the flower of yesterday with the bloom gone from the petal and the wrinkles in its place; but Persis! Persis was the rose at its exact instant of perfection.At the close of the dance, the hour being somewhat past midnight, supper was announced. Persis seized upon one of the small tables, and stood guard over it while she despatched Forbes to round up Mrs. Neff and Willie and Bob and Winifred, and Ten Eyck and a debutante he was rushing.
Persis saw to it quite casually that Forbes sat close to her; and that was very close, since the little clique was crowded so snugly about the table, that half of those who ate had to convey the food across the elbows and knees of the others.[Pg 117]
Persis sat with both elbows on the table, and raised her bouillon cup with both hands. Her elbow touched that of Forbes, and she did not draw it away. For the matter of that, all the elbows were clashing in the crowded circle.
It was now that Forbes was tempted to make his first advance. How was he to marry her if he never made love to her? How show his love except by some signal? Before all those ears he could not speak his infatuation; before all those eyes he could not seize her hand and kiss it, or kneel, or push his arm around her.
Under the table he might have held hands with her, but she kept her hands above the board. Then, as she leaned close to him to speak across him to Mrs. Neff, her foot struck lightly against his. It was gone at once, but it suggested to his mind an ancient form
of flirtation that has been more honored in modern observance than in modern literature. Remembering the experience at the Opera
House, he was visited with a tender temptation to renew that acquaintance of feet.
He gathered his courage together, as if he were about to step off a precipice into a fog, and pursued her foot with his. He found it, but at a touch it vanished again. Realizing that she took his silly action for an accident, he determined to see the adventure through. He sent his foot prowling after hers, found it, and raising his toe, pressed hers softly.
This time her foot was not withdrawn, and he felt that his emprise was rewarded. But a moment later, when every one's attention was
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attracted to another table, and the rest were discussing a prematurely fashionable costume, Persis leaned close to him and murmured:
"In the first place, how dare you? In the second place, I have on white slippers. And in the third place, you are perfectly visible from
all the other tables."
And then she slipped her foot away. It was as if she had unclasped his arms from about her waist, only not so hallowed a precedent. [Pg 118]
Forbes turned pale with shame. He felt that his deed was boorish, and now it had been properly rebuked and resented. The gentleness of the reproof made it the more galling; for it was the gentleness of authority so sure of itself that it needed no clamor of assertion. Another woman might have been, or pretended to be, furious at an insult; a flirt might have rebuked him only to encourage and tease him on; a vixen might have dug her other heel into his instep and forced her release.
But Persis was sophisticated enough not to set her protest in italics. She was probably used to such suggestions. It hurt Forbes' pride to feel that he was not the first man she had rebuffed for this. He had loved her and longed to tell her his secret secretly, and had merely apprised her that he was a blundering bumpkin. She had shamed him yet spared him open disgrace. She had made him respect her intelligence and her tact.
He gnawed his lip with remorse; but his apologies were frustrated by the return of all hands to the table. Persis chattered with the rest and nibbled a marron with an apparent relish that implied forgetfulness of what was only an incident to her.
Forbes was learning what Persis was, by all these little tests, as a general studies the enemy's strength and disposition, by trying the
line at all points. If he finds the pickets always alert, his respect increases the more he is baffled.[Pg 119]
CHAPTER XIX
AFTER the supper no time was lost in returning to the main business of the meeting. Again Willie claimed the first dance, and Forbes was deputed to Ten Eyck's debutante. The next dance, however, brought him back to Persis. He had asked for it, uneasily, and she had granted it with an amiable "Of course."
The moment they were safely lost in the vortex he began to make amends. While he was strutting his proudest through the tango, he was stammering the humblest apologies.
"Oh, don't let that worry you," she answered. "I suppose all men believe they have to do that sort of thing to entertain us. Poor fellows, you think we women expect it of you. Some of us do, I suppose; but I don't like it. And it doesn't seem quite what I had expected of you."
He got a little comfort from the thought that she had taken the trouble, at least, to form an opinion of him. But mainly he admired her for the continued good sportsmanship of her attitude. There was a kind of manliness about it, as if one gentleman should say to another:
"Pardon me, but you are trespassing on my property. It was a natural mistake, but I thought you'd like to know my boundary line." And yet something was gone from her warmth. She danced with him, chatted, laughed. But a chill was upon her. That little bloom of
tenderness that had softened her words as the down velvets the peach, had vanished. Frost had nipped the firstling of spring.[Pg 120]
Forbes was infinitely repentant, rebuffed, but not routed. He began once more to scout along her outposts.
"That hat you wore, you remember, day before yesterday?" "Yes."
"I told you how I followed it." "Yes."
"My heart ran after you like a newsboy calling to you. But you didn't hear."
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"I'm so sorry!"
"All of a sudden you spoke to your driver, and he put on full speed up the Avenue, as if you were in a great hurry. I had a funny idea that you might be making haste to meet some man."
"Let me see! Yes, I was. I was hurrying home to meet Willie. He is always furious when I am late."
This time the name of Enslee was like a blow in the face. It dazed Forbes with a confirmation of his worst fears. He did not realize that he thought aloud:
"I guessed right! I knew it was a man, and I was jealous."
Persis stared up at him. She smiled incredulously. "You were jealous? But you hadn't even seen me."
"No, but I wanted to see you. I felt you in the air. And I was jealous."
His eyes were laughing into her laughing eyes. But both of them were a trifle solemn at heart. Forbes determined to learn how her affairs stood with Enslee. He could never have found the temerity to demand the information if the music had not flared with such dare-deviltry.
"Would you mind if I asked you one very personal question?" he said. "Not if you'll look the other way when I answer it."
"Are you engaged to Willie Enslee?"
The question was so unexpected and so forthright that[Pg 121] it almost staggered her. She flashed one look up into his earnest eyes
and laughed; but it was a cold laugh.
