"I am engaged for this dance, though it is only a square one. Will you look after Miss Raughton until I return?"
"With pleasure, or until some favoured partner comes to claim her. But," turning to her, "I presume you are also engaged for this dance, 'though it is only a square one.'"
"No," she said, "you know I never dance them."
"Shall we go round the rooms, then?" he asked, offering her his arm. "It is insufferably hot here!"
Lady Chesterton had moved away to welcome some other guests, and so they walked to another part of the room. As Ida looked up at him, she thought how well and strong he seemed, and recalled the many dances they had had together. And she wondered if he was glad to be back in London again?
"How cool and pleasant the conservatory looks!" he said, as they passed the entrance to it. "Shall we go in and sit down until you are claimed for the next dance?"
She assented, and they went in and took possession of two chairs that were standing beneath some great palms and cacti.
"I should think that after the heat you have been accustomed to you would feel nothing in England," she said.
"In Honduras we are suitably clad," he answered, laughing, "and evening dress suits are not in much request. But I am very glad to be wearing one again, and once more talking to you."
"Are you?" she said, raising her eyes and looking at him. She recalled how often they had talked together, and how she had taken pleasure in having him tell her of the different parts of the world he had seen; parts that seemed so strange to her who had never been farther away from home than the Tyrol or Rome.