The Connecticut labor press., 1919-09-20
CHAPTER IV-Continued.

'EGive me the next and the one after that" he said, hurriedly, recovering some presence of mind, just as the nearest applicant reached them. And give me every third one the rest of the evening""
 She laughed. "Are you asking?"
 "What do you mean, 'asking""
 "It sounded as though you were just telling me to give you all those dances"
 Well I.want 'em!'' George insisted. "Are you going to give me"
 Good gracious p she laughed. "Yes!''
 The applicants Hooked round her, urging contracts for what remained, but they did not dislodge George from her side, though he made it evident that they succeeded in annoying him and presently he extricated her from an accumulating stege--she must have connived in the extrication-and bore her off to sit beside him upon the stairway that led to the musicians gallery, where they were sufficiently retired, yet had a view of the room.
 How'd all those ducks get to know  little enthusiasm.
 "Oh, I've been here week."
 Looks as if you'd been pretty busy!" he said. Most of those ducks, I don't know what my mother wanted to Invite 'em here for"
 Perhaps 1t was on account of their parents" Miss Morgan suggested mildly. Maybe she didn't want to offend their fathers and mothers.'
 "Oh, hardly! I don't think my mother need worry much about offend ing anybody in this old town"
 Ut must be wonderful" said Miss Morgan. "It must be wonderful, Mir. Amberson-Mr. Minafer, mean"
 What must be wOnderful?'
 '"To be so important as thatw
 That isn't important George as sured her. Anybody that really is anybody ought to be able to do about as they like in their own town, I should think P
 She looked at him critically from under her shading lashes-but her eyes grew gentler almost at once. In truth, they became more appreciative than critical. Georges imperious good looks were altogether manly, yet ap- preached actual beauty as closely as a boys good looks should dare; and dance music and flowers have some effect upon nineteen-year-old girls as well as upon eighteen-yearold boys.
 The stairway was drafty: the steps were narrow and uncomfortable; no older person would have remained in such a place. Moreover, these two young people were strangers to each other; neither had said anything in which the other had discovered the slightest intrinsic interest; there had not arisen between them the begin< nings of cOngeniality, or even of friendlineSs-but stairways near ball. rooms have more to answer for than have moonlit lakes and mountain sun sets.
 Age, confused by its own long ac- emulation of follfeS, is everlastingly inquiring, what does she see in him?" as If young love came about through thinking-Or through conduct At eighteen one goes to a dance, sits with a stranger on a stairway, feels pc culiar, thinks nothing, and becomes incapable of any plan whatever. Miss Morgan and George stayed where they were.
 They had agreed to this in silence and without knowing it; certainly without exchanging glances of inteIIi- gence-they had exchanged no glances at all. Both sat staring vaguely out into the ballroom, and, for a time, III were to be seen couples so~ carried away that, ceasing to move at the decorous, even glide, considered most knowing, they pranced and whirled through the thrOng, from wall to wall. gaIIoping bounteously in abandon. George suffered a shock of vague sur prise when he perceived that his aunt, Fanny Minafer, was the lady-half of one of those wild couples. She flew over the floor in the capable arms of the queer-lOoking duck; for this per son was her partner.
 The Queer-l00king duck had been a real dancer in his day, it appeared ; and evidently his day was not yet over. In spite of the headIong gay rapidftv with which he bore Miss Fanny about the big room he danced authoritatively, avoiding without ef- fort the lightest collision with other couples, maintaining sufficient grace throughout his widest moments and all the while laughing and talking with his partner. What was most re markable to George, and a little irri- tating, this stranger in the Anderson mansion had no vestige of the air of deference proper to q stranger in such a pIace he seemed thoroughly at home. He seemed offenSively so, in deed, when, passing the entrance to the gallery stairway, he disengaged his hand from Miss Fanny's for an in- stant. and not pausing in the dance waved laughing saluta"On more