Explore "A Good-For-Nothing" by Hjalmar Hjorth Boysen on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Two months passed, and then came the great annual ball which the / students give at the opening of the second semester. Ralph was a man of / importance that evening; first, because he belonged to a great family; / secondly, because he was the handsomest man of his year. He wore a large / golden star on his breast (for his fellow-students had made him a Knight / of the Golden Boar), and a badge of colored ribbons in his button-hole.
The ball was a brilliant affair, and everybody was in excellent spirits, / especially the ladies. Ralph danced incessantly, twirled his soft / mustache, and uttered amiable platitudes. It was toward midnight, just / as the company was moving out to supper, that he caught the glance of a / pair of dark-blue eyes, which suddenly drove the blood to his cheeks / and hastened the beating of his heart. But when he looked once more the / dark-blue eyes were gone, and his unruly heart went on hammering against / his side. He laid his hand on his breast and glanced furtively at his / fair neighbor, but she looked happy and unconcerned, for the flavor of / the ice-cream was delicious. It seemed an endless meal, but, when it / was done, Ralph rose, led his partner back to the ball-room, and hastily / excused himself. His glance wandered round the wide hall, seeking the / well-remembered eyes once more, and, at length, finding them in a remote / corner, half hid behind a moving wall of promenaders. In another moment / he was at Bertha's side.