Chapter XXVIII Dan, the Newsboy by Jr. Horatio Alger
Dan at the Party
As Dan entered the parlors he saw the young lady in whose honor the party was given only a few feet distant.
He advanced with perfect ease, and paid his respects.
“I am very glad to see you here this evening, Mr. Mordaunt,” said Julia, cordially.
“What a handsome boy he is!” she thought. “I had no idea he would look so well.”
Mentally she pronounced him the handsomest young gentleman present.
“Take your partners for a quadrille, young gentlemen,” announced the master of ceremonies.
“Are you engaged, Miss Rogers?” asked Dan.
“Not as yet,” answered the young lady, smiling.
“Then may I have the honor?”
“Certainly.”
So it happened that as Tom Carver entered the room, he beheld, to his intense surprise and disgust, Dan leading the young hostess to her place in the quadrille.
“What a cheek that fellow has!” said Tom to himself. “I suppose he never attempted to dance in his life. It will be fun to watch his awkwardness. I am very much surprised that Julia should condescend to dance with him—a common newsboy.”
At first Tom thought he wouldn’t dance, but Mrs. Rogers approaching said:
“Tom, there’s Jane Sheldon. She has no partner.”
Accordingly Tom found himself leading up a little girl of eight.
There was no place except in the quadrille in which Dan and Julia Rogers were to dance. Tom found himself one of the “sides.”
“Good-evening, Julia,” he said, catching the eye of Miss Rogers.
“Good-evening, Tom. You are late.”
“I am too late to be your partner.”
“Yes, but you see I am not left a wall-flower,” said the young lady, smiling. “Mr. Mordaunt kindly relieved me of that apprehension.”
“You are fortunate,” said Tom, sneering.
“I leave my partner to thank you for that compliment,” said Julia, determined not to gratify Tom by appearing to understand the sneer.
“There’s no occasion,” said Tom, rudely.
“I am glad of it,” said Dan, “for I am so unused to compliments that I am afraid I should answer awkwardly.”
“I can very well believe that,” returned Tom, significantly.
Julia did not smile. She looked offended rather for she felt that rudeness to her partner reflected upon herself.
But here the music struck up, and the quadrille began.
“Now for awkwardness,” said Tom to himself, and he watched Dan closely.
But, to his surprise, nothing could be neater or better modulated than Dan’s movements. Instead of hopping about, as Tom thought he would, he was thoroughly graceful.
“Where could the fellow have learned to dance?” he asked himself, in disappointment.
Julia was gratified; for, to tell the truth, she too had not been altogether without misgivings on the subject of Dan’s dancing, and, being herself an excellent dancer, she would have found it a little disagreeable if Dan had proved awkward.
The quadrille proceeded, and Tom was chagrined that the newsboy, as he mentally termed Dan, had proved a better dancer than himself.
“Oh, well, it’s easy to dance in a quadrille,” he said to himself, by way of consolation. “He won’t venture on any of the round dances.”
But as Dan was leading Julia to her seat he asked her hand in the next polka, and was graciously accepted.
He then bowed and left her, knowing that he ought not to monopolize the young hostess.
Although Tom had told Dan not to expect any attentions from him, he was led by curiosity to accost our hero.
“It seems that newsboys dance,” said he.
“Does it?” asked Dan, indifferently.
“But it was not in very good taste for you to engage Miss Rogers for the first dance.”
“Why not?”
“It was making yourself too prominent.”
“Somebody had to be prominent, or Miss Rogers would have been left to dance by herself.”
“There are others who would have made more suitable partners for her.”
“Yourself, for instance.”
“Yes.”
“I am sorry to have stood in your way.”
“Oh, you needn’t mind. I shall have plenty of opportunities of dancing with her, and you won’t. I suppose she took pity on you, as you know no other young lady here.”
Just then a pretty girl, beautifully dressed, approached Dan.
“Good-evening, Mr. Mordaunt,” she said, offering her hand with a beaming smile.
“Good-evening, Miss Carroll,” said Dan. “Are you engaged for the galop?”
Miss Carroll shook her head.
“Then will you give me the pleasure?”
In a minute Dan was whirling round the room with the young lady, greatly to Tom’s amazement, for Edith Carroll was from a family of high social standing, living on Murray Hill.
“How in the duse does Dan Mordaunt know that girl?” Tom asked himself, with a frown. “They spoke as if they were acquainted.”
To Tom’s further disappointment Dan danced as gracefully in the galop as in the quadrille.
When the galop was over, Dan promenaded with another young lady, whose acquaintance he had made at dancing-school, and altogether seemed as much at his ease as if he had been attending parties all his life.
Tom managed to obtain Edith Carroll as a partner.
“I didn’t know you were acquainted with Dan Mordaunt,” he said.
“Oh, yes, I know him very well. Doesn’t he dance charmingly?”
“Humph!” said Tom, not very well pleased. “I thought him rather awkward.”
“How can you say so, Mr. Carver? Why I think he dances beautifully, and so do all the girls.”
“How do the girls know how he dances?”
“Why he goes to our dancing-school. The professor says he is his best pupil. We all like to dance with him.”
“That’s fortunate for him,” said Tom, with a sneer. “Perhaps he may become a dancing-master in time.”
“He would make a good one, but I don’t think he’s very likely to do that.”
“It would be a good thing for him. He is poor, you know.”
“No, I don’t. I am sure he dresses well. He is as well-dressed as any young gentleman here.”
This was true, and Tom resented it. He felt that Dan had no right to dress well.
“He ought not to spend so much money on dress when he has his mother to support,” he said, provoked.
“It seems to me you take a great deal of interest in Mr. Mordaunt,” said the young beauty, pointedly.
“Oh, no; he can do as he likes for all me, but, of course, when a boy in his position dresses as if he were rich one can’t help noticing it.”
“I am sure he can’t be very poor, or he could not attend Dodworth’s dancing-school. At any rate I like to dance with him, and I don’t care whether he’s poor or rich.”
Presently Tom saw Dan dancing the polka with Julia Rogers, and with the same grace that he had exhibited in the other dances.
He felt jealous, for he fancied himself a favorite with Julia, because their families being intimate, he saw a good deal of her.
On the whole Tom was not enjoying the party. He did succeed, however, in obtaining the privilege of escorting Julia to supper.
Just in front of him was Dan, escorting a young lady from Fifth avenue.
“Mr. Mordaunt appears to be enjoying himself,” said Julia Rogers.
“Yes, he has plenty of cheek,” muttered Tom.
“Excuse me, Tom, but do you think such expressions suitable for such an occasion as this?”
“I am sorry you don’t like it, but I never saw a more forward or presuming fellow than this Dan Mordaunt.”
“I beg you to keep your opinion to yourself,” said Julia Rogers, with dignity. “I find he is a great favorite with all the young ladies here. I had no idea he knew so many of them.”
Tom gave it up. It seemed to him that all the girls were infatuated with a common newsboy, while his vanity was hurt by finding himself quite distanced in the race.
About twelve o’clock the two boys met in the dressing-room.
“You seemed to enjoy yourself,” said Tom, coldly.
“Yes, thanks to your kind attentions,” answered Dan, with a smile. “It is pleasant to meet old friends, you know. By the way, I suppose we shall meet at Miss Carroll’s party.”
“Are you to be invited?” asked Tom, in astonishment.
“So the young lady tells me,” answered Dan, smiling.
“I suppose you’ll be giving a fashionable party next,” said Tom, with a sneer.
“Consider yourself invited if I do. Good-night, and pleasant dreams.”
But Dan’s dreams were by no means sweet that night.
When he reached home, it was to hear of a great and startling misfortune.