Evelyn for one minute, and look at me, or I shall bust into tears and stick a fork into you."
"Is she engaged to him?"
"Oh, Lord! Have you a few millions?"
"Not so you'd notice it."
"Then put Evelyn out of your little head. Anyway, she's being taken abroad in a few minutes by Mrs. Prather, so it's too late to get excited."
"Taken?"
"Yes, Marmalade travels with her little retinue—Harry and another maid, and Mrs. Thorne and Evelyn. She can afford them. Look at the diamonds! Like a frosty morning."
The dancing ended and Ralph brought Evelyn back to her place. Joe looked at her, slim in her silver sheath. She oughtn't to be going abroad with those people.
She smiled at him. She couldn't help it. There was something about him that enchanted her. A cold clear air from the forest and the sea blew into the hot exhausting room.
"Aren't you going to dance with me at all?"
He gazed back at her with round blue eyes, adoring, but necessarily silent, for he was eating watercress, and the stems were unexpectedly long and intertwined. He was like a marble statue in a Southern garden, sprouting with maidenhair. She began to laugh.
"Come along! Come along!"
Through the music wild flowers bloomed under the
