The stairway was crowded as he descended; and as he looked down upon the
heads and shoulders of the throng below, in Julia's hall, the thought
came to him that since he had the first and last dances and supper
engaged with Julia, the hostess, this was almost the next thing to being
the host. It was a pleasing thought, and a slight graciousness now
flavoured his salutations.
At the foot of the stairs he became part of the file of young people who
were moving into one of the large rooms where Julia stood to "receive."
And then, between two heads before him, he caught a first glimpse of
her;--and all the young birds fluttering in his chest burst into song;
his heart fainted, his head ballooned, his feet seemed to dangle from
him at the ends of two strings.
There glowed sapphire-eyed Julia; never had she been prettier.
The group closed, shutting out the vision, and he found himself able to
dry his brow and get back his breath before moving forward in a cold
and aristocratic attitude. Then he became incapable of any attitude--he
was before her, and she greeted him. A buzzing of the universe confused
him: he would have stood forever, but pressure from behind pushed him
on; and so, enveloped in a scented cloud, he passed into a corner. He
tried to remember what he had said to her, but could not; perhaps it
would have discouraged him to know that all he had said was, "Well!"
Now there rattled out a challenge of drums; loud music struck upon the
air. Starting instantly to go to Julia, Noble's left leg first received
the electric impulse and crossed his laggard right; but he was no pacer,
and thus stumbled upon himself and plunged. Still convulsive, he came
headlong before her, and was the only person near who remained unaware
that his dispersal of an intervening group had the appearance of extreme
unconventionality. Noble knew nothing except that this was his dance
with Her.
Then heaven played with him. She came close and touched him exquisitely.
She placed a lovely hand upon his shoulder, her other lovely cool hand
in one of his. The air filled with bursting stars.
They danced.
Noble was conscious of her within his clasping arm, but conscious of her
as nothing human. The fluffy white bodice pressed by his hand seemed to
be that of some angel doll; the charming shoulder that sometimes touched
his was made of a divine mist. Only the pretty head, close to his, was
actual; the black-sapphire eyes gave him a little blue-black glance, now
and then, and seemed to laugh.
In truth, they did, though Julia's lips remained demure. So far as Noble
was able to comprehend what he was doing, he was floating rhythmically
to a faint, far music; but he was almost unconscious, especially from
the knees down. But to the eye of observers incapable of perceiving that
Noble was floating, it appeared that he was out of step most of the
time, and danced rather hoppingly. However, these mannerisms were no
novelty with him, and it cannot be denied that girls at dances usually
hurried impulsively away to speak to somebody when they saw him coming.
One such creature even went so far as to whisper to Julia now, during a
collision: "How'd you get caught?"
Julia was loyal; she gave no sign of comprehension, but valiantly swung
onward with Noble, bumped and bumping everywhere, in spite of the most
extraordinary and graceful dexterity on her part.
"That's one reason she's such a terrible belle," a damsel whispered to
another.
"What is?"
"The way she'll be just as nice to anybody like Noble Dill as she is to
anybody," said the first. "Look at her now: she won't laugh at him a
bit, though everybody else is."
"Well, I wouldn't laugh either," said the other. "Not in Julia's
position. I'd be too busy being afraid."
"What of?"
"Of getting a sprained ankle!"
It is well that telepathy remains, as a science, lethargic. Speculation
sets before us the prospect of a Life Beyond in which every thought is
communicated without the intervention of speech: a state wherein all
neighbours and neighbourhoods would promptly be dispersed and few
friendships long endure, one fears. If to Noble Dill's active
consciousness had penetrated merely the things thought about him and his
dancing, in this one short period of time before the music for that
dance stopped, he might easily have been understood if he had hurried
forth, obtained explosives, and blown up the place, himself indeed
included. As matters providentially were in reality, when the music
stopped he stood confounded: he thought the dance had just begun.
His mouth remained open until the necessary gestures of articulation
intermittently closed it as he said: "_Oh!_ That was _divine_!"
Too-gentle Julia agreed.
"You said I could have part of some in between the first and last," he
reminded her. "Can I have the first part of the next?"
She laughed. "I'm afraid not. The next is Mr. Clairdyce's and I really
_promised_ him I wouldn't give _any_ of his away or let anybody cut in."
"Well, then," said Noble, frowning a little, "would you be willing for
me to cut in on the third?"
"I'm afraid not. That's Newland Sanders', and I promised him the same
thing."
"Well, the one after that?"
"No, that one's Mr. Clairdyce's, too."
"It _is_?" Noble was greatly disturbed.
"Yes."
"Two that quick with old Baldy Clairdyce!" he exclaimed, raising his
voice, but unaware of the fervour with which he spoke. "Two with that
old----"
"_Sh_, Noble," she said, though she laughed. "He isn't really old; he's
just middle-aged, and only the least bit bald, just enough to be
distinguished-looking."
"Well, you know what _I_ think of him!" he returned with a vehemence not
moderated. "_I_ don't think he's distinguished-looking; I think he's
simply and plainly a regular old----"
"_Sh!_" Julia warned him again. "He's standing with some people just
behind us," she added.
"Well, then," said Noble, "can I cut in on the next one after that?"
She consulted a surreptitious little card. "I'm afraid you'll have to
wait till quite a little later on, Noble. That one is poor Mr.
