He looked to see if that special girl was there and got an impression that she was at the table behind them--then he forgot her and invented a rigmarole and tried to make his party have a good time.
That's really what I get joy from, is knowing even if I can't make bedtime something you look forward to, that you don't dread it, that I take a little bit of the rigmarole out of it, that I drain the balloon of seriousness.