"I don't think you ought to go until Frank has got himself
together," said Sylvia. "Frank, can you sort your cards now?" 

"Virginia!" commanded Sallie Ann, imperiously. "Come!" 

Mrs. Witherspoon rose, and so did Sylvia. "We can't stay here
alone," said she. "Frank, will you take Mrs. Witherspoon in?" And
she gently but firmly took Mrs. Armistead's arm, and so they marched
back into the drawing-room. 

Dolly and Emma had progressed to separate tables, it developed, so
that the ordeal of Frank and Sylvia was over. Through the remainder
of the evening Sylvia chatted and played, and later partook of
refreshments with Malcolm McCallum, and mildly teased that
inconsolable bachelor, quite as in the old days. Now and then she
stole a glance at Frank Shirley, and saw that he was holding up his
end; but he kept away from her, and she never even caught his eye. 

At last the company broke up, and Sylvia thanked her hostess for a
most enjoyable evening. She stepped into the motor with Celeste, and
sat with compressed lips, answering in monosyllables her "little
sister's" flood of excited questions--"Oh, Sylvia, didn't you feel
perfectly _terrible?_ Oh, sister, I felt _thrills_ running up and
down my back! Sister, what _did_ you say to him? Sister, do you know
old Mr. Perkins kept leaning over me and asking what was happening;
and how could I shout into his deaf ear that everybody was stopping
to hear what you were saying to Frank Shirley?" 

At the end of the ride, there was Aunt Varina waiting up as
usual--to renew her own youth in the story of the evening, what this
person had worn and what that person had said. But Sylvia left her
sister to tell the story, and fled to her room and locked the door,
and flung herself upon the bed and gave way to a torrent of weeping.

Half an hour later Celeste went up, and finding that the door
between her room and Sylvia's was unlocked, opened it softly, and
stood listening. Finally she stole to her sister's side and put her
arm about her. "Never mind, sister dear," she whispered, solemnly,
"I know how it is! We women all have to suffer!"