Ridgely's. I promised him I wouldn't----"
"Then can I cut in on the next one after that?"
"It's Mr. Clairdyce's," said Julia--and she blushed.
"My goodness!" said Noble. "Oh, my goodness!"
"_Sh!_ I'm afraid people----"
"Let's go out on the porch," said Noble, whose manner had suddenly
become desperate. "Let's go out and get some air where we can talk this
thing over."
"I'm afraid I'd better not just now," she returned, glancing over her
shoulder. "You see, all the people aren't here yet."
"You've got an aunt here," said Noble, "and a sister-in-law and a little
niece: I saw 'em. They can----"
"I'm afraid I'd better stay indoors just now," she said persuasively.
"We can talk here just as well."
"We can't!" he insisted feverishly. "We can't, Julia! I've got something
to say, Julia. Julia, you gave me the first dance and the last dance,
and of course sitting together at supper, or whatever there is, and you
know as well as I do that means it's just the same as if you weren't
giving this party but it was somewhere else and I took you to it, and
it's always understood you _never_ dance more with anybody else than the
one you went with, when you go with that person to a place, because
that's the rights of it; and other towns it's just the same way; they do
that way there, just the same as here; they do that way everywhere,
because nobody else has got a right to cut in and dance more with you
than the one you go with, when you goes to a place with that one. Julia,
don't you see that's the regular way it is, and the only fair way it
ought to be?"
"What?"
"Weren't you even _listening_?" he cried.
"Yes, indeed, but----"
"Julia," he said desperately, "let's go out on the porch. I want to
explain just the way I feel. Let's go out on the porch, Julia. If we
stay here, somebody's just bound to interrupt us any minute before I can
explain the way I----"
But the prophecy was fulfilled even before it was concluded. A group of
loudly chattering girls and their escorts of the moment bore down upon
Julia, and shattered the tête-à-tête. Dislodged from Julia's side by a
large and eager girl, whom he had hated ever since she was six years old
and he five, Noble found himself staggering in a kind of suburb; for the
large girl's disregard of him, as she shouldered in, was actually
physical, and too powerful for him to resist. She wished to put her
coarse arm round Julia's waist, it appeared, and the whole group burbled
and clamoured: the party was _perfictly_ glorious; so was the waxed
floor; so was Julia, my _dear_, so was the music, the weather, and the
din they made!
Noble felt that his rights were being outraged. Until the next dance
began, every moment of her time was legally his--yet all he could even
see of her was the top of her head. And the minutes were flying.
He stood on tiptoe, thrust his head forward over the large girl's odious
shoulder, and shouted: "Julia! Let's go out on the porch!"
No one seemed to hear him.
"Julia----"
_Boom!_ Rackety-_Boom_! The drummer walloped his drums; a saxophone
squawked, and fiddles squealed. Hereupon appeared a tall authoritative
man, at least thirty-two years old, and all swelled up with himself, as
interpreted by Noble and several other friends of Julia's--though this,
according to quite a number of people (all feminine) was only another
way of saying that he was a person of commanding presence. He wore a
fully developed moustache, an easy smile, clothes offensively knowing;
and his hair began to show that scarcity which Julia felt gave him
distinction--a curious theory, but natural to her age. What really did
give this Clairdyce some air of distinction, however, was the calmness
with which he walked through the group that had dislodged Noble Dill,
and the assurance with which he put his arm about Julia and swept her
away in the dance.
Noble was left alone in the middle of the floor, but not for long.
Couples charged him, and he betook himself to the wall. The party, for
him, was already ruined.
Sometimes, as he stood against the wall, there would be swirled to him,
out of all the comminglements of other scents, a faint, faint hint of
heliotrope and then Julia would be borne masterfully by, her flying
skirts just touching him. And sometimes, out of the medley of all other
sounds, there would reach his ear a little laugh like a run of lightly
plucked harp strings, and he would see her shining dark hair above her
partner's shoulder as they swept again near him for an instant. And
always, though she herself might be concealed from him, he could only
too painfully mark where she danced: the overtopping head of the tall
Clairdyce was never lost to view. The face on the front part of that
disliked head wore continuously a confident smile, which had a bad
effect on Noble. It seemed to him desecration that a man with so gross a
smile should be allowed to dance with Julia. And that she should smile
back at her partner, and with such terrible kindness--as Noble twice saw
her smile--this was like a calamity happening to her white soul without
her knowing it. If she should ever marry that man--well, it would be
the old story: May and December! Noble shuddered, and the drums, the
fiddles, the bass fiddle, and the saxophone seemed to have an evil
sound.
When the music stopped he caromed hastily through the room toward Julia,
but she was in a thicket of her guests when he arrived, and for several
moments Mr. Clairdyce's broad back kept intervening--almost
intentionally, it seemed. When Noble tried to place himself in a
position to attract Julia's attention, this back moved, too, and Noble's
nose but pressed black cloth. And the noise everybody made was so
baffling that, in order to be heard, Julia herself was shouting. Finally
Noble contrived to squirm round the obtrusive back, and protruded his
strained face among all the flushed and laughing ones.
"Julia, I got to----" he began.
But this was just at the climax of a story that three people were
telling at the same time, Julia being one of them, and he received
little attention.
"Julia," he said hoarsely; "I got something I want to _tell_ you
about----"