The slippers pinched abominably , but nobody would have suspected it as Rilla tripped smilingly up the steps , her soft dark eyes glowing and questioning , her colour deepening richly on her round , creamy cheeks . The very minute she reached the top of the steps an over-harbour boy asked her to dance and the next moment they were in the pavilion that had been built seaward of the lighthouse for dances . It was a delightful spot , roofed over with fir-boughs and hung with lanterns . Beyond was the sea in a radiance that glowed and shimmered , to the left the moonlit crests and hollows of the sand-dunes , to the right the rocky shore with its inky shadows and its crystalline coves . Rilla and her partner swung in among the dancers ; she drew a long breath of delight ; what witching music Ned Burr of the Upper Glen was coaxing from his fiddle -- it was really like the magical pipes of the old tale which compelled all who heard them to dance . How cool and fresh the gulf breeze blew ; how white and wonderful the moonlight was over everything ! This was life -- enchanting life . Rilla felt as if her feet and her soul both had wings . CHAPTER IV THE PIPER PIPES Rilla 's first party was a triumph -- or so it seemed at first . She had so many partners that she had to split her dances . Her silver slippers seemed verily to dance of themselves and though they continued to pinch her toes and blister her heels that did not interfere with her enjoyment in the least . Ethel Reese gave her a bad ten minutes by beckoning her mysteriously out of the pavilion and whispering , with a Reese-like smirk , that her dress gaped behind and that there was a stain on the flounce . Rilla rushed miserably to the room in the lighthouse which was fitted up for a temporary ladies ' dressing-room , and discovered that the stain was merely a tiny grass smear and that the gap was equally tiny where a hook had pulled loose . Irene Howard fastened it up for her and gave her some over-sweet , condescending compliments . Rilla felt flattered by Irene 's condescension . She was an Upper Glen girl of nineteen who seemed to like the society of the younger girls -- spiteful friends said because she could queen it over them without rivalry . But Rilla thought Irene quite wonderful and loved her for her patronage . Irene was pretty and stylish ; she sang divinely and spent every winter in Charlottetown taking music lessons . She had an aunt in Montreal who sent her wonderful things to wear ; she was reported to have had a sad love affair -- nobody knew just what , but its very mystery allured . Rilla felt that Irene 's compliments crowned her evening .
She ran gaily back to the pavilion and lingered for a moment in the glow of the lanterns at the entrance looking XXXXX the dancers .
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