CHAPTER VIII.
THE DANCE.
“Ain’t it lovely, Ora?” and ’Tana danced past Ora Harrison, the doctor’s pretty daughter, as if her feet had wings to them. And as Ora’s bright face smiled an answer, it was clear that the only two young girls in the settlement were enjoying Lyster’s party to the full.
For it was a pronounced success. Every “boy” invited was there in as much of festive outfit as circumstances would allow. All the “family” people were there. And the presence of Doctor Harrison—the only “professional” man in the town—and his wife and daughter gave a stamp of select society to the gathering in Mrs. Huzzard’s rooms.
Mrs. Huzzard beamed with pleasure at the great success of it all. She would have liked to dance, too, and refused most unwillingly when Lyster tried to persuade her. But a supercilious glance from the captain made her refusal decided. The doubt as to whether ladies in “sussiety” ever did dance after forty years, and one hundred and sixty-three pounds weight, deterred her. Now, if the captain had asked her to dance, she would have been more assured.
But the captain did not; and, after a while, he was not to be seen. He had vanished into the little back sitting room, and she was confident he was engaged in his 109 innocent pastime of a friendly game of cards with the doctor.
“Go and dance with ’Tana, or that nice little girl of the doctor’s,” she said to Lyster, when he was trying to inveigle her into a quadrille—“that’s the sort of partner for you.”
“But ’Tana has disappeared mysteriously; and as Miss Ora is ’bespoke,’ I can’t dance with her unless I want a duel with her partner.”