Part 14 (1/2)
”It has been capital! Capital!” said Mrs. Glyn Williams. ”One of the best entertainments we've ever had at the Inst.i.tute! Didn't Babbie look sweet as 'Sophia'? We must have some more tableaux another time. Gwen, you ought to have been in too! The Castletons were splendid! Such a number of nice young people here! We ought to have a little dance. They must all come up to The Warren to-morrow evening, and we'll clear the drawing-room.
I'll telephone to Dr. Tremayne and say I'm keeping you four till Friday. Your dresses? Oh, we'll send over for them. I'm sure your Mother won't mind your staying!”
There was no possibility of refusal, for Mrs. Glyn Williams had quite settled the matter, and invited the Castletons and the Macleods and the Colvilles and several other people on the spot. The Ramsays, who had made plans of their own for the following evening, felt a little caught, especially as Bevis looked glum and reproachful.
”How _could_ you?” he said to Mavis in an agonized whisper.
”How could I help it?”
”We were shot sitting,” murmured Merle. ”Cheer up, Bevis! A dance is a dance, anyway. I hope I haven't spoilt Clive's Etons for him!”
Mrs. Glyn Williams really meant to be very kind and to give the young people pleasure, and if Bevis did not entirely appreciate her hospitality it was no doubt his own fault. The fact was that the snubs which he had received as Bevis Hunter still rankled, and though as Bevis Talland he was on a very different footing, he found it difficult entirely to forget all that had gone before.
”I was exactly the same as I am now, but no one would notice me till I came into the estate--except you and Merle!” he said once rather bitterly to Mavis. ”I sometimes feel their friends.h.i.+p is hardly worth having!”
”It's the way of the world, and you have to take people just as they are,” she replied. ”It's no use keeping up ill-feeling, Bevis. If they hold out the olive branch, it's more gracious to accept it, isn't it?”
”Oh, I'll behave myself! But all the same, I discriminate between my old friends and my new acquaintances; I'd rather not call them by the name of friends!”
There were great preparations next day at The Warren. The furniture was carried out of the drawing-room, the parquet floor was polished, and Chinese lanterns were hung up in the conservatory, and the cook was busy preparing light refreshments. It was a pretty house for a dance, and looked very gay and festive with its Christmas decorations of holly and ivy, and its blazing fire of logs in the hall. Mavis's and Merle's party dresses duly arrived, and they made careful toilets, coming downstairs shyly, to feel a little in the shade by the side of Gwen the magnificent, who, alack! was trying to copy the up-to-date manners of some of her new school friends, with rather unhappy results. Perhaps kind little Babbie noticed the Ramsays' embarra.s.sment, for she went to them at once to give them their programmes.
”How nice you look!” she said. ”Isn't it always a horrid time, just when every one is arriving? It's ever so much nicer when the first dance has started!”
There were a great many people present whom Mavis and Merle did not know.
Some of these were introduced by Tudor, and asked for dances, and very soon the sisters were separated and gliding over the polished floor with partners.
Mrs. Glyn Williams, having welcomed the young guests, retired to a sofa for a chat with some other dowagers, and left them to fill up their programmes as they liked. There were far more ladies present than gentlemen, so it was a case of girls dancing with one another. Merle readily whisked away with Tattie, or Nan, or Lizzie, but shy Mavis, after the first two-step, stood in a corner unnoticed. Gwen was enjoying herself very much with the pick of the partners, Beata and Romola floated by together, and Clive was carefully performing his steps in company with a much amused married lady. Mavis acted wallflower for several dances, feeling considerably out of it, till Bevis's voice sounded suddenly in her ear.
”Why, here you are! I've been looking for you everywhere! How many dances can you give me? I've kept my programme as free as I could till I found you. I thought the pixies must have spirited you away! What did you say?
I ought to ask Gwen? It isn't necessary in the least. You know I'm a duffer at it, and I should probably tread on her toes and she'd hate me for evermore. May I have these four?”
”Give half to Merle!”
”Soeurette's perfectly happy with the kids! If you won't let me have them I won't dance at all. I'll hide in the conservatory, or run away into the garden. You promised to be my teacher!”
”So I will, but I feel I mustn't monopolise you. Oh, dear! Well, if you've written them down I suppose it will have to be!”
”May I have the pleasure, Miss Ramsay?” twinkled Bevis, offering his arm.
”Thanks very much! You may!” laughed Mavis.
”I'm always glad when I get my own way!” chuckled Bevis, as they started a valse.
Three of the dances which Bevis had appropriated on Mavis's programme came in succession, and as their steps went well together they thoroughly enjoyed themselves. At the close of the third they were walking into the hall to get lemonade when Mrs. Glyn Williams smilingly stopped them.
”I want to introduce you to some fresh partners. There are plenty of people anxious to know you!” she said to Bevis archly. Then, tapping Mavis with her fan, she continued, laughing, ”Naughty girl! You mustn't keep him _all_ to yourself! I really _can't!_ allow it!”
Poor Mavis blushed magenta, and stood aside while her hostess whisked the unwilling Bevis away and remorselessly fixed up the rest of his programme for him. She did not attempt to find a partner for Mavis, who was too overwhelmed with confusion to care to dance even with Lizzie Colville, and who backed towards the piano and began to turn over the music.
Inwardly Mavis was raging, though she had sufficient pride to preserve an outward calm.
”If there's anything here you know I'd be grateful if you could play it and give me a rest, my hands are so stiff,” said Mrs. Colville, who had volunteered to act as pianist for the evening.