sister gitting all times an-gery—account I don' dance. But—tha' 's in-sult upon me! I don' lig be insult. So! Me? I jus' don' dance for no one—but—but—but—jus'—you!"
She vanished through the shoji, and presently returned, a symphony in autumnal reds and browns.
"I go'n' dance for you that red maple-leaf dance. Me? I am that leaf."
"You look it," said Garland, more tenderly than he knew.
The girl spread her garments that he might inspect her.
"This is a forest," she went on; "an' you—sa-ay you a tree! Aha, ha, ha!"
She laughed, made him a noble courtesy, and murmured a little tune to which she floated down from the top of a maple-tree. For a while she lay quite still, shivering a little. Then the wind stirred her, and she rose, and swept down upon Garland, then back and into a whirl of other leaves. Then hither and thither, merrily, like an autumn leaf, until she shivered down at his feet, with bowed head.
She was making it more and more perilous for Garland.
