Clear River had turned out, to the last man and woman—and to the last child, too! The schoolhouse was no longer a seat of learning; it was a festal bower. The desks had been taken up and placed along the four walls, seats outward, tops forming a ledge against the calcimined stones, making a splendid place for those youngest children who had turned out! Yes, a dozen babies slumbered there in the confusion, wrapped in many thicknesses of blankets.
Three lamps with polished reflectors were placed on window ledges, and the yellow glare filled the room with just sufficient brilliance to soften lines in faces and wrinkles in gowns that clung to bodies in unexpected places. The fourth window ledge was reserved for the music—a phonograph with a morning-glory horn, a green morning-glory horn that would have baffled a botanist. The stove blushed as if for its plainness in the center of the room, and about it, with a great scraping of feet and profound efforts to be always gentlemanly and at ease, circled the men, guiding their partners.
VB stood in the doorway and watched. He coughed slightly from the dust that rose and mantled everything with a dulling blanket—everything, I said, but the eyes must be excepted. They flashed with as warm a brilliance as they ever do where there is music and dancing and laughter.
The music stopped. Women scurried to their seats; some lifted the edges of blankets and peered with concerned eyes at the little sleepers lying there, then whirled about and opened their arms to some new gallant; for so brief was the interval between dances.
"Well, are you never going to see me?"
VB started at the sound of Gail's voice so close to him. He bowed and smiled at her.
"I was interested," he said in excuse. "Getting my bearings."
She did not reply, but the expectancy in her face forced his invitation, and they joined the swirl about the stove.
"I can't dance in these riding boots," he confided with an embarrassed laugh. "Never thought about it until now."
"Oh, yes, you can! You dance much better than most men. Don't stop, please!"