“Come on, some of you, do dance this!  I can’t because I’m hostess.”

At this there was some subdued laughter, and immediately the four young men found partners, and two of the girls danced together.  Then little Billy Frost came in, and after him, as fresh and sweet as her name, came Rose with the Monroe’s only dentist, Bruce Tate.  Dr. Tate was a rather heavy young man, flirtatious and conceited.

Rose put her violin on the piano, and explained that she had met Rodney Parker that afternoon, “hadn’t seen him for years!” and that he had talked her into coming.  No—­she wouldn’t play until later laughed Rose; now she wanted to dance.

The hours that followed seemed to Martie like years.  She never forgot them.  She urged her guests into every dance with almost physical force; she felt for the girls who did not dance a nervous pity.  Ida and May came in:  neither danced, nor was urged to dance.  They went home at ten o’clock.  It was immediately afterward that Rodney came with his friend.  Martie met them in the hall, ready for the intimate word, the smile that should make all this tiresome business of lights and piano and sandwiches worth while.  Rodney was a little flushed and noisy, Alvah red-faced, breathing and speaking a little thickly.  They said they were thirsty.

“Lemonade?” Martie suggested confidently.

Rodney glanced quickly at his friend.  “Oh, Gawd!” said Mr. Brigham simply.

Then they were in the hot parlour, and Martie was introducing them to a circle that smiled and said “Pleased to meet choo,” over and over.  Alvah would not dance, remarking that he hated dancing.  And Rodney—­Rodney had eyes for no one but Rose.  Martie saw it, every one saw it.

Rose was at her best to-night.  She knew college songs that Rodney and Alvah knew, she dimpled and coquetted with the pretty confidence of a kitten.  She stood up, dainty and sweet in her pink gown, and played her violin, with the gaslight shining down into her brown eyes, and her lace sleeve slipping back and forth over her white arm as the bow whipped to and fro.

Rodney did not leave her side, except for a dance with Martie and one with Sally.  After a while he and Rose went out to sit on the stairs.  Alvah grew noisy and familiar, and Martie did not know quite how to meet his hilarity, although she tried.  She was afraid the echoes of his wild laugh would greet her father’s ears, if he had come in and was upstairs, and that Pa might do something awful.

The evening wore on.  Lydia looked tired, and Sally was absolutely mute, listening politely to Robert Archer’s slow, uninteresting narration of the purchase of the Hospital site.  Martie felt as if she had been in this dreadful gaslight forever; she watched the clock.

At eleven they all went out to the dining room, and here the first real evidences of pleasure might be seen on the faces of the guests.  Now Lydia, too, was in her favourite element, superintending coffee cups, while Sally, alert again, cut the layer cakes.  The table looked charming and the sandwiches and coffee, cream and olives, were swiftly put in circulation.  Under the heartening rattle of cutlery and china every one talked, the air was scented with coffee, the room so warm that two windows by general consent were opened to the cool night.