"And after
my solemn promise to come early! But you excused me this morning when I
was obliged to attend to petty affairs. Same excuse this time! Do I
receive the same pardon?"
The girl displayed greater ease in his presence at this second meeting.
She received him placidly. There were no more of those disconcerting and
high-flown forensics in her greeting. There was the winning candor of old
friendship in her smile and he flushed boyishly in his frank delight. She
presented him to Mrs. Stanton and that lady's modish coolness did not
dampen his spirits, which had become plainly exuberant. In fact, he paid
very little attention to Mrs. Stanton.
"It has got to you, Lana--this coming home again, hasn't it?" he demanded,
with an unconventionality of tone and phraseology that caused the
metropolitan matron to express her startled emotions by a blink. "I knew
it would!"
"I am glad to be home, Stewart. But I have been tiring Mrs. Stanton by my
enthusiasm on that subject," was her suggestive move toward another topic.
"You're in time for the dancing. That's the important feature of the
evening."
"Certainly!" he agreed. "May I be pardoned, Mrs. Stanton, for consulting
my hostess's card first?"
He secured Lana's program without waiting for the matron's indifferent
permission.
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