rebel against her silent denial. With a bitter laugh he snatched up the
glove.

"I read a defiance in your eye as you flung this down. I accept the
challenge, and will keep gage until I prove myself the victor. I have
asked for pardon. You refuse it. I have confessed my love. You scorn it.
I have possessed myself of your secret, yet you deny it. Now we will try
our strength together, and leave those children to their play."

"We are the children, and we play with edge tools. There has been enough
of this, there must be no more." Pauline rose with her haughtiest mien,
and the brief command, "Take me to Manuel."

Silently Gilbert offered his arm, and silently she rejected it.

"Will you accept nothing from me?"

"Nothing."

Side by side they passed through the returning throng till Mrs. Redmond
joined them, looking blithe and bland with the exhilaration of gallantry
and motion. Manuel's first glance was at Pauline, his second at her
companion; there was a shadow upon the face of each, which seemed
instantly to fall upon his own as he claimed his wife with a masterful
satisfaction as novel as becoming, and which prompted her to whisper,
"You enact your role to the life, and shall enjoy a foretaste of your
reward at once. I want excitement; let us show these graceless, frozen
people the true art of dancing, and electrify them with the life and
fire of a Cuban valse."