"You?"

"I knew you'd refuse if I asked you."

"So? Then I'm really your guest instead of hers."

"We'll leave whenever you say."

Throughout the rest of the dance Lorelei was silent, offended at
Bergman's deception and uncomfortable at her own situation; but
the hostess had ordered a supper of the unsatisfactory kind usual
in such places; little as she liked the prospect, she could not
leave at once.

The meal was interrupted regularly each time the music played, for
dancing was more than a fad in this set--it was a serious business
with which nothing was allowed to interfere. The bulky widow was
invariably the first upon her feet, and Miss Wyeth followed
closely, yielding herself limply to the arms of first one, then
another of the youthful coterie. She held her slashed gown high,
and in the more fanciful extravagances of the dance she displayed
a slender limb to the knee. She was imperturbable, unenthusiastic,
utterly untiring. The hostess, because of her brawn, made harder
work of the exercise; but years of strenuous reducing had hardened
her muscles, and she possessed the endurance of a bear. Once the
meal had dragged itself to a conclusion, there began the customary
round of the dancing-places--this being the popular conception of
a lark--and Lorelei allowed herself to be bundled in and out of
the Thompson-Bellaire theater-car. There was considerable