"My sister told me to tell you you'd better come to our box and apologize. She says you were to take supper with her at some ball or other, and never turned up."
"Oh, gee!" exclaimed Archie, remorsefully, "I forgot it; clean as a whistle!"
"Better come and grovel, then," grinned the other, and passed on.
Joan looked at him in amusement. "Do you mean to say you never took Emily Carmichael out to supper after she had asked you to? What are you going to say to her?"
"That I forgot," said Archie simply. He certainly could not explain that the cause of his forgetfulness was the contretemps of having requested his hostess under a misapprehension to leave her own entertainment!
Joan chuckled. "Well! I'm certainly glad I didn't ask you to have supper with me!"
"I wouldn't have forgotten that," said Archibald.
She looked at him out of the corner of her eyes. It was said neither shyly not gallantly nor boldly, simply as a statement of fact.
Joan was very tired of flirtation just then. She shied away from any hint of the personal like a burnt child in the vicinity of fire. She had no desire for further victims of her bow and spear; but she did want friends. It occurred to her that this frank, tactless, simple young man might do very well in that capacity.
"Take me right back to our box," she commanded, "and go and make your peace with Miss Carmichael! Don't you know you can't afford to antagonize such a power at court?"