Again Madge saw that Tania was utterly unconscious of the audience about her. She looked neither to the right nor to the left, but straight upward to the turquoise-blue sky.
How different Tania’s audience to-day from the crowd of people that had watched her on the street corner when Eleanor and Madge had first seen her! Yet these gay society folk were even more fascinated by the child’s wonderful art. They could better appreciate her remarkable dancing.
Tania did not even see her beloved Madge, who was silently watching her. Tania’s usually pale cheeks glowed as scarlet as her sash. Unconsciously the little girl’s movements were like those of a butterfly, a-flutter with the joy of the sunshine and new life.
The music stopped suddenly and with it Tania’s dance ceased as abruptly. She stood poised for a single instant on one dainty foot, with her graceful arms still swaying above her flower-crowned head. Her audience watched her breathlessly, for the effect of the child’s grace had been almost magical.
“Wasn’t that a wonderful performance?” whispered Tom in Madge’s ear. “The child is an artist! Where do you suppose she learned to dance like that?”
But Tania had come back to earth in a brief second. To Madge’s mystification, Tania started about among the people who had been watching her performance with her small hands clasped together like a cup.
The child courtesied shyly to a fat old lady. Her gesture was unmistakable. The woman rummaged in her chain pocket-book and dropped a silver quarter into Tania’s outstretched hands. The next onlooker was more generous. Tania’s eyes shone as she felt the size and weight of a big silver dollar.
Few people in the Cape May crowd knew who Tania was, or whence she had come. They probably thought that the object of the dance had been to earn money.
For a few moments Madge had been paralyzed by Tania’s peculiar actions. She did not realize what they meant. In this lapse of time the rest of their party joined them.
It was the expression on Mrs. Curtis’s face that made Madge appreciate what Tania was doing.