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Then she put on the black silk with its glistening crimsoned-silver sequins, and, lo, it touched
her. She liked its coquettish drapery of tulle and silver about the hips. The "overskirt," which was
at that time just coming into fashion, though avoided by the more conservative, had been
adopted by Aileen with enthusiasm. She thrilled a little at the rustle of this black dress, and
thrust her chin and nose forward to make it set right. Then after having Kathleen tighten her
corsets a little more, she gathered the train over her arm by its train-band and looked again.
Something was wanting. Oh, yes, her neck! What to wear--red coral? It did not look right. A
string of pearls? That would not do either. There was a necklace made of small cameos set in
silver which her mother had purchased, and another of diamonds which belonged to her
mother, but they were not right. Finally, her jet necklet, which she did not value very highly,
came into her mind, and, oh, how lovely it looked! How soft and smooth and glistening her chin
looked above it. She caressed her neck affectionately, called for her black lace mantilla, her
long, black silk dolman lined with red, and she was ready.
The ball-room, as she entered, was lovely enough. The young men and young women she saw
there were interesting, and she was not wanting for admirers. The most aggressive of these
youths--the most forceful--recognized in this maiden a fillip to life, a sting to existence. She was
as a honey-jar surrounded by too hungry flies.
But it occurred to her, as her dance-list was filling up, that there was not much left for Mr.
Cowperwood, if he should care to dance with her.
Cowperwood was meditating, as he received the last of the guests, on the subtlety of this matter
of the sex arrangement of life. Two sexes. He was not at all sure that there was any law
governing them. By comparison now with Aileen Butler, his wife looked rather dull, quite too old,
and when he was ten years older she would look very much older.
"Oh, yes, Ellsworth had made quite an attractive arrangement out of these two houses--better
than we ever thought he could do." He was talking to Henry Hale Sanderson, a young banker.
"He had the advantage of combining two into one, and I think he's done more with my little one,
considering the limitations of space, than he has with this big one. Father's has the advantage
of size. I tell the old gentleman he's simply built a lean-to for me."
His father and a number of his cronies were over in the dining-room of his grand home, glad to
get away from the crowd. He would have to stay, and, besides, he wanted to. Had he better
dance with Aileen? His wife cared little for dancing, but he would have to dance with her at least
once. There was Mrs. Seneca Davis smiling at him, and Aileen. By George, how wonderful!
What a girl!
"I suppose your dance-list is full to overflowing. Let me see." He was standing before her and
she was holding out the little blue-bordered, gold-monogrammed booklet. An orchestra was
playing in the music room. The dance would begin shortly. There were delicately constructed,
gold-tinted chairs about the walls and behind palms.
He looked down into her eyes--those excited, life-loving, eager eyes.
"You're quite full up. Let me see. Nine, ten, eleven. Well, that will be enough. I don't suppose I
shall want to dance very much. It's nice to be popular."
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