Henrietta Lamb. Mother wants to run my whole programme for me,
you understand, but the trouble of it is--about girls like that,
you see well, I couldn't do what she wants, even if I wanted to
myself, because you take those girls, and by the time I get Ella
off my hands for a minute, why, their dances are always every
last one taken, and where do I come in?"

Alice nodded, her amiability undamaged. "I see. So that's why
you dance with me."

"No, I like to," he protested. "I rather dance with you than I
do with those girls." And he added with a retrospective
determination which showed that he had been through quite an
experience with Mrs. Dowling in this matter. "I TOLD mother I
would, too!"

"Did it take all your courage, Frank?"

He looked at her shrewdly. "Now you're trying to tease me," he
said. "I don't care; I WOULD rather dance with you! In the
first place, you're a perfectly beautiful dancer, you see, and in
the second, a man feels a lot more comfortable with you than he
does with them. Of course I know almost all the other fellows
get along with those girls all right; but I don't waste any time
on 'em I don't have to. _I_ like people that are always cordial
to everybody, you see--the way you are."

"Thank you," she said, thoughtfully.

"Oh, I MEAN it," he insisted. "There goes the band again. Shall