"Don't worry, sir," Hal rejoined, briefly.
The second dance, also, Jack Benson enjoyed with Mlle. Nadiboff. The young woman herself arranged that gracefully. At the end of the second dance Jack led his partner to a seat. Then she sent him for a glass of water.
Her cobwebby lace handkerchief fell to the floor. M. Lemaire, passing at that instant, espied it, picked it up, and returned it to her with the bow of a polished man of the world.
"Flatter the young fellow! Make him dance attendance on you to the point that he forgets all else," whispered the man.
"Trust me for that," murmured the girl.
"I do." And M. Lemaire was gone, swallowed up in the increasing throng.
As Jack Benson brought the glass of water Mlle. Nadiboff sipped at it daintily. Raising her eyes so that she could read the placard now suspended from the balcony rail, she announced:
"The next number is a waltz, Captain Benson. Truly, I am eager to know how you waltz. It is a sailor's measure."
"Then perhaps you will favor me with a waltz, later in the evening," returned Jack, courteously. "But if I had the impudence to ask you for this waltz, and if you were generous enough to grant it to me, I know what would happen."
"What, my friend?"