"Serving here to-night, are you?" asked Barney.
"Serving?" repeated Quin; then he laughed good-naturedly. "You got another guess coming your way, Barney."
"So it's the parlor instid of the pantry, is it? I'd 'a' seen it for meself if I had used me eyes instead of me mouth. You look grand enough to be doing a turn on the vawdyville."
Quin tried not to expand his chest in pride, for fear the movement would disturb those temperamental studs. He would fain have lingered indefinitely in the warmth of Barney's admiring smile, but the signal for the first dance was already given, and he moved nervously out into the throng again.
Now that the moment had come for him to meet Eleanor—the moment he had longed for by day and dreamed of by night,—he found himself overcome with terrible diffidence. Suppose she did not want to see him again? Suppose she should be angry at him for coming to her party? Suppose she should be too taken up with all these strange friends of hers to have time to dance with him?
After obstructing social traffic in the hall for several moments, he encountered Miss Enid. She was all a lavender flutter, with sleeves floating and scarf dangling, and she wore an air of subdued excitement that made her almost pretty.
"Why, Quinby!" she said, and her eyes swept him. "Have you spoken to mother yet?"
"No; where is she?"
"In the library. And sister will present you to the young ladies in the parlor."
She hesitated a moment, then she placed a timid hand on Quin's arm.