You passed right by me a half dozen
times," she teased with violet mischief shimmering in her eyes. "You
wouldn't even look at me."

"I was plain scared," he made candid admission; "but when you went into
the ring I looked at you every minute."

"You're jolly well right you did," she laughed. "You were glued to the
rail, tramping down women and small children. Every time I came round I
saw you there and your face haunted me like a spirit in purgatory. Your
eyes were positively bulging with terror."

"That's what you get," Boone retorted calmly, "for making a
chicken-hearted fellow fall in love with you. I had to hang 'round and
wait. I could no more pursue you through the roses and diamonds than a
cat could follow you into water."

The girl shook her head with a bewildered indulgence. "I can't
understand it," she protested. "There is nothing to be frightened
about."

The young mountaineer grinned sheepishly. "I reckon a lion-tamer would
say the same thing," he asserted, "about going into the cage. He's used
to it."

Anne sat silent for a few moments, and between her eyes came a tiny
pucker, as if a thought tinged with pain had pricked, thornlike, into
her reflections.

At last she spoke slowly: "Suppose you couldn't swim, and I had to
spend a lot of time in deep water. Wouldn't you learn?"

"That's different," he assured her. "You might need me in that event."

"You say society frightens you, and it's a thing I can't understand. I
could understand its boring you. It bores me. I love informal things. I
love my friends and the door that stands open as it always does here,
but I hate the dress parades. There's some sense in the Horse Show. It
makes a market