She is dressed in blue, with blue flowers in her hair — forget-me-nots — as if SHE had any need to wear forget-me-nots. It is the first really grown-up party that I have ever been invited to, and I am a little uncomfortable; for I appear not to belong to anybody, and nobody appears to have anything to say to me, except Mr. Larkins, who asks me how my schoolfellows are, which he needn’t do, as I have not come there to be insulted.

But after I have stood in the doorway for some time, and feasted my eyes upon the goddess of my heart, she approaches me — she, the eldest Miss Larkins!

— and asks me pleasantly, if I dance?

I stammer, with a bow, ‘With you, Miss Larkins.’