As far as the other guests were concerned, he had not trouble.
They welcomed him to croquet, to walking and boating excursions,
and to their evening games and promenades. Such of the ladies as
danced were pleased to secure him as a partner. Indeed, from the
dearth of gentlemen during the week, he soon found himself more
in demand than he cared to be, and saw that even the landlord
was beginning to rely upon him to keep up a state of pleasurable
effervescence among his patrons. His languid friend, Stanton, was
not a little surprised, and at last remarked:

"Why, Van, what has come over you? I never saw you in the role of
a society fellow before!"

But his unwonted courtesies seemed wholly in vain. He propitiated
and won all save one, and that one was the sole object of his effort.
While all others smiled, her face remained cold and averted. Indeed
she took such pains to ignore and avoid him, that it was generally
recognized that there was a difference between them, and of course
there was an endless amount of gossiping surmise. As the hostility
seemed wholly on the lady's side, Van Berg appeared to the better
advantage, and Ida was all the more provoked as she recognized the
fact.

She now began to wish that she had taken a different course. As
Van Berg pursued his present tactics, her feminine intuition was
not so dull but that she was led to believe he wished to make her
acquaintance. Of course there was, to her mind, but one explanation
of this fact--he was becoming fascinated, like so many others.