standing there alone.

The lady waited in such apparent indifference, gently tapping the floor
with her neatly shod foot, her eyes wandering carelessly over the
throng in our front, that I felt utterly at sea. Evidently she had no
intention of addressing me, yet I could not continue to stand there
beside her in silence like a fool. That she possessed a pretty temper I
already knew, but better a touch of that than this silent disdain.

"Would you be exceedingly angry if I were to ask you to dance?" I
questioned, stealing surreptitiously a glance at her proudly averted
face.

"Angry? Most assuredly not," in apparent surprise. "Yet I trust you
will not ask me. I have been upon the floor only once to-night. I am
not at all in the mood."

The words were not encouraging, yet they served to break the ice, and I
was never easily daunted.

"If there were chairs here I should venture to ask even a greater
favor--that you would consent to sit out this set with me."

She turned slightly, lifted her eyes inquiringly to mine, and her face
lightened.

"No doubt we might discover seats without difficulty, in the anteroom,"
she answered, indicating the direction by a glance. "There do not
appear to be many 'sitters-out' at this ball, and the few who do are
not crowded."