Page:Stewart Edward White--The Rose Dawn.djvu/133

Rh trying very hard to enter into the spirit of the occasion. He drank considerably more wine than anybody else, to which course he was indefatigably urged by an increasingly polite and solicitous Frank Moore. Ravenscroft's lean, weathered face showed a slight uneasiness. This was the night of the weekly "hop" and many of the women had on light toilettes for the occasion. Some of the townspeople were dining there. Corbell caught sight of Kenneth and waved his hand, to the latter's secret delight.

"Friends of yours?" commented Boyd. "Who are they? I see Jim Paige and George Scott lapping it up with the best of them, but I don't recognize the others."

"They are ranch men from over the mountains," answered Kenneth, "and they are loads of fun." That on reflection was all he knew about them.

After dinner the Sociedad adjourned directly to the bar, whence came wild sounds. Kenneth would much have liked to go see what fun or deviltry was up, but was not yet sufficiently out of his boyhood openly and boldly to enter a bar-room.

The hotel "hop" began shortly after eight o'clock, which hour then seemed entirely pleasant and appropriate. It took place in the long hotel parlour, which had been canvased for the purpose, and the heavier furniture of which had been moved into a back hall. A Spanish orchestra consisting of a piano, a violin, two mandolins, and three guitars tinkled at one end. The guests sat in chairs lined in a row against the walls. All the social life of the place, old and young, was there, and if to our eyes the banged hair, the tight sleeves, the hour-glass figures, and the bustles and flounces would seem ridiculous, nevertheless none of these things could disguise the fresh sweet vivacious youth, the high colour and spirits, and the feminine daintiness whose alchemy can—temporarily—transfer the worst vagaries of fashion into charm. They danced a hopping waltz that went round and round and round, and the schottische and polka, and a number of square dances. Occasionally the even tenor of merriment would be broken by one or the other of the members of the Sociedad de los Años appearing in the doorway. They were always perfectly quiet and respectable; though, it must be