[Illustration: "Then he forgot all about the steps and counting time"]
When the music stopped, and they stood, breathless and laughing, at
the dressing-room door, Ruth said:
"I thought Annette told me you were just learning to dance!"
"So I am," said Sandy; "but me heart never kept time for me before!"
When Annette joined them she looked up at Sandy and smiled.
"Poor f-fellow!" she said sympathetically. "What a perfectly horrid
time you've had!"
CHAPTER XVI
THE NELSON HOME
Willowvale, the Nelson homestead, lay in the last curve of the river,
just before it left the restrictions of town for the freedom of fields
and meadows.
It was a quaint old house, all over honeysuckles and bow-windows and
verandas, approached by an oleander-bordered walk, and sheltered by a
wide circle of poplar-and oak-trees that had nodded both approval and
disapproval over many generations of Nelsons.
In the dining-room, on the massive mahogany table, lunch was laid for
three. Carter sat at the foot, absorbed in a newspaper, while at the
head Mrs. Nelson languidly partook of her second biscuit. It was
vulgar, in her estimation, for a lady to indulge in more than two
biscuits at a meal.
When old Evan Nelson died six years before, he had left the bulk of
his fortune to his two grandchildren, and a handsome allowance to his
eldest son's widow, with the understanding that she was to take charge
of Ruth until that young lady should become of age.
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