"Put his arm around me?" demanded Joy, quite honestly surprised. "Why, what do you mean? Oh—the rehearsals! Why—why, John! You and Allan have to put your arms around Gail every little while, and so does everybody else. And I'm supposed to be Strephon's mother. People have to, in theatricals."
"Clarence seems to think so," said John dryly, and Joy turned her head to look at him more closely in the moonlight.
"And now Clarence! Little Philip Harrington does, too, and I suppose you'll be telling me to have him stop next!"
But at the scorn in her voice John only became firmer.
"Gail Maddox is entirely different," he explained. It seemed to Joy that if he had offered her that explanation once he had a hundred times.
"Gail is not different," said Joy firmly. "Anyway, Tiddy is just a baby."
John could not help laughing.
"He's not the only one who is just a baby," he said. "You little goose, he's three or four years older than you ... and heaven knows how much younger than I am." The thought of that, for some strange reason, worked a change in his mind. "Never mind me, little girl. I suppose I'm unreasonable."
"Well, yes, I think you are," said Joy honestly. Then she laughed. It was very comfortable to have John jealous, even if it was silly of him. "All right, John, hereafter I will wear a wire cage whenever I have any scenes with Tiddy."
"Better wear it when you have scenes with Clarence," said John rather sharply. "And let me tell you, a man that will try to steal——"