I repair to the enchanted house, where there are lights, chattering, music, flowers, officers (I am sorry to see), and the eldest Miss Larkins, a blaze of beauty.

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.' 'With no one else ?' inquires Miss Larkins.
'I should have no pleasure in dancing with anyone else.' Miss Larkins laughs and blushes (or I think she blushes), and says, 'Next time but one, I shall be very glad.' The time arrives.

'It is a waltz, I think,' Miss Larkins doubtfully observes, when I present myself.

'Do you waltz?
If not, Captain Bailey--' But I do waltz (pretty well, too, as it happens), and I take Miss Larkins out.