"Don't let that worry you. Why, I am simply rejoiced at being
permitted to go. Do you know, I wanted to request the privilege all
the time we were dancing together. But you acted so differently from
when we were beneath the vines that I actually lost my nerve."
She looked up, and he caught a fleeting glimpse into her unveiled eyes.
"I did not wish you to ask me."
"What?" He stopped suddenly. "Why then did you make such an
announcement to Mrs. Herndon?"
"Oh, that was different," she explained, uneasily. "I had to do that;
I had to trust you to help me out, but--but I really wanted to go home
alone."
He swept his unbelieving eyes around over the deserted night scene, not
knowing what answer to return to so strange an avowal. "Was that what
caused you to appear so distant to me in the hall, so vastly different
from what you had been before?"
She nodded, but with her gaze still upon the ground.
"Miss Naida," he said, "it would be cowardly for me to attempt to dodge
this issue between us. Is it because you do not like me?"
She looked up quickly, the moonlight revealing her flushed face.
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