smiled in response to one of Barbara's bright glances, and noticed that
Lieutenant Wemple was still dancing close attendance upon her young
friend.

Barbara was gowned very simply in white, and carried a bouquet of
Jacqueminot roses. Her shining black hair was drawn back from her
forehead in loose, waving masses and filleted with bands of silver
filigree. The brown-faced girl, in her white dress with the glowing
roses at her breast, made a pleasing picture as she stood beside a
cabinet of pueblo pottery, against a Navajo _portière_. Lieutenant
Wemple, who stood nearest her, thought that, altogether, it made the most
striking and suggestive composition he had ever seen, and that he would
like to see her portrait painted just as she stood there; but that would
be impossible, for no artist could paint two girls into one figure. And
she--at one moment she was a bronze figure, listening with drooped
eyelids, closed lips, and impassive face, and the next she was vibrant
with life; her big black eyes, which would have redeemed a countenance of
less attractiveness than hers, sparkled and glowed; her face was radiant
with eager interest; and the Lieutenant felt that beneath those rich red
roses must beat a heart as glowing with warm bright life as they.

Santa Fé might be, geographically, far in the deeps of the red and woolly
West, but the feminine portion of its social circles did not think that
any reason why they should relapse into barbarism. And as one means of
preventing such a dire catastrophe, they made the law of party calls even
as the laws of the Medes and Persians. Among themselves the men might
groan and swear and protest as much as they pleased, but if any one of
them neglected that duty the ladies forthwith hurled him from the circles
of the Select into the outer shades of the Unassorted. After the night
of Barbara's success these calls did not lag as usual, and Lieutenant