Page:A Girl of the Limberlost.djvu/385

 "My betrothed left me here," she said. "Here I shall remain until he returns for me, and then—he will be my betrothed no longer!" Polly grasped Edith's arm. "Oh, Edith!" she implored. "Don't make a scene here, and to-night. Edith, this has been the loveliest dance ever given at the club house. Every one is saying so. Edith! Darling, do come! Phil will be back in a second. He can explain! It's only a breath since I saw him go out. I thought he had returned." As Polly panted these disjointed ejaculations, Tom Levering began to grow angry on her account. "He has been gone just long enough to show every one of his guests that he will leave me standing alone, like a neglected fool, for any passing whim of his. Explain! His explanation would sound well! Do you know for whom he caught that moth? It is being sent to a girl he flirted with all last summer. It has just occurred to me that the dress I am wearing is her suggestion. Let him try to explain!" Speech unloosed the fountain. She stripped off her gloves to free her hands. At that instant the dancers parted to admit Philip. Instinctively they stopped as they approached and with wondering faces walled in Edith and Philip, Polly and Tom. "Mighty good of you to wait!" cried Ammon, his face beaming with delight over his success in capturing the Yellow Emperor, "I thought when I heard the music you were going on."