"What can it be?" said Elise, craning her neck to see through a doorway.
"It's a game," said Marie Homer, who had just joined the group. "I told mother, you all considered yourselves too grown-up for games, but she said she didn't want to have the whole evening given over to dancing. So you will play it, won't you?"
"Sure we will!" declared Kenneth, who admired the shy little girl.
Marie was new in their set, but they all liked her. She was timid only because she felt unacquainted, and the good-natured crowd did all they could to put her at ease.
"Games!" exclaimed Philip; "why, I just love 'em! I'll play it, whatever it is."
"I too," said Patty. "It will be a jolly change from dancing."
CHAPTER II
ON THE TELEPHONE
When the young people returned to the ballroom, it presented a decidedly changed appearance. Instead of an interior scene, it was a winter landscape.
The floor was covered with snow-white canvas, not laid on smoothly, but rumpled over bumps and hillocks, like a real snow field. The numerous palms and evergreens that had decorated the room, were powdered with flour and strewn with tufts of cotton, like snow. Also diamond dust had been lightly sprinkled on them, and glittering crystal icicles hung from the branches.