“There will be a crowd,” she said, “but we shall get the first of the oysters, and the scrimmage will be more fun than a half-empty room.”
It was an hour later when he danced his extra with Eve Marchant. The next dance was the Caledonians.
“Surely you are not going to dance the Caledonians?” he said. “It is a cruelty to keep the floor from all those portly matrons in fine raiment who are sighing for a square dance.”
“I am happy to say I am not engaged for the Caledonians.”
“Then let us go into that little talking-room. Of course you have been in to supper?”
Miss Marchant owned blushingly that she had not supped.
“Poor dear Mrs. Ponto had been sitting so long in her corner,” she said, “so I asked my last partner to take her in.”
“Poor dear partner, I think. What a sacrifice for him! Why, you must be famishing. And I’m afraid all the oysters must have been eaten by this time.”
“I can be quite happy without oysters.”
“Can you? The youngest Miss Champernowne was inclined to scold the waiters because of the poor supply of natives.”