Page:Maud Howe - A Newport Aquarelle.djvu/107

 shoulder, attached by a red ribbon. The entrance of the gay party was a picturesque and striking feature of the evening.

Their arrival seemed to brighten up the company already assembled, the hum of talk grew louder, and the crowd of dancers thicker than it had been earlier in the evening. The band was playing the wavy, intoxicating music of Strauss, and the circling couples danced rhythmically to the measures of the slow waltz.

"Will you dance with me, Miss Carleton?" asked Larkington.

"No, Mr. Larkington; I am not in the mood for dancing to-night. You should ask Mrs. Craig; she is an excellent dancer. I am too blue to care about waltzing."

"How can you say that you are blue when you have been the life of the dinner? You never looked more brilliantly well than to-night. Has anything annoyed you,—have I—"

"You flatter yourself too highly, Mr.