"Oh, no, of course not," he agreed in a placating tone; his expression said If you say so; sure, I'll play along. She'd worn that dress and styled herself that way tonight to cause impolite mischief, he was certain of that, but he could no more accuse her if it on the ballroom floor than she could admit to it. He glanced over her appearance again and tried to decide which category of seductively dressed woman she fell in to; there were several, and he was familiar with them all. The neglected wives who didn't actually want to do anything, but wanted male attention to try and make their husbands jealous. The widows and spinsters who also didn't want to do anything, but did want to tease for the sake of disruption; seeking to get young men in trouble with their young fiancé's and wives, or to make unattached men look foolish. The wives or widows who wanted to get into real trouble didn't advertise this way — no reason to draw attention to themselves broadly when they only needed the attention of one particular person, and there were better ways to get it. Desperate debutantes did this sometimes — when they were willing to sleep with someone if it meant having leverage to force them into marriage. Don Juan considered himself safe from these kinds of schemes; even for the desperate he was not considered marriage material.

Neglected wife, he decided. She wanted his attention, nothing more. Which was fine by him; he was still holding on to a hope of finding Mrs. Bythesea later. He could afford a little attention in the meantime.

"Have you been through the mirror maze yet?" he asked.

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