Argosy All-Story Weekly, April 19, 1924 — page 54: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

a24 self. There were some little touches at the corners of the eyelids that made all the difference in the world. ‘* Silly child,” Bunch said, “a little danc- ing instructress wouldn’t be wearing a string of pearls worth ten thousand pounds, You've forgotten to take them off.” That showed how thorough Bunch was and how careless I was. A little detail like that might have caused me trouble; might even have given me away. “Oh, what a horrid night!” exclaimed Bunch, coming to the door with me. “ Liz, I don’t half like your going out in it.” It had been raining all day, and had only just stopped. It was very dark and a mist was coming up from the ground of Bunch’s little garden. I assured her I should be ail right and must hurry or I would be late. I got a taxi from the rank by the Oratory, and told the man to drive me to the corner of Oxford Street and Tetworth Street. From there L thought it safer to walk to the club. As we got near Oxford Street, the mist grew decidedly thicker. I arrived aft the club at the same time as Mr. Anselm, the manager. He and Mrs. Groote would not be ‘there that eve- ning, and he would give me my instructions. There was a small room where we changed our shoes and left our things. This was going to be another test for me, because as an instructress I must not wear a hat. Would my wig bear such close scrutiny as a man dancing with me would be almost sure to give it? How I wished I wasn’t so small! The first dancers began to arrive about nine. It was only on gala nights that the club had a dinner served. This was not one, so there would only be light refresh- ments for supper. The room didn’t fill up quickly. The weather was no doubt responsible. There was no sign of the king. My first duty was to pilot a very young man, hardly more than a boy, who was only learning to dance. Mr. Anselm informed me that he spent a great deal of money on lessons. It was a trial for me, because I was longing to dance to the strains of the wonderful band. The youth was eager to learn, but ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY, very clumsy, and simply tied up in a knot with nervousness. He didn’t say a word, except to thank me for helping him. Then I had to dance with an elderly man, white haired, white mustached, with apple cheeks and twinkling, humorous eyes, who obviously danced for exercise. He knew all the steps and was very energetic, but he hadn’t the true dancing feet and there wasn’t an atom of music in him. However, he was very nice. I had three dances with him, and he talked to me between whiles chiefly about his daughter of seventeen who was in @ convent near Paris. It was just after my third dance with him that I caught sight of the big form and fair, lazy, handsome face of Lord Maurice Angell. It gave me a shock, al- though I wasn’t really afraid of his recog- nizing me, as we had only met once. But I hadn’t somehow thought that any of my set came there. He was with a woman with orange colored hair and the queerest greenish eyes, very big and shining like precious stones. She wore a wonderful green and gold frock, very ouiré, sleeveless and unusually low, and all her fluffy extra- ordinary hair, standing out like an aureole, made her awfully noticeable. They were both good dancers, and seemed utterly absorbed in each other. I couldn’t say I liked the look of the woman, but she was interesting. I was getting hopeless. It was after ten o'clock. My courage began to evaporate. The king wasn’t coming, after all. How could I have been such a fool! I couldn’t stay there, dancing with strangers, at their beck and call. I hadn’t reckoned on that part of it. I had only thought of the “Sable Night’ waltz, and King Peter’s blue eyes, and his voice telling me that he was lonely and that he wanted us to be friends. But weren’t those words that men said - lightly—to any girl that they happened to be with? Oh, what a fool I was! I wanted to get out of it, at any cost. T was suddenly frightened. The room was full. Lord Maurice Angell passed me, and stared into my face. It-was a carelessly insolent look. He turned and smiled at me. Panic got hold of me. That was what I Eomichbooks (S@)