He seemed perfectly satisfied at first, but the
cousin did not. He wanted Joy all to himself, it appeared, and a
fiance more or less seemed to have no bearing on the case, as far as
he was concerned.
Presently John woke up to this fact and began the effort to
repossess himself of his lawful property. Joy cast a mischievous
glance at Allan, sitting on the arm of his wife's chair (chairs had
become the order of the day), and Allan grinned happily, by some
means telegraphing the situation to Phyllis. Every one was happy
except John, and perhaps Gail, who presently eyed the three and used
her usual weapon of lazy frankness.
"It makes me furious to see both of you making violent love to Joy
Havenith," she said indolently. "Clarence, go start the victrola, my
good man. This must be put a stop to."
Clarence lifted himself from the floor by Joy, but he calmly took
her hand along with him, and raised her, too.
"She's going to christen the floor with me," he informed his cousin.
"Come on, Miss Joy!"
The isolation that ordinarily doth hedge an engaged girl, where men
are concerned, seemed to trouble Clarence not at all. He was, by the
way, in spite of the fact that he would some day be too stout, one
of the best-looking men who ever lived. He had a good deal of his
cousin's lazy assurance--in him it sometimes verged on impudence,
but never beyond the getting-away-with point--and a heavenly smile.
His other name was, unbelievably, Rutherford, which almost took the
curse off the Clarence, as he said, but not quite.
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