As the night wore on and he danced more and more with Eleanor, she said: "You really must dance with someone else, Brat."
"I have."
"Only with Peggy Gates."
"So you've been keeping track of me. Am I keeping you from dancing with someone you want to dance with?"
"No. I love dancing with you."
"All right, then."
This was perhaps the first and the last night he would ever dance with Eleanor. A little before midnight they went up together to the buffet, filled their plates, and took them to one of the little tables in the balcony. The buffet was part of the actual hotel building, and the balcony, a piece of Regency ironwork, looked down on the little garden at the side of the hotel. Chinese lanterns hung in the garden and above the tables in the balcony.
"I'm too happy to eat," Eleanor said, and drank her champagne in a dreamy silence. "You look very nice in your evening things, Brat."
"Thank you."
"Do you like my frock?"