before, with strange eagerness, he swept her into the music. Within
the clumsy bulk of her draperies his arm felt the slightness of her
young form. She was no more than a child.... No child, either, at a
masquerade, but a fairy, dancing in the moonlight.... She was a leaf
blowing in the breeze.... She was the very breeze and the moonlight.

And then, to his astonishment, the dance was over. Those moments had
seemed no more than one.

"We must have the next," he said quickly. "What made you think you
had forgotten?"

"It is nearly four years, monsieur, since I danced with a man."

"With a man? You have been dancing with girls, then?"

She nodded.

"At a school?"

"At a--a sort of school." The black domino laughed with ruefulness.
"At a very dull sort of school."

"To which, I hope, you are not to return?"

She made no answer to that--unless it was a sigh that slipped out.

"At any rate," he said cheerily, "you are dancing to-night."

"To-night--yes, to-night I am dancing!" There was triumph in her