Elinor repeated the names after him and buried them deep in her mind.
A Virginia reel was forming and Mrs. Steptoe has asked as an especial favor if the young ladies would not dance. Nancy had given her hand to Jim for the dance. It was the third time she had bestowed this honor upon him, and with unconcealed joy he stood at the top of the line ready to lead off. Billie was dancing with Barney McGee. Mary had accepted Brek Steptoe as a partner and Elinor, with Algernon Blackstone de Willoughby Winston now joined the line.
There were only three or four other women including Mrs. Steptoe, and for the rest, cowboys and ranchmen danced together with perfect good nature.
How strange it seemed to Miss Campbell, her four girls dancing among these queer people. No wonder the other dancers forgot the figures of the reel while they drank in the picture of their fresh young faces. It was to them as if a garden of roses had suddenly sprung up in the desert.
“Down the center,” called the musician. “Now, right and left all around.”
The fiddle whined. The guitar thrummed passionately. Miss Campbell’s head was in a whirl.
“Ought we to have taken the risk of this visit?” she kept saying. “When one is traveling one must have experiences,” her thoughts continued. “Besides, what harm can come of it? They are rough, kindly people, and have taken so much trouble to give us this entertainment. But I really don’t care for all this noise and dust. I hope I shall never go to another one.”
The little lady leaned her head wearily against the wall and closed her eyes. An arm slipped around her waist. It was Elinor, who having danced her turn had quietly joined her. Her partner had disappeared in the courtyard.
The two women exchanged meaning glances. The noisy dance, the jingling spurs of the cowboys as the dancers came down the middle, and an occasional loud laugh did not appeal to Elinor either.
“We must excuse ourselves, dear,” Miss Campbell was saying, when suddenly the courtyard resounded with a loud cry.