The bright face dimpled into a faint smile.
“I don’t want to. You needn’t tell her that he asked me first; but he did,” she whispered, roguishly; then turning to the stairway, “I’m going alone. It’s moonlight, and I’m not the least afraid.”
“You sha’n’t!”
“I will!”
“I’ll walk behind you!”
“You won’t!”
“Wait and see, that’s all,” said Frank Hinton, resolutely; and this, after all, was the manner of their going.
After the first couple had got a square ahead, Thea darted out alone, and after walking a few rods with her head high, glanced furtively behind her; Frank was coming out of the gate.
Thea began to run. Then Frank ran a little, too. She slackened her pace for fear of overtaking Emmie, and he slackened his too. At no time did he approach her, but he kept her all the time within sight, and when they reached the illuminated building where the party was to come off, he chose to enter by her side. Afterward he left her severely alone, as he saw that she desired him to do.
Tom was already there, looking “killing,” so some of the girls said, in his elegant evening attire, with a tuberose in his button-hole. He was a consummate little dandy, and a favorite with most of the girls, who spent many a dollar that might have been saved, for the sake of leaning over the counter of Brocade & Bromley and chatting with the agreeable head clerk.