"Very much indeed. Why don't you claim me for the first waltz?"
"Because I can't dance a little bit. You would lose every atom of respect you have for the creature, if you saw him being 'led through a quadrille,' as they call it."
"Would I? Try me!"
What a wonderful face it was, when she let it say all that it would! Ralph took it very tenderly between his hands, and greedily drank in its love and loyalty. Then he turned away. How he loathed the thought of this dance! There were one or two men in the house whom Mona had met repeatedly in London, and the thought of her dancing with them gave him positive torture.
"Come, friend!" he said to himself roughly. "We are not going to enact the part of the jealous husband at this time of day;" but when he entered the salon that evening, some time after the dance had begun, and morbidly noted the impression made by Mona's appearance there, he would gladly have given two years of his life to be able to waltz.
Of course he must look as if he enjoyed it, so he moved away, and spoke to an acquaintance; but above all the chatter, above the noise of the music, he could hear the words—
"May I have the honour of this waltz, Mrs Dudley?"
Very clearly, too, came Mona's reply.
"Thank you very much, but I only waltz with my husband. May I introduce you to Miss Rogers?"
A few minutes later Dudley turned to where his wife was sitting near the door,—his eyes dim with the expression a man's face wears when he is absolutely at the mercy of a woman. He could not bear the publicity of the ball-room, and he held out his arm to her without a word. Mona took it in silence. He wrapped a fleecy white shawl about her, and they walked out into the cool, quiet starlight.