"But you said girls oughtn't to take things from men
they weren't engaged to. You remember that day on deck you got me to
give back Andy's scarf-pin?"
Percival cleared his throat.
"Quite a different matter," he said; "now, between you and me--"
Bobby shook her head as she took off the coat.
"No, I guess not. I want it so bad I can taste it, but I think you'd
better keep it for somebody in the family."
Percival slipped the jade pendant into his waistcoat pocket, and tossed
the coat on a chair.
"As you like," he said. "Shall we go to the ball-room?"
In his secret soul he was inordinately gratified. Of course she should
not have accepted the coat, and he should not have tempted her. She had
done exactly right in firmly adhering to his former instructions.
Altogether she was a remarkable little person indeed.
The moment they appeared in the ballroom she was confiscated, and he had
a miserable quarter of an hour watching her whirl from one masculine arm
to another. For the first time dancing struck him as pernicious. He
declared that the clergy had something on its side when it denounced the
amusement as evil. He doubted gravely if he should ever permit a wife of
his to dance.
"Mr. Hascombe, aren't you going to ask me to dance?" It was Bobby who
had stopped before him, flushed and breathless.
"I don't dance at public balls," he said disapprovingly.
"Why not?" asked Bobby, in surprise.
"Hardly the thing. A person in my position, you know--"
"You mean because of the Honorable? How stupid! Let's pretend you aren't
one just for to-night!"
"But I don't dance these dances, you see.
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