The Wishing-Ring Man Part 38

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.

"If you do--I'm sorry for you. It isn't nice to be in love unless the other person is, too."

"What do you know about it?" he burst out angrily. "You aren't in love with that virtuous citizen of yours, whether or not he is with you. Let him go back to Gail. She's been considering one of her tame cats for a year, and she'd about decided to marry him when you came along and broke it up. You'd sweep any man off his feet. You and I belong together, Joy darling. I'm going to marry you, if you were engaged to the whole College of Surgeons."

"The dance is over," said Joy a little faintly.

"Then come over here where it's quiet. I haven't finished."

"Oh, please no--" cried Joy, freeing herself from his hold eagerly.

This was getting unexpectedly like earnest, and it had been a shock.

She did not want to hear any more about how Clarence felt.

She hurried across the floor without waiting for him, to where Allan and Phyllis were still standing together. They had stolen a dance with each other--they danced together altogether too much for married people, anyway, Mrs. Hewitt said.

The atmosphere of happiness and serenity that was about Phyllis was something Joy could always rest in thankfully. Her own moods alternated so that Phyllis' calmness was an especial comfort.

"I--I'm so tired," she said wistfully. "Couldn't we go soon?"

"I should think we could," said Phyllis willingly, while Allan seconded the motion with joy.

"There's no place like home," he said. "I've been considering the fact that it was getting on for four, and that I have an appointment at ten tomorrow, for a half-hour. Go get your wraps, Phyllis, my darling, and I'll get John, as my share of the bargain. We'll be awaiting you happily in a dark corner of the porch."

Joy wanted to flee from Clarence. And she looked forward happily to being with John on the back seat of the motor, and talking over the evening with him. She would learn, perhaps, just what he had meant when he had seen her last. Her heart beat hard with the excitement of the thought. She was nearly sure--dear wis.h.i.+ng ring!

She slipped off, after speaking to Mrs. Hewitt, and saw Allan and John moving off together to the men's cloak-room.

She sang softly to herself as she put on her cloak. She would be with John again in a moment. He had smiled at her as he pa.s.sed out of sight. What were Clarences and such small things? This was a wonderful world.

She and Phyllis came down the stairs together as un.o.btrusively as they could, so as not to betray to the rest that they were going.

She had forgotten about Gail.

But Gail was the first thing she saw--half-lying on a couch in a dark corner of the hall, holding court with Laura Ward. There were two or three men around them, and they were laughing and talking together. Joy waved her hand as they pa.s.sed, and Gail looked up from her laughter.

"Farewell, my dears, until tomorrow! Good-by, Joy. It was a well-done opera, even if I was sitting in the audience being fiendishly jealous....

Oh, I forgot to tell you that I have learned your dark secret, my child!

I think you're the most ingenious little wretch that ever lived. Till tomorrow! I'm going to give a tea--be prepared!"

She looked at Laura Ward and laughed again.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

THE GIFT OF THE RING

Joy had no idea in the world how she got into the car. John's guiding hand on her arm probably was all that saved her from stumbling into the hedge, or trying to walk up a tree, she thought afterwards. She was on the back seat, finally, with John by her. She laid her head back with a little tired half-moan, and felt John's strong, comforting arm drawing her over so that she could rest against his shoulder.

"You poor little girl, you're all worn out," she heard him say tenderly. "But I was proud of you, little Joy. I didn't know what a wonderful person I had found.... Little fairy princess!"