"What about that waltz?" Denry began, informally.
"That waltz is nearly over," said Ruth Earp, with chilliness. "I suppose you 've been staring at her ladyship with all the other men."
"I 'm awfully sorry," he said. "I did n't know the waltz was——"
"Well, why did n't you look at your programme?"
"Have n't got one," he said naïvely.
He had omitted to take a programme. Ninny! Barbarian!
"Better get one," she said, cuttingly, somewhat in her rôle of dancing mistress.
"Can't we finish the waltz?" he suggested, crestfallen.
"No!" she said, and continued her solitary way downwards.
She was hurt. He tried to think of something to say that was equal to the situation, and equal to the style of his suit. But he could not. In a moment he heard her, below him, greeting some male acquaintance in the most effusive way.