The girls in the crowd tried to avoid dancing with him. That often left Cora partnerless unless she wanted to dance again and again with Raymond.

“How can you expect the boys to ask me to dance when you don’t dance with their wives! Good heavens, if they can learn, you can. And for pity’s sake don’t count! You’re so fun-ny!”

He tried painstakingly to heed her advice, but his long legs made a sorry business of it. He heard one of the girls refer to him as “that giraffe.” He had put his foot through an absurd wisp of tulle that she insisted on calling a train.

They were spending a good deal of money now, but Ray jousted the landlord, the victualler, the furrier, the milliner, the hosiery maker, valiantly and