Part 13 (1/2)

Jeff had noticed, as he pa.s.sed Judith's home, that the little blue car was parked in front and his surmise was that the girl was going to the ball but had not yet gone. He registered the determination to hurry his own crowd into the skating rink and wait and speak to Judith. This decision had come immediately after his promising himself that he wasn't even going to think any more about the girl, and that if she happened to be one of the guests at the debut party he was going to spend the evening being pleasant to his sisters' friends and not even ask her to dance.

Mrs. Buck accepted his offer of a.s.sistance with shy acquiescence. The blue car was not easy to get out of, as the seat was low and there was no step, so Jeff must swing the lady out, lifting her up bodily and jumping her to the curbing. She came down lightly but fl.u.s.tered.

Unreasoning anger filled Jeff Bucknor's heart when he released the blus.h.i.+ng Mrs. Buck to find Tom Harbison had pushed his way in between the sidewalk and the blue car and was insisting upon helping Judith to alight.

”Thanks awfully, but I am accustomed to getting out by myself,” she said.

”And I am accustomed to helping beautiful young ladies out of cars,”

said Tom. ”You don't know what a past master I am in the art.”

”If there were any beautiful young ladies around I am sure they would be delighted, but since there are not any in sight your art will have to languish for lack of exercise,” flashed Judith.

Mrs. Buck and her daughter had both covered their finery with old linen dusters, which they had planned to discard before entering the hall. It was a distinct annoyance to Mrs. Buck that these two handsome young cavaliers should see them thus enveloped.

”They'll get the wrong impression of my girl,” was her thought, and now here was Judith wasting her time and the precious dancing hours bantering with a strange young man as to whether she should be allowed to jump from her car una.s.sisted or should be helped out in a ladylike manner.

”Well, Judith, come along one way or the other,” Mrs. Buck drawled.

”Perhaps Miss Buck would take one of my hands and one of yours,”

suggested Jeff to Tom.

”Perhaps the decrepit old lady will,” laughed Judy, making a flying leap between their outstretched hands without touching them and landing lightly on the sidewalk by her mother. ”Thank you both very much,” she said, and clutching her mother's arm she hurried into the lobby of the skating rink and was lost to view in the crowd of arriving guests.

”Here's the dressing-room, Mumsy, and we can leave our awful old dusters in there. Weren't you furious at being seen in the horrid things and that by the best beaux of the ball? Now, Mumsy, you just stick to me and we'll go say howdy to the dear old men and thank them for my dress and shoes and stockings and then you can go sit by some of your nice church members, while I find somebody to dance with me.”

”But, Judy, surely you are not going to thank the old men right out before everybody, and surely you are not going to ask anybody to dance with you!”

”Of course not, Mumsy! I'm going to use finesse about both things. You just see how tactful I am. Oh! Oh! Oh! I'm so excited! Just look at the streamers and flags and all the funny funeral wreaths, and only listen to the music! I'm about sure there are wings on my golden slippers. Really and truly, Mumsy, they do not touch the ground when I walk. I'm simply floating in a kind of nebulous haze--in fact I believe I am charged with electricity.”

”Charged with foolishness, you mean!”

”Oh, but Mumsy, look, we are right behind my cousins from Buck Hill.

Let's don't go in too close to them. I'm entirely too happy to take a snubbing from Mildred Bucknor. Doesn't Cousin Ann Peyton look beautiful?”

”You mean the old lady in hoop skirts? She's terribly behind the times, ain't she? But, Judy, who was the young man who was so bent on helping you out of the car? You didn't pretend to introduce him.”

”Mr. Harbison. I have not met him myself yet. I believe he is Mildred Bucknor's special property.”

The ten old men of the receiving line were drawn up in battle array, in all the glory of their best clothes. Pete Barnes was gorgeous in checked trousers and Prince Albert coat, with his bushy iron-gray hair well oiled and combed in what used to be known as a roach, a style popular in his early manhood. Some of the veterans were in uniform--the blue or the gray. All wore white carnations in their b.u.t.ton-holes. The guests shook hands with the hosts and then moved on.

Those who had come merely to look on sought the chairs ranged against the wall; others who wanted to dance were eagerly arranging for partners if they were men, while the fair s.e.x a.s.sumed a supreme indifference. Colonel Crutcher busied himself giving out dancing cards and seeing that the young people were introduced.

The first sensation of the evening was the entrance of Miss Ann Peyton. With slow grace and dignity she sailed into the ballroom and approached the receiving line alone. Mr. and Mrs. Bucknor had stopped a moment to speak to some acquaintances and Mildred had intentionally held back the crowd of young people comprising the house party from Buck Hill, whispering that they really need not mix with the others.

”Of course we must speak to those ridiculous old men, but after that we can just stay together. It will be lots more fun.”

”Here comes Miss Ann Peyton!” the whisper went around the hall.