It was my turn to laugh. "Ah, ha!" I said. "I thought no names were to be mentioned! At least, if Kitty has talked, I shall not betray her. But I knew you directly, as the most beautiful girl in all the city. Kitty said that much."
"Oh, thank thee, kind sir!"
"Then you knew I was a Quaker? Kitty has talked again? I had forgotten it to-night, and indeed forgotten that Quakers do not dance. I said I ought not to come here to-night, but now I see Fate said I must. I would not have lived all my life otherwise. To-night I hardly know who I am."
"Officer and gentleman," she smiled.
The chance compliment came to me like a blow. I was not an officer. I was masking, mumming, I, John Cowles, who had no right. Once more, whither was my folly carrying me? Suddenly I felt saddened.
"I shall call you The Sorrowful Knight," chided my fair companion."
"Quite as well as any name, my very good friend."
"I am not your friend."
"No, and indeed, perhaps, never may be."
Her spirit caught the chill of this, and at once she motioned the edge of the floor.