made his way to Mrs. Witherspoon. "I was so sorry to get here late.
But my other engagements kept me. If I could have dined at two places,
you should have had at least a half of me."

"We wanted the whole. You know Dr. McKenzie, Derry?"

The two men shook hands. "May I dance with your daughter?" Derry said,
smiling.

"Of course. She is up there on the stairs."

Jean saw him coming. Ever since Derry had stood in the door she had
been trying to make up her mind how she would treat him when he came.
Somebody ought to show him that his millions didn't count. She hadn't
thought of his millions last night. If he had been just the shabby boy
of the Toy Shop, she would have liked his eyes just as much, and his
voice!

But a slacker was a slacker! A coward was a coward! All the money in
the world couldn't take away the stain. A man who wouldn't fight at
this moment for the freedom of the world was a renegade! She would
have none of him.

He came on smiling. "Hello, Ralph. Miss McKenzie, your father says
you may dance with me--I hope you have something left?"

The blood sang in her ears, her cheeks burned.

"I haven't anything left--for you--" The emphasis was unmistakable.

[Illustration: "I haven't anything left for you."]

Even then he did not grasp what had happened to him. "Ralph will let
me have one of his--be a good sport, Ralph."

"Well, I like that," Ralph began. Then Jean's crisp voice stopped him.
"I am not going to dance any more--my head aches. I--I shall ask Daddy
to take me--home--"

It was all very young and obvious. Derry gave her a puzzled stare.
Ralph protested. "Oh, look here, Jean. If you think you aren't going
to dance any more with me."

"Well, I'm not. I am going home. Please take me down to Daddy."

It seemed a long time before the blurred good-byes were said, and Jean
was alone with her father in the cozy comfort of the closed car.

"Do you love me, Daddy?"

"My darling, yes."

"May I live with you always--to the end of my days?"

He chuckled. "So that was it? Poor Ralph!"

"You know you are not sorry for him, Daddy. Don't be a hypocrite."

He drew her close to him. "I should be sorry for myself if he took you
from me."

She clung to him. "He is not going to take me away."

"Was that what you were telling him on the balcony stairs?"

"Yes. And he said I was too young to know my own mind. That I was a
sleeping Princess--and some day he would wake