Not put anyone on her card, she said, and showed him it just so - a win, then, for him, because unless he was missing some vital piece of English scandal about the young Miss Lupin, she was as eligible as anyone in the room, and better-looking than the majority. She knew her way around a room, then; knew how to choose her companions. He respected her for that.
"I feel very fortunate," Max told her, as if he could really be at her mercy here, poised to write his name on her card. Choosing which dance was a small request, though, he supposed, a loaded question to ladies. He selected the middle of the waltzes, not wanting to seem too keen by whisking her away for the very first dance after dinner, but not wanting to be lost and forgotten amid yet another quadrille or monotonous polonaise. "I am not so deft, I think, with all the dances you dance here at English balls these days, but I think we should be safe with a waltz. We dance those even down at the Cape, you see." Their social circles in South Africa were no stranger to a ball, even in the midst of mining country, and - whatever he said - Max had no self-consciousness whatsoever in his dancing skills. He was prouder of other things, perhaps - his business, his wealth - but a waltz, if anything, demanded enough technique that he could actually show his off, and he would be lying if that hadn't been part of the reason in picking it.
The rest of the reason was the physical closeness, obviously. A chance to get to know her better.
"I feel very fortunate," Max told her, as if he could really be at her mercy here, poised to write his name on her card. Choosing which dance was a small request, though, he supposed, a loaded question to ladies. He selected the middle of the waltzes, not wanting to seem too keen by whisking her away for the very first dance after dinner, but not wanting to be lost and forgotten amid yet another quadrille or monotonous polonaise. "I am not so deft, I think, with all the dances you dance here at English balls these days, but I think we should be safe with a waltz. We dance those even down at the Cape, you see." Their social circles in South Africa were no stranger to a ball, even in the midst of mining country, and - whatever he said - Max had no self-consciousness whatsoever in his dancing skills. He was prouder of other things, perhaps - his business, his wealth - but a waltz, if anything, demanded enough technique that he could actually show his off, and he would be lying if that hadn't been part of the reason in picking it.
The rest of the reason was the physical closeness, obviously. A chance to get to know her better.
