“Oh! I’m glad you’ve come! I thought you were so cut up that we wouldn’t see you to-night.”
He smilingly bowed his acknowledgments.
“Heavens!” thought the girl, “I wish Bob had so lovely an expression! He does nothing but grin!”
Then she took a rose from her breast and held it out to Neil.
He was fastening it in his coat when Mrs. Dale came up.
“How late you are! Let me take you to the supper-room. I dare say you may find an ice there.”
Excusing himself to Miss Maury, the young man went away with his hostess. There was a jam at the door, which caused them to stop by a recessed window, where a girl sat, leaning lazily back against the cushions of a sofa, her slippered feet crossed before her and the trail of a green silk coiled out on the carpet beyond.
The soft fold of her dress under Neil’s foot caused him to look up. She saw him and put her hand out through the curtain.
“How d’ye do?” she said, in an indolent way.
He took the soft fingers, devoid of jewels, in his and smiled again.