brown eyes, long eyelashes and a profile that captivated William. Abby had bobbed her auburn hair in the style William had hated until that moment.
'Matthew tells me you are going to Harvard next year~` she tried again.
'Yes, I am. I mean, would you like to dance?'
Thank you,'she said.
The steps that had come to him so easily a few minutes before seemed now to forsake him. He trod on her toes and continually propelled her into other dancers. He apologised, she smiled. He held her a little more closely, and they danced on.
'Do we know that young lady who seems to have been monopolising William for the last hour?' said Grandmother Cabot suspiciously.
Grandmother Kane picked up her pince - nez and studied the girl accompanying William as he strolled through the open bay windows out on to the lawn.
'Abby Blount,' Grandmother Kane declared.
'Admiral Blount's daughter?' enquired Grandmother Cabot.
eye 'S.1 Grandmother Cabot nodded a degree of approval.
William guided Abby Blount towards the far end of the garden and stopped by a large chestnut tree which he had used in the past only for climbing.
'Do you always try to kiss a girl the first time you meet her?' asked Abby.
To be honest,' s~aid William, 'I've never kissed a girl before!
Abby laughed. 'I'm very flattered!
She offered first her pink check and then her rosy, pursed lips and then insisted upon returning indoors. The grandmothers observed their early re - entry with some relief.
Later, in William's bedroom, the two boys discussed the evening.
'Not a bad party,' said Matthew, 'Almost worth the trip from New York out here to the provinces, despite your stealing my girl.'
'Do you think she'll help me lose my virginity?' asked William, ignoring Matthew's mock accusation.
VeU, you have three weeks to find out, but I fear you'll discover she hasn't lost hers yet,' said Matthew. 'Such is my expertise in these matters that I'm willing to bet you five dollars she doesn't succumb even to the charms of William Lowell Kane.'
William planned a careful strategem. Virginity was one thing, but losing five dollars to Matthew was quite another. He saw Abby Blount nearly every day after that, taking advantage for the first time of owning his own house and car at seventeen.
He began to feel he would do better without the discreet but persistent chaperonage of Abby's parents who seemed always to be in the middle distance and he was not perceptibly nearer his goal when the last day of the holidays dawned.
Determined to win his five dollars, William sent Abby a dozen roses early in the day, took her out to an expensive dinner at Joseph's that evening and finally succeeded in coaxing her back into his front room.
'How did you get hold of a bottle of whisky while Prohibition is on?'
asked Abby.
'Oh, it's riot so hard,' William boasted.
The truth was that he had hidden a bottle of Henry Oshome's bourbon in his bedroom soon after he had left, and was now glad he had not poured it down the drain as had been his original intention.
William poured drinks that made him gasp and brought tears to Abby's eyes.
He sat down beside her and put his arm confidently around her shoulder.
She settled in to it.
'Abby, I think you're terribly pretty,' he murmured in a preliminary way at her auburn curls.
She gazed at him earnestly, her brown eyes wide. 'Oh, Williarn,' she breathed. 'And I think you're just wonderful!
Her doll - like face was irresistible. She allowed herself to be kissed.
Thus emboldened, William slipped a tentative hand from her wrist on to her breast, and left it there like a traffic cop halting an advancing stream of automobiles. She became pinkly indignant and pushed his arm down to allow the traffic to move on.
'William, you musn't do that.'
'Why not?' said William, struggling vainly to retain his grasp of her.
'Because you can't tell where it might end.'
'I've got a fair idea.'
Before he could renew his advances, Abby pushed him away and rose hastily, smoothing her dress.
"I think I ought to be getting home now, Williarn~ Tut you've only just arrived.'
'Mother will want to know what I've been doing.'
"You'll be able to tell her - nothing? 'And I think it's best it stays that way,' she added.
93ut I'm going back tomorrow.' He avoided saying, 'to school'.
'Well, you can write to me, William." Unlike Valentino, William knew when he was beaten. He rose, straightened his tie, took Abby by the hand and drove her home.
The following day, back at school, Matthew Lester accepted the proffered