d hour
while I'm young. I can live only once, and so I shall make life spin
whatever way I want it to go. If I can get anybody to pay my whack,
good. If not, I'll pay it myself--whatever it costs. My motto's going
to be a good time as long as I can get it, and who cares for the price?"

The boy followed her to the window, and the moonlight fell upon them
both. "Yes," he said, "you'll get a bill, all right. How did you know
that?"

"I haven't lived with all those old people so long for nothing," she
answered. "But you won't catch me grumbling if I get half as much as
I'm going out for. Listen to my creed, Martin, and take notes, if you
want to keep up with me."

"Go ahead," he said, watching the sparkle in her eyes.

She squared her shoulders and folded her arms in a half-defiant way. "I
shall open the door of every known Blue Room--hurrying out again if
there are ugly things inside, staying to enjoy them if they're good to
look at. I shall taste a little of every known bottle, feel everything
there is to feel except the thing that hurts, laugh with any one whose
laugh is catching, do everything there is to do, go into every booth in
the big Bazaar; and when I'm tired out and there's nothing left, I
shall slip out of the endless procession with a thousand things stored
away in my memory. Isn't that the way to live?"

From the superior height of twenty-four, Martin looked down on Joan
indulgently. He didn't take her frank and unblushing individualism
seriously. She was just a kid, he told himself. She was a girl who had
been caged up and held in. It was natural for her to say all those wild
things. She would alter her point of view as soon as the first surprise
of being free had worn off--and then he would speak; then he would ask
her to throw in her lot with his and walk in step with him along the
street of adventure.

"I sha'n't see the sun rise on this great day," she said, letting a
yawn have full play. "I'm sleepy, Marty. I must lie down this very
instant, even if the floor's the only place you can offer me. Quick!
What else is there?" Before he could answer, she had caught sight of a
low, long, enticing divan, and onto this, with a gurgle of pleasure,
she made a dive, placed two cushions for her head, put one little hand
under her face, snuggled into an attitude of perfect comfort and
deliberately went to sleep. It was masterly.

Martin, not believing that she could turn off so suddenly at a complete
tangen