Erminie had expected this to be the moment for the quiet talk with Billy. No less had he looked forward to it; but the coffee pots were an unanticipated tyranny. The making did not end the care. The pots were not large enough, and more water had to be heated, and a second lot made for the thirsty crowd. Billy had barely spread his cloth, with Erminie’s help laid out the contents of his attractive basket, when the call came; and his time till all the rest were satisfied, was spent in running back and forth, bolting sandwiches on the way.
And so it happened that dinner was over and the fiddlers already calling eager feet, while Billy was finishing his meal.
“It’s too bad, Billy! You let every one impose on you.”
“No matter. You shall be next. Impose on me as much as you like. Is it dancing?”
“Nothing doing. You like that as well as I do.”
“Let’s try it then. You can cook up something later in the imposition line.”
They piled the remnants of the dainty meal into the basket and went to the pavilion.
The music, the perfect evening, all conditions were auspicious for restless young creatures who inevitably love the motion and harmony of dancing; and Erminie and Billy enjoyed it more than most people do, for they were both musical and danced well.
It was an “informal” to-night, with no programmes, each making engagements for but two or three dances ahead. Billy wished he did not have to dance with any one but Erminie; indeed he did sit out most of the dances he did not have with her; sat and watched her as she whirled by him, scarcely touching the floor, it seemed. In the earlier evening he thought he wanted nothing else but the chance to take her away by herself and talk; but the music and the motion intoxicated both of them, and when he held her in his arms, in their favorite dance, each movement so attuned that they felt as one being, he wished they might glide on and on, with no thought of time.
But musicians tire if dancers do not; and when at last the best dance of all stopped abruptly he drew her away. The boys had gone variously dressed, and as the evening was warm many of them, among others Billy, had laid aside their coats.