"
"Many thanks, but no!" laughed Vanno. "I haven't danced since I was
twenty; and even if I had I don't know _White Lady's_ owner."
"That is nothing," said Rongier. "Nobody knows him, but every one is
going--that is, all the men we know are going; and you will go, to
please me."
"I'd do a good deal to please you, but not that," Vanno persisted.
"If I tell you a lady whom I am anxious--particularly anxious--to
please, will be angry with me if you refuse? She makes it a point that I
bring you."
"That's a different matter," said Vanno good-naturedly. "I suppose she
doesn't make it a point for me to stay through the whole evening?"
"You can settle that with her," Rongier reassured him. "I thought you
wouldn't fail me. She's heard about your blue comet and your yellow
desert, and your new parachute, and has probably mixed them all up; but
the result is that she wants to meet you."
"Very kind. I wish I could do the comet and the desert the same credit
you do the parachute. But who is 'She'?"
"Miss Holbein, the daughter of the yacht's owner. English people here, I
understand, won't know her father because he was once an I. D. B. and is
now a money-lender; but thank heaven we who have Latin blood in our
veins are neither snobs nor hypocrites. By the way, Holbein called some
fellow at the Casino a 'snob' the other night, and the man returned, 'If
I were a snob, I wouldn't know you.' Holbein thought it so smart he goes
about repeating the story against himself, which proves he balances his
millions with a sense of humour.
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