“Thank you, Billie,” replied the boy, giving her hand a warm grasp. “You don’t mind my not calling you ‘Miss,’ do you?”
“Of course not,” said Billie. “We’re just a boy and girl, anyway. Besides, I called you ‘Edward’ first.”
“Good-bye, again,” he said, and was gone down the steps before she could say a word.
Billie took another path to the house and avoided the crowd.
In the meantime, Edward Paxton, seeing Elinor standing apart from the group of young people, had whispered to her.
“It’s awfully jolly to see you again. I’m not strong on dancing but I’d like one with you, if you don’t mind my bungling.”
Elinor looked at him in amazement.
“You seem to have been rather strong on dancing the first part of the evening,” she said coldly.
“Oh—er, perhaps I was,” answered the boy, suddenly remembering that he could not speak for his actions during the first part of the dance.
“But you will dance with me now,” he went on, “or better still, suppose we sit on the piazza. I have been thinking up the music for that song,” he went on eagerly. “You remember the words you gave me the other night: