"Sometimes. But at the officers' ball it mostly surrenders. The casualty list, after one of these balls, is something awful. After all, Jack, all these modern improvements in arms have not superceded the old bow and arrow." She smiled at me with white teeth and lazy eyes. A handsome woman, Kitty.
"And who is that dangerous flirt you were talking about a moment ago?" I asked her, interested in spite of myself.
"I lose my mess number if I dare to tell. Oh, they'll all be here to-night, both Army and civilians. There's Sadie Galloway of the Eighth, and Toodie Devlin of Kentucky, and the Evans girl from up North, and Mrs. Willie Weiland—"
"And Mrs. Matthew Stevenson."
"Yes, myself, of course; and then besides, Ellen."
"Ellen who?"
"Never mind. She is the most dangerous creature now at large in the Western country. Avoid her! Pass not by her! She stalketh by night. She'll get you sure, my son. She has a string of hearts at her will as long as from here to the red barn."
"I shall dance to-night," I said. "If you please, I will dance with her, the first waltz."
"Yes?" She raised her eyebrows. "You've a nice conceit, at least. But, then, I don't like modest men."
"Listen to that," chuckled Stevenson, "and yet she married me! But what she says is true, Cowles. It will be worse than Chapultepec in the crowd anywhere around Ellen to-night. You might lose a leg or an arm in the crush, and if you got through, you'd only lose your heart. Better leave her alone."