“Your flattery, sir, is very cruel.  Beware!  I may take it seriously.  What would happen if my verdant heart were to fall a victim to the cunning wiles of the voice?  Remember, I have only met two men, since I came to America, yesterday.  And they are both pronounced woman-haters.  I will take you at your word, about Mr. Reginald Warren, and loosen my blandishments to the best of my rustic ability.”

A wayward twinkle in her eyes should have warned Shirley that she was planning a little mischief.  But, he was too preoccupied in finding the real front of her baffling street cloak to observe it.  They left for the tearoom, while Helene still laughed to herself over certain subtle possibilities which she saw in the situation.

CHAPTER XIV

A PILGRIMAGE INTO FRIVOLITY

Rather early, again, for the usual throng, they were able to choose their position to their liking:  to-day, it was in the center of the big room, close by the space cleared for the dancing.  Gradually the tables were occupied, apparently by the identical people of the afternoon before, so marked is the peculiar character of the dance-mad individuality.  To-day he varied his menu with a mild order of cocktails—­for now he was not emulating the Epicurean record of the bibulous Grimsby.  They observed with amusement the weird contortions, seldom graced by a vestige of rhythm or beauty, with which the intent dancers spun and zigzagged.

“Considering how much money they pay to learn these steps from dancing-masters, there is unusually small value in the market, Miss Marigold.  I resigned myself to the approach of the sunset years, and became a voluntary exile in the garden of the wallflowers, when society dancing became mathematical.”

“I don’t understand?”

“Once it was possible to chat, to smile, to woo or to silently enjoy the music and the measures of the dance in company with a sympathetic partner.  Now, however, since the triumph of the ’New Mode,’ one must count ‘one-two-three,’ and one’s partner is more captious than a schoolmarm!  What puzzles me is the need for new steps, to be learned from expensive teachers, when it’s so easy to slide down hill in this part of New York.  But here endeth the sermon, for I recognize the amiable Pinkie at that other table, where she is studying your face with the malevolence of a cobra.”

Helene slowly turned her eyes toward the other girl, who now advanced with forced effusiveness.

“Oh, my dear, and you’re back again today.  But where is dear old Grimmie; he is a nice old soul, though a trifle near-sighted.  He wasn’t half seas over last night—­he was a war-zone submarine, out for a long-distance record!”

She impudently seated herself at the table with them, sending a questioning glance at the handsome companion of her quondam rival.  Helene instinctively drew back, but a warning glance from Shirley plunged her into her assumed character, and she greeted the other girl with the quasi-comradeship of their class.