"You aren't my guest, you are Clover's."
"Clover is a daisy and always was," exclaimed Jack, regardless of paradox. "She is the sweetest girl in the world."
"Of course," returned Mildred, raising a glass of water to her lips as coolly as though she liked this.
"I ought to have gone with you that first evening," said Van Tassel gloomily.
Mildred set down her glass and looked at the speaker with an unfathomable expression as she spoke slowly:—
"'There is a tide in the affairs of men
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to'"—
"Would it, Mildred?" Jack broke in with a sort of earnest excitement. "Would it have led on to fortune?"
The girl colored under the glowing gaze.
"If I had gone with you, would you have had fewer engagements and more time for me since then?"
"How can I tell?" she returned, with a low laugh of enjoyment. Jack was fairly dramatic. He was really entertaining.