thoughts which moved me. For, let it be
understood, I was powerfully impressed by her, and in a moment had changed
from what I was before I met her. She talked on rapidly, looking at me
kindly, and doubtless by this time sufficiently understood her power over
our sex to realize that under certain conditions words mean little on a
man's tongue, while silence confesses much. But, counting time by minutes,
I was with her but a very little while before half a dozen partners came
toward her claiming her for a new waltz.

"Ask me to dance, Floyd," she whispered.

"I do not dance, Georgy," I returned gravely, and drew back; and presently
she was whirling about again, her flower-crowned head gyrating against
first one black-coated shoulder and then another.

I saw Jack Holt leaning against a pillar, and went up to him. "How do you
get on, Floyd?" he asked in his slow, easy way. "Rather heavy work, eh?"

"Not at all," said I, feeling all the keen joy of youth: "I think it
delightful. Miss Lenox spoke to me, Jack. Of course you have seen her."

"Oh yes," Jack laughed good-naturedly. "She at once told me I looked
countrified and old-fashioned--that my hair was too long and my gloves
were outrageous. In fact, she was ashamed to own me, and declared that
nothing should induce her to confess she was engaged to me until I looked
less seedy."

We both laughed at this. Jack had a handsome allowance, which he spent
almost entirely upon the girl he loved. She was quite used to his
generosity toward her and self-denial toward himself, and gave him no more
credit for it than the rest of us award to the blessings we count on
assuredly.

"You don't mind her nonsense, Jack?"

"Not at all. She has such spirits she must chatter. You haven't seen her
for ages, Floyd: do you think her improved? Has she grown handsomer?"

I was conscious of a dulness and thickness in my voice as I replied, "She
is much handsomer."

"She is more womanly," pursued Jack: "I think her manner has softened a
little. There is more tenderness about it: as a girl she was sometimes a
trifle--hard. Now--But you see how she is, Floyd: there is nobody like
her. Good God! I ask myself sometimes what that perfect creature can see
in me."

"A good deal apparently, since she is to be your wife." I said it without
faltering, and felt better after it. Something seemed to clear away from
my brain, and I could look at Georgy now with less emotion. She was all
that was brig