teeth, and when her eyes, intensely blue, met Billy's, the smile in
them quickened in sparkling radiance. She was the very spirit of the
dance; she was Youth and Joy incarnate. And the heart behind the
white shirt bosom near which her fairy hair was floating began to
pitch and toss like a laboring ship in the very devil of a sea.

"I think I'll go up the Nile again," said Billy irrelevantly.

She laughed elfishly at him, her head swaying faintly with the
rhythm.

"Three weeks," said Billy under his breath, "that's twenty-one
days--at ten dollars a day. Now I wonder how many hours--or
moments--that rash outlay would assure?"

"You miser! You calculating----"

"You have to calculate--when you're an engineer."

"But to be sure spoils the charm! Now I--I do things on impulse."

"If you will only have the impulse to dance with me--on the
Nile----"

"Why not risk it?" she challenged lightly, arrant mischief in her
eyes. She added, in mocking tone, "There's a moon."

"That's a clincher," said he, with an air of decision. A faint
question dwelt in the look she gave him. It was ridiculous to think
he meant anything he was saying, but--she felt suddenly a little