Page:Caroline Lockhart--The full of the Moon.djvu/57

 Not for the world would Nan have admitted that this interest had anything to do with her acceptance of the shy little Mexican woman's invitation, or her choice of a frock for the evening's entertainment. And she tried to delude herself with the belief that her wish was merely to "look decent" upon her first public appearance in Hopedale, but in her heart she knew that the thought that Ben Evans might ride in from the ranch affected her decision when her choice lay between a plain shirtwaist and a particularly becoming blouse of filmy lingerie.

From the silence which fell when Nan and Poth's pretty Mexican wife took their seats in the already well-filled opera-house that evening, it is to be inferred that Nan had entirely succeeded in her desire to look "decent." In magazines and books they had seen girls who looked like Nan, and from the same source Nan had obtained her knowledge of audiences which looked like this one.

At the door of the opera-house Mr. Poth stood guard with a lantern under his arm, by the light of which he looked for plugged