"Indeed! And does his Dick Highmightiness object to your dancing with me?"
"Dick! Of course not. He hasn't anything to do with it. I am not going to dance with you because you are behaving abominably to-day, and you did yesterday and the day before that. I think you are nearly always abominable, in fact."
"Still, I am one of the best dancers in the world. It is a temptation, is it not, my own?"
He smiled his slow, tantalizing smile and, in spite of herself, Tony smiled back.
"It is," she admitted. "You are a heavenly dancer, Alan. There is no denying it. If you were Mephisto himself I think I would dance with you—occasionally."
"And to-night?"
"Once," relented Tony. "There come the others at last." And she ran off down the yellow sands like a modern Atalanta.
"My, but Tony is pretty to-night!" murmured Carlotta to Alan, who chanced to be standing near her as her friend fluttered by with Dick. "She looks like a regular flame in that scarlet chiffon. It is awfully daring, but she is wonderful in it."
"She is always wonderful," muttered Alan moodily, watching the slender, graceful figure whirl and trip and flash down the floor like a gay poppy petal caught in the wind.
Carlotta turned. Something in Alan's tone arrested her attention.