Elsie colored, but remained silent.
"Oh! I did not think of that!" cried Lucy. "Elsie, do you really think it is a sinful amusement?"
"I think it wrong to go to balls; at least that it would be wrong for me, a professed Christian, Lucy."
"But this will not be a ball, and we'll have nothing but quiet country dances, or something of that sort, no waltzing or anything at all objectionable. What harm can there be in jumping about in that way more than in another?"
"None that I know of," answered Elsie, smiling. "And I certainly shall not object to others doing as they like, provided I am not asked to take part in it."
"But why not take part, if it is not wrong?" asked Harry, coming in from the veranda.
"Why, don't you know she never does anything without asking the permission of papa?" queried Enna tauntingly. "But where's the use of consulting her wishes in the matter, or urging her to take part in the wicked amusement?—she'll have to go to bed at nine o'clock, like any other well-trained child, and we'll have time enough for our dancing after that."
"Oh, Elsie, must you?—must you really leave us at that early hour?
Why, that's entirely too bad!" cried the others in excited chorus.
"I shall stay up till ten," answered Elsie quietly, while a deep flush suffused her cheek.
"That is better, but we shall not know how to spare you even that soon," said Harry. "Couldn't you make it eleven?—that would not be so very late just for once."