Page:Stevenson and Quiller-Couch - St Ives .djvu/370

 "I gathered," said I, "that you were forestalling the compliment. Our meeting, then, is unexpected?"

"Why, no; for, to tell the truth, the secretary of the Ball Committee, this afternoon, allowed me a glance over his list of invités, I am apt to be nice about my company, cousin."

Ass that I was! I had never given this obvious danger so much as a thought.

"I fancy I have seen one of your latest intimates about the street."

He eyed me, and answered, with a bluff laugh. "Ah! You gave us the very devil of a chase. You appear, my dear Anne, to have a hare's propensity for running in your tracks. And begad, I don't wonder at it!" he wound up, ogling Flora with an insolent stare.

Him one might have hunted by scent alone. He reeked of essences.

"Present me, mon brave."

"I'll be shot if I do."

"I believe they reserve that privilege for soldiers," he mused.

"At any rate they don't extend it to" I pulled up on the word. He had the upper hand, but I could at least play the game out with decency. "Come," said I, "a contre-danse will begin presently. Find yourself a partner, and I promise you shall be our vis-à-vis."

"You have blood in you, my cousin."

He bowed, and went in search of the Master of Ceremonies. I gave an arm to Flora. "Well, and how does Alain strike you?" I asked.

"He is a handsome man," she allowed. "If your uncle had treated him differently, I believe"

"And I believe that no woman alive can distinguish between a gentleman and a dancing-master! A posture