Page:The Star in the Window.pdf/218

208 between the records they neither of them attempted conversation, simply stood and waited—Chadwick Booth with folded arms trying to make out the features of the slight, hand-clasped girl before him, who was so cleverly creating an interesting situation by her baffling silence, wondering with piqued curiosity who and what she was.

Finally, in the midst of a waltz, he murmured softly, "By George, but you can dance!"

And Reba replied, "I never danced with a man before in my life!"

Of course he didn't take her words literally. "And I never danced with a woman before!" he whispered, and pressed her a little closer.

It was Katherine Park's bright voice that interrupted that magic waltz under the stars.

"Come on in, you two," she called from the window. "We all have had enough in here, and are moving on to the dining-room. Gerard's foraging for something cold." Then immediately she left the window and appeared a second later on the veranda above Reba and her partner. She pushed a button, and flooded the place with sudden light. "Can you see?" she asked them. "There are some steps buried under that honey-suckle somewhere, just here, I think," she directed, and as they approached she added, "It never occurred to me till just a minute ago that you two know each other at the Alliance." Then turning and walking toward the door she called back over her shoulder, "Come in and get something cold to drink."

The light that she had turned on fell full upon Chadwick Booth and Reba as they mounted the steps, and