"Larry, you'll stay with Mr. Dalton and help preserve order! Gilbert can accompany us."
"Oh, if I must," shrugging his shoulders. "But I feel that a motion for all to adjourn would be in order; don't you, Dalton?"
"All right! We'll clear the rooms in no time."
Joyce stopped him with an uplifted hand.
"They must go when and as they choose. It is their party. Please don't interfere in the least. Come Madame, we can slip out unnoticed. Nobody needs us here."
The two stepped briskly on, and Dalton, watching Joyce, shook his head ruefully, then turned to Larry.
"It's too bad she's just as she is. It means a lot of heartbreaks and disappointments. Pity women can't take the world as it is."
"Well, perhaps—provided they don't leave it as it is. I am inclined to believe it's that kind of woman who is responsible for the fact that the world does grow better as the centuries pass. And those who know Joyce Lavillotte would scarcely care to change her."
"No, no; nor I! It was of herself I was thinking. She's got to suffer so. One hates to see a person take a cloud for something tangible and keep falling off, to be bruised and beaten. If she could always soar—but the falls will come."
He sighed, and Larry laughed.