10 The Acorn Outside all was cold and dreary, but within the spacious halls of the Weston mansion everything was bright and cheerful. The ball-room was brilliantly lighted and showed to advantage the decorations of holly and evergreens. Young men and women dressed in unique costumes of all descriptions walked about in the hall, admiring the dress of their friends or guessing what familiar faces might be concealed behind the many masks. A youth and a maid of the early sixties were seated side by side; a cadet and school girl stood beside the orchestra, and so in different groups were pictured all the fashions in dress from early times to the present. A suppressed scream of laughter was heard coming from the stairway, and all eyes were turned in that direction as the figures of a princess, dressed in pale blue brocaded satin, and her page appeared, coming through the archway. At that moment the orchestra struck up a lively tune, and quickly finding their partners the dancers whirled away. But the cadet stood in silence and never allowed his glance to pass from the golden-haired princess and her partner. "This is certainly a case of do or die," he thought, as he hurried to the side of his new ideal and engaged the next dance. The next dance came and passed altogether too quickly. "I don't see why they made this waltz so short," he said, as he led her to a seat, and her large blue eyes flashed a look of understanding to his dark ones. "Promise me the moonlight, will you?" he breathed softly to her. She nodded her head, and could it be possible that her fingers closed a little tighter over his? The "moonlight" came, and all through it he whispered words of love to her, to which she replied with a nod or shake of the head, for she had written on a card: "I can't talk, as I'm afraid you will recognize my voice." As the last strains of music died away he bent over her and asked for one of the roses she wore. She gave him one, and after leading her to a seat he left to get some refreshments. The shoulders of "her majesty" shook as though with hidden laughter as her eyes followed the page passing through the halls with his arm Christmas, 1909 around a fairy who was talking and laughing with him. When they saw the princess they humidly advanced. "How does her highness enjoy her part?" came in a mocking, though distinctly feminine voice, from the page. "Sh! sh!" replied the princess in tragic whisper, "My lover returns; let him not see me with another man." "The time for unmasking draws near, and then where will the princess be?" asked the fairy, as she and the page strolled slowly away. The cadet had returned, and handing the princess a glass of punch he sat down beside her. When she had finished drinking she arose and he followed her back into the ballroom. The next two dances passed very slowly to the impatient cadet, for he anxiously awaited the unmasking in order that he might see the beauty covered by the mask. At last the bugle was sounded and laughter and gay voices rang through the hall as familiar faces appeared with the removal of masks. The cadet stood before the princess. "Hurry, dearest," he whispered, and she replied with a nod, but he sank limply into a seat as she took off her mask and golden tresses and displayed the frank, boyish features of his college chum, Jack, who laughed long and loud as he gazed at the astonished face of the handsome cadet. "Never mind, Duncan, old chap," he said, "I guess this makes us even for the bit of hazing you gave me last fall, eh?" R. J. W., '12.