Part 38 (1/2)

When it was safely over, and the dance was beginning--the dance was taking place at the Hewitt house--Joy flung herself down for a moment behind the curtains of the little alcove she knew so well by now, and caught her breath. She was hiding a little. She still had a curious reluctance to see Clarence again, and she felt as if she did not want to see John, either, for a little while. Because the next time she saw him she would probably know whether she was right or wrong. She was nearly certain she was right, but there was a little s.h.i.+vering possibility that she might not be. There was always Gail!...

”Sorcerette, dear!” said Clarence's voice wooingly in the dim doorway.

He had changed back to evening clothes, and looked very handsome, if a little theatrical, for the black was not quite yet off his brows and lashes. He, too, looked excited.

”Come out and dance, Joy of my life,” he said.

”I'm--I'm waiting for John,” she stammered. She still did not want to go with him.

”John's otherwise engaged,” Clarence informed her coolly. ”Did you think Gail intended to go without one kind word the whole evening?

Not so! Come, or I'll think you mean to be highly impolite.”

The same reluctance still held Joy's feet, and she did not like the insinuation, but there really seemed no way out.

”Cheer up, Sorcerette, dear,” he said in her ear, as he swept her away. ”'Get happy, chile, ain't you done got me?'”

She did not talk. She did not feel like it. She merely danced lightly on with Clarence, letting him say what he pleased.

”Do you remember the first time we danced together, Joy, the first time you ever danced with any one? I have always been so glad I was the first man you ever danced with.”

”Why?” she asked absently. She wanted to get away, to get back to John Hewitt.

His arms tightened.

”Why? You know perfectly well why. You have got me--do you know it?

From the very first minute I ever saw you.”

She smiled up at him, and shook her head.

”You make love beautifully,” she heard herself saying coolly. ”But you really shouldn't make it to your host's fiancee in his house. It isn't done.”

”Don't you suppose I know that?” answered Clarence tempestuously.

”Joy Havenith, do you mean to say that you think I'm doing the ordinary love-making one does in any conservatory?”

She smiled a little. He was more like the Clarence she usually knew, and she did not take it at all seriously.

”Why, you do it better than most,” she said. ”Go on. I like it.”

If there was one thing she knew well, it was Clarence's love-making.

Indeed, she had come to the point where Clarence's remarks scarcely const.i.tuted love-making at all in her eyes. They were merely his kind of manners, and she was a little tired of them.

”Good heavens! How on earth am I going to convince you?” she heard him say, with a little surprise. This was not the kind of thing he said ordinarily. ”Joy, I fell in love with you, the real kind of love, the first night I saw you. You've known it all along. I wish you'd stop pretending not to--I'm getting tired of it. I want to marry you--I'd marry you tonight if you said the word. I'll come over and get you tomorrow and marry you if you'll let me. I don't suppose you will. But I do expect to keep on at you till you do....

Good heaven, child, haven't you seen I was in earnest?” he broke off at the expression of her wide-open eyes.

Joy believed in love at first sight, as she had every personal reason to, but in spite of Clarence's intensity she was not quite convinced. She looked up at him. He was white, and his mouth was tense. And he was holding her like a vise. He was in earnest.

”Maybe--maybe you think you do mean it now.” she said breathlessly.