Volume X Part 25 (2/2)

She was trying to put him at his ease. ”We really do like dancing: we do it better than you'd think, for mother made us keep at it. If only we didn't have to have partners and think of things to say to them!” She held out her hand, ”Thank you ever so much for asking me, but I'd truly rather not.” He wrung her hand, muttered something about ”later, then,”

and fled, still red about the ears. Cora returned to her mother.

”Well, my dear, you seemed to be having a tremendous flirtation with that youth,” laughed Mrs. Baldwin. ”Such a hand-clasp at parting! Don't dance too hard, child.” She turned to the half-dozen parents supporting her. ”These crazy girls of mine will dance themselves to death if I don't keep an eye on them,” she explained. ”Amelie says, 'Mother, how can I help splitting my dances, when they beg me to?' I am always relieved when the dance is over and they are safe in bed--then I know they aren't killing themselves. The men have no mercy--they never let them rest an instant.”

”I don't see Miss Enid about,” suggested Mr. Merritt. ”I suppose she and her Harry--!”

”Oh, I suppose so!” Mrs. Baldwin shook her head resignedly. ”The bad child insists on being married in the spring, but I simply can not face the idea. What can I do to prevent it, Mrs. Merritt?”

”I am afraid you can't,” smiled Mrs. Merritt. ”We mothers all have to face that.”

”Ah, but not so soon! It is dreadful to have one's girls taken away. I watch the others like a hawk; the instant a man looks too serious--pouf!--I whisk him away!”

Cora stood looking down, with set lips; a flush had risen in her usually pale cheeks. Dora, setting free an impatient partner, joined her and they drew aside.

”It does make me so ashamed!” said Cora, impulsively.

”I think mother really makes herself believe it,” said Dora, with instant understanding.

They watched Amelie flutter up to their mother to have a bow retied, and stand radiant under the raillery, though she made a decent pretense of pouting. Her partner vanished, and Mrs. Baldwin insisted on her resting ”for one minute,” which ended when another partner appeared.

”Amelie is asked much more than we are, always,” Cora suggested. Dora nodded at the implication.

”I know. I wonder why it never seems quite real. Perhaps because the devoted ones are such silly little men.”

”Or seem to us so,” Cora amended conscientiously. ”Don't you wish we might creep up-stairs? Oh, me, here comes a man, just hating it! Which do you suppose he will--Oh, thank you, with pleasure, Mr. Dorr!” Cora was led away, and Dora slipped into the next room, that her mother might not be vexed at her partnerless state.

Mrs. Baldwin saw to it that the twins had partners for supper, and seated them at a table with half a dozen lively spirits, where they ate in submissive silence while the talk flowed over and about them. No one seemed to remember that they were there, yet they felt big and awkward, conspicuous with neglect, thoroughly forlorn. When they rose, the others moved off in a group, leaving them stranded. Mrs. Baldwin beckoned them to her table with her fan.

”Well, twinnies, yours was the noisiest table in the room,” she laughed.

”I was quite ashamed of you! When these quiet girls get going--!” she added expressively to her group. The twins flushed, standing with shamed eyes averted. In the rooms above the music had started, and the bright procession moved up the stairs with laughter and the s.h.i.+ne of lights on white shoulders; they all seemed to belong together, to be glad of one another. ”Well, run along and dance your little feet off,” said Mrs.

Baldwin gaily.

They hurried away, and without a word mounted by the back stairs to their own room. When their eyes met, a flash of anger kindled, grew to a blaze.

”Oh, I won't stand it, I won't!” exclaimed Dora, jerking the wreath of forget-me-nots out of her hair and throwing it on the dressing-table.

”We have been humiliated long enough. Cora, we're twenty-four; it is time we had our own way.”

Cora was breathing hard. ”Dora, I will never go to another party as long as I live,” she said.

”Nor I,” declared Dora.

They sat down side by side on the couch to discuss ways and means. A weight seemed to be lifted off their lives. In the midst of their eager planning the door opened and Mrs. Baldwin looked in at them with a displeased frown.

”Girls, what does this mean?” she exclaimed. ”Come down at once. What are you thinking of, to leave your guests like this!”

The twins felt that the moment had come, and instinctively clasped hands as they rose to meet it.

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