Paddy The Next Best Thing Part 16

"He's put the supper-dance very black, so he means that," said Doreen.

"Why isn't he having it with you as usual?"

"I guess he thought he'd like a change," Paddy replied loyally, "and quite time," and Doreen was satisfied.

The next moment a voice in Paddy's ear, with a ring in it that she could not well mistake, said quietly:

"I've been looking everywhere for you, Miss Adair."

"Then you must be very blind," she answered brightly, "for in my own estimation I've been very much _en evidence_ all the time so far. But perhaps you did not recognise me?"

"Perhaps," with a little smile, and Ted Masterman surveyed her in that quiet, masterly way of his, that always made Paddy feel rebellious, with the most unmistakable admiration written on his face.

"You look like the Great Mogul," she exclaimed, "criticising me in that calmly superior way. It's all my own hair; don't be alarmed."

"It's the most beautiful hair I have ever seen," he said, in a quiet way that could not possibly offend her. "I always thought it was a pity you did not treat it better."

"Then you had no business to think about it at all, or to criticise me."

"A cat may look at a queen. How many dances are you going to give me, now I have risked losing my berth to be here!"

"Perhaps two," hiding a twinkle in her eyes.

"More," he answered.

"No," resolutely.

"I say _more_."

"I don't care what you say."

"I am going to have my dances all the same," and he gained possession of her programme.

"I've a great mind to cancel the supper-dance, and not have any with you," trying to look annoyed.

"Now you look angry," he said; "but don't be cross to-night. After to-morrow I shall not trouble you again for a long time, so you can well afford to be magnanimous."

Paddy evidently agreed, for she took back her programme and only feigned a slight frown when she saw his name on four different lines.

Without meaning to be unkind, the thought, "perhaps it will vex Jack,"

entered into her mind and stayed there.

And so the game at cross-purposes went on.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

PADDY'S VIEWS ON SENTIMENTALITY.

When the music for the first dance commenced, General Adair led out Mrs Blake, and almost simultaneously Kathleen and Doreen with their partners, and Lawrence with Eileen followed suit. Paddy, however, waited breathless, to watch her father.

"I'm all on thorns," she explained to her partner. "I simply can't dance for a minute or two. Daddy's clothes are too tight for him to laugh in with any safety, so goodness knows what will happen if he dances long!--I must warn him."

She succeeded in getting within earshot, and at a loss for an appropriate warning, remarked in an audible whisper, with feigned anxiety: "Daddy--remember Lot's wife," which so tickled the old soldier that he nearly come to grief through her, instead of being saved from it.

"How well she looks to-night!" Mrs Blake said warmly, following Paddy with admiring eyes. "You must be very proud of your girls, General.

One is beautiful, and the other full of originality and charm."

"I am, Madam," he said. "I am, indeed. There's not an officer in the British Army knows less about fear than Paddy--she'd storm any stronghold in the face of any guns, and never turn a hair. If she'd been a man, she'd have written her name in English History. I used to fret about it a little, but Lord! I wouldn't change her now for all the fame in Europe. I'm thinking there's just as much need in the world for brave women as brave men, and none too many of them."

"Indeed, you are right, General. Paddy will find her vocation yet, and perhaps write her name in history too."

Meanwhile, Lawrence and Eileen glided round almost in silence. Both were perfect dancers, and content while the music continued to leave all conversation alone. Afterward they rested in a small alcove, and Lawrence took the opportunity to feast his eyes on his partner's loveliness.

"You are looking splendid, Eileen," he said, with unwonted warmth for him, "that dress suits you perfectly. Did you choose it yourself?"

"Yes," lowering her eyes, that they might not tell too plainly their tale of gladness.

He hatched her a moment, thinking of her perfect naturalness, and then across his mind floated the picture and remembrance of Gwendoline Carew.

How different they were, these two girls, who, for the present at any rate, held sway in his fickle affections.

Against Eileen's simplicity, he could not help a little inward smile at the thought of Gwendoline's past-masterdom in the art of attracting, and holding, and queening it generally over the opposite s.e.x. He thought he would like to see them together, and supposing Gwendoline should take it into her head to be jealous, he smiled inwardly at the notion of what her summing up of her rival might be.

Then Eileen looked up into his face, and somehow again his defences grew weak.

"Out of sight, out of mind," had ever been his motto, and while the image of Gwendoline faded, a recklessness took possession of him to enjoy the evening to the full. It was so seldom he found anything to enjoy now, and he easily persuaded himself Eileen was too sensible to jump to rash conclusions.

And for the rest! well! he was going to India directly, and things would easily smooth themselves out again.

So he leaned forward and talked to her just in the way she liked best, and the way that brought the colour quickest to her cheeks, and the changing lights to her eyes that were so good to look upon.

"Now I must go and give myself up to duty," he finished with a sigh, when the second dance was about to commence. "It feels rather like journeying through a sandy desert, with an occasional oasis when I dance with you."

"Oh, no!" she said quickly. "There are such a lot fit nice people here, you will enjoy it all ever so much."

"Opinions differ," with a slight shrug of his shoulders. "But I shall certainly get half an hour's amus.e.m.e.nt out of Paddy."

The supper-dance at all private dances in the neighbourhood of Newry was looked upon as the dance of the evening, because it was the one in which any two young people who had a special preference for each other could be quite sure of a _tete-a-tete_. Things were arranged very leisurely, as it was customary for the hand to follow to supper after the guests, and meanwhile the young folks amused themselves.

On this particular occasion, however, there chanced to be several young folks to whom circ.u.mstances had not been kind, and consequently, contrary to all precedent, the time hung heavily.

Of these, Jack perhaps was the greatest sufferer. If he could have been with Eileen he would have been in a seventh heaven, but not only was he debarred of this, but he saw with raging heart two vanis.h.i.+ng forms in the direction of one of the conservatories, unmistakably those of Eileen and Lawrence Blake. At supper he had been near them, and in one or two brief pa.s.sages, his honest outspoken antipathy to Lawrence has been neatly turned upon himself by the accomplished society man, and there had at the same time been a half-tolerant, amused expression in his eyes that made Jack feel like a caged wild beast. This naturally had only given his enemy the greater secret satisfaction.

Then if only he had had Paddy, he thought he might have relieved his feelings a little; but having Lawrence's own sister for a partner, there was nothing for it but to try and hide his chagrin under a show of hilarity. In this he at least entertained such of those who remained chatting in groups by the fire.

He little dreamed, however, that poor Paddy was in scarcely better plight. Not that she disliked Ted Masterman in any way, indeed she liked him immensely, but when he was lover-like it fidgeted her, feeling just that soreness over Eileen, that made any other man's attentions unwelcome and irritating.

Nevertheless, she found herself sitting in the little alcove half-way up the big staircase with him, where the moonlight came through the stained-gla.s.s window and made a pattern on the floor, shaded by the heavy curtains from the glare of the lights.

Below them in the bright comfortable hall near a large log fire, they could see the little groups, that laughed and applauded, while Jack in company with a youth as lively and irresponsible as himself, feigned a merriment he was far from feeling. Paddy watched, and in her own quaint way, rebelled against a Fate that made puppets of herself and her friends, for she understood exactly what was pa.s.sing in Jack's mind.