A garden with one Eve is the perfect combination in a world awry.
Muffled, the music and the sounds of the ballroom came faint and far to
them; star-made shadows danced at their feet. The girl paused,
expectant; but it was the unexpected that happened. The nimble tongue
which had done such faithful service for Mr. Bransford now failed him
quite: left him struggling, dumb, inarticulate, helpless--tongue and
hand alike forgetful of their cunning.

Be sure the maid had adroitly heard much of Mr. Bransford, his deeds and
misdeeds, during the tedious interval since their first meeting. Report
had dwelt lovingly upon Mr. Bransford's eloquence at need. This awkward
silence was a tribute of sincerity above question.

With difficulty Ellinor mastered a wild desire to ask where the cat had
gone. "Oh, come ye in peace here or come ye in war?" Such injudicious
quotation trembled on the tip of her tongue, but she suppressed
it--barely in time. She felt herself growing nervous with the fear lest
she should be hurried into some all too luminous speech. And still Jeff
stood there, lost, speechless, helpless, unready, a clumsy oaf, an
object of pity. Pity at last, or a kindred feeling, drove her to the
rescue. And, just as she had feared, she said, in her generous haste,
far too much.

"I thought you were not coming?"

The inflection made a question of this statement. Also, by implication,
it answered so many questions yet unworded that Jeff was able to use his
tongue again; but it was not the trusty tongue of yore--witness this
wooden speech:

"You mean you thought I said I wasn't coming--don't you? You knew I
would come."

"Indeed? How should I know what you would do? I've only seen you once.
Aren't you forgetting that?"

"Why else did you make up as a Friend then?"

"Oh! Oh, dear, these men! There's conceit for you! I chose my costume
solely to trap Mr. Bransford's eye? Is that it? Doubtless all my
thoughts have centered on Mr. Bransford since I first saw him!"

"You know I didn't mean that, Miss Ellinor. I----"

"Miss Hoffman, if you please!"

"Miss Hoffman. Don't be mean to me. I've only got an hour----"

"An hour! Do you imagine for one second----Why, I mustn't stay here.
This is really a farewell dance given in my honor. We go back East day
after to-morrow. I must go in."

"Only one little hour. And I have come a long ways for my hour. They
take their masks off at midnight--don't they? And of course I can't sta