"We"re quite prepared to adopt you, Surtaine," said Willard pleasantly.
"Jinny has never ceased to wonder why she heard nothing from you in reply to her note telling of our engagement."
"Never got it," said Hal promptly. "And I"ve wondered why she dropped me so unaccountably. It"s rather luck for me, you know," he added, smiling, "to find friends ready-made in a strange town."
"Oh, you"ll make friends enough," declared Mrs. Willard. "The present matter is to make acquaintances. Come and dance this dance out with me and then I"ll take you about and introduce you. Are you as good a dancer as you used to be?"
Hal was, and something more. And in his hostess he had one of the best partners in Worthington. Cleverly she had judged that the "Boston" with her, if he were proficient, would be the strongest recommendation to the buds of the place. And, indeed, before they had gone twice about the floor, many curious and interested eyes were turned upon them. Not the least interested were those of Miss Elliot, who privately decided, over a full and overflowing programme, that she would advance her recovery to one dance before the supper announcement.
"You"re going to be a social success, Hal," whispered his partner. "I feel it. And _where_ did you learn that delightful swing after the dip?"
"Picked it up on shipboard. But I shan"t have much time for gayeties.
You see, I"ve become a workingman."
"Tell me about it to-morrow. You"re to dine with us; quite _en famille_.
You _must_ like Festus, Hal."
"I should think that would be easy."
"It is. He is just the finest, cleanest, straightest human being in the world," she said soberly. "Now, come away and meet a million people."
So late was it that most of the girls had no vacancies on their programmes. But Jeannette Willard was both a diplomat and a bit of a despot, socially, and several of the young eligibles relinquished, with surprisingly good grace, so Hal felt, their partners, in favor of the newcomer. He did not then know the tradition of Worthington"s best set, that hospitality to a stranger well vouched for should be the common concern of all. Very pleasant and warming he found this atmosphere, after his years abroad, with its happy, well-bred frankness, its open comradeship, and obvious, "first-name" intimacies. But though every one he met seemed ready to extend to him, as a friend of the Willards, a ready welcome, he could not but feel himself an outsider, and at the conclusion of a dance he drew back into a side pa.s.sage, to watch for a time.
Borne on a draught of air from some invisibly opening door behind him there came to his nostrils the fairy-spice of the arbutus-scent. He turned quickly, and saw her almost at his shoulder, the girl of the l.u.s.trous face. Behind her was Festus Willard.
"Ah, there you are, Surtaine," he said. "I"ve been looking for you to present you to Miss Elliot. Esme, this is Mr. Harrington Surtaine."
She neither bowed nor moved in acknowledgment of Hal"s greeting, but looked at him with still, questioning eyes. The springtide hue of the wild flower at her breast was matched in her cheek. Her head was held high, bringing out the pure and lovely line of chin and throat. To Hal it seemed that he had never seen anything so beautiful and desirable.
"Is it a bet?" Festus Willard"s quiet voice was full of amus.e.m.e.nt. "Have you laid a wager as to which will keep silent longest?"
At this, Hal recovered himself, though stumblingly.
""Fain would I speak,"" he paraphrased, ""but that I fear to--to--to--""
"Stutter," suggested Willard, with solicitous helpfulness. The girl broke into a little trill of mirth, too liquid for laughter; being rather the sound of a brooklet chuckling musically over its private delectations.
"If I could have a dance with you," suggested Hal, "I"m sure it would help my aphasia."
"I"m afraid," she began dubiously, "that--No; here"s one just before supper. If you haven"t that--"
"No: I haven"t," said Hal hastily. "It"s awfully good of you--and lucky for me."
"I"ll be with Mrs. Willard," said the girl, nodding him a cheerful farewell.
Just what or who his partners for the next few dances were, Hal could not by any effort recall the next day. He was conscious, on the floor, only of an occasional glimpse of her, a fugitive savor of the wildwood fragrance, and then she had disappeared.
Later, as he returned from a talk with Festus Willard outside, he became aware of the challenge of deep-hued, velvety eyes, regarding him with a somewhat petulant expression, and recognized his acquaintance of the motor car and the railroad terminal.
"You"d forgotten me," accused Miss Kathleen Pierce, pouting, as he came to greet her.
Hal"s disclaimer had sufficient diplomatic warmth to banish her displeasure. She introduced to him as Dr. Merritt a striking-looking, gray-haired young man, who had come up at the same time with an antic.i.p.atory expression. This promptly vanished when she said offhandedly to him:
"You"ve had three dances with me already, Hugh. I"m going to give this one to Mr. Surtaine if he wants it."
"Of course I want it," said Hal.
"Not that you deserve it," she went on. "You should have come around earlier. I"m not in the habit of giving dances this late in the evening."
"How could I break through the solid phalanx of supplicating admirers?"
"At least, you might have tried. I want to try that new step I saw you doing with Mrs. Willard. And I always get what I want."
"Unfortunate young lady!"
"Why unfortunate?"
"To have nothing seem unattainable. Life must pall on you terribly."
"Indeed, it doesn"t. I like being a spoiled child, don"t you? Don"t you think it"s fun having everything you want to buy, and having a leading citizen for a father?"
"Is your father a leading citizen?" asked Hal, amused.
"Of course. So"s yours. Neither of them quite knows which is the most leading. Dr. Surtaine is the most popular, but I suppose Pop is the most influential. Between the two of them they pretty much run this little old burg. Of course," she added with careless insolence, "Pop has got it all over Dr. Surtaine socially.
"I humbly feel that I am addressing local royalty," said Hal, smiling sardonically.
"Who? Me? Oh, I"m only the irresponsible child of wealth and power. Dr.
Merritt called me that once--before I got him tamed." Turning to look at the gray young man who stood not far off, and noting the quiet force and competence of the face, Hal hazarded a guess to himself that the very frank young barbarian with whom he was talking was none too modest in her estimate of her own capacities. "Mrs. Willard is our local queen,"
she continued. "And Esme Elliot is the princess. Have you met Esme yet?"
"Yes."
"Then, of course, n.o.body else has a chance--so long as you"re the newest toy. Still, you might find a spare hour between-times to come and call on us. Come on; let"s dance."
"Pert" was the mildest term to which Hal reduced his characterization of Miss Pierce, by the time the one-step ended. Nevertheless, he admitted to himself that he had been amused. His one chief concern now, however, was the engagement with Miss Elliot.
When finally his number came around, he found her calmly explaining to a well-favored young fellow with a pained expression that he must have made a mistake about the number, while Mrs. Willard regarded her with mingled amus.e.m.e.nt and disfavor.
"Don"t expect me to dance," she said as Hal approached. "I"ve twisted my foot."
"I"m sorry," said he blankly.
"Let"s find a quiet place where we can sit. And then you may get me some supper."
His face lighted up. Esme Elliot remarked to herself that she had seldom seen a more pleasing specimen of the youth of the species.
"This is rather like a fairy-gift," he began eagerly, as they made their way to a nook under the stairway, specially adapted to two people of hermit tastes. "I shouldn"t have dared to expect such good fortune."