As he finished he found Mrs. Cortlandt regarding him.

“Will you dance with me?” he inquired.  “Yes.  I saved the fourth and the tenth.”  As he filled in the allotted spaces, she said, in a low voice, “You are the boldest person!  Did Mr. Garavel give you leave to do that, or—­”

“Of course!  Thank you.”  He made his way out of the press that had gathered and toward the open air.  He was shaking with nervousness and cursed all government hotels where a man is denied the solace of a drink.

Runnels pounced upon him just outside.

“Well, well, quick!  Did you make it?”

“Number nine.”

“Good!  I was gnawing my finger-nails.  Whew!  I’m glad that is over.  Now pull yourself together and don’t forget you have the first dance with Mrs. Runnels.  There goes the music.  I—­I’m too rattled to dance.”

Anthony found his friend’s wife bubbling with excitement, and scarcely able to contain herself.

“Oh, I’ll never live through it, I know,” she cried, as soon as they were out upon the floor.  “How can you be so calm?”

“I’m not.  I’m as panicky as you are.”

“And she, poor little thing!  She seems frightened to death.”

“But—­isn’t she beautiful?”

Mrs. Runnels admitted the fact cheerfully, and at the same time noted how her partner’s muscles swelled and hardened as Miss Garavel glided past in the arms of Ramon Alfarez.  It gave her a thrill to see a real drama unfolding thus before her very eyes.

To Kirk, Chiquita had never appeared so ravishing, nor so purely Spanish as to-night.  She was clad in some mysterious filmy white stuff that floated about her form like a mist.  The strangeness and brilliance of her surroundings had frightened her a little, and the misery at her heart had filled her wide, dark eyes with a plaintive melancholy.  But she was entirely the fine lady through it all, and she accepted the prominence that was hers as the leading senorita of the Republic with simple dignity and unconcern.  The women began to whisper her name, the men followed her with admiring glances.  At every interval between dances she was besieged by gayly clad officers, civilians in white—­the flower of her own people and of the American colony as well—­all eager to claim her attention or to share in her shy, slow smile.

Now and then her eyes strayed to Kirk with a look that made his blood move quicker.  It boded well for the success of his plans, and filled him with a fierce, hot gladness.  But how the moments dragged!

General Alfarez entered the room amid a buzz of comment.  Then, as he greeted his rival, Garavel, with a smile and a handshake, a round of applause broke forth.  The members of the Commission sought them both out, and congratulations were exchanged.  At last the Garavel boom was launched in earnest.

Mrs. Cortlandt expressed a desire to sit out the fourth dance.