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Page 19
Then, supper over, he escorted the chaperon from the table,
talking to her in low tones.
"I hope I didn't bother you," he said. "You see, I know all about
it, and I think it's fine of you to help the girls out in this
way."
"You helped me far more than you bothered me, sir," Susan replied
with a grateful glance. "Will it soon be over now, sir?"
"Well, they'll have a few more dances, and probably they'll sing a
little. They'll go home before midnight. But, I say, Mrs.
Hastings, I won't let 'em trouble you. You sit in this cosy
corner, and if you'll take my advice, you'll nod a bit now and
then,--but don't go really to sleep. Then they'll let you alone."
Susan followed this good counsel, and holding her knitting
carelessly in her lap, she sat quietly, now and then nodding, and
opening her eyes with a slight start. The poor woman was really
most uncomfortable, but Patty had ordered this performance and she
would have done her best had the task been twice as hard.
"You were a villain to tease poor Susan so at the table," said
Patty to Jack, as they sauntered on the veranda between dances.
"She came through with flying colours," he replied, laughing at
the recollection.
"Yes, but it was mean of you to fluster the poor thing."
"Don't you know why I did it?"
"To tease me, I suppose," and Patty drew down the corners of her
mouth and looked like a much injured damsel.
"Yes; but, incidentally, to see that pinky colour spread all over
your cheeks. It makes you look like a wild rose."
"Does it?" said Patty, lightly. "And what do I look like at other
times? A tame rose?"
"No; a primrose. Very prim, sometimes."
"I have to be very prim when I'm with you," and Patty glanced
saucily from beneath her long lashes; "you're so inclined to--"
"To what?"
"To friskiness. I NEVER know what you're going to do next."
"Isn't it nicer to be surprised?"
"Well,--that depends. It is if they're nice surprises."
"Oh, mine always are! I'm going to surprise you a lot of times
this summer. Are you to be here, at Mona's, all the rest of the
season?"
"I shall be here two months, anyway."
"That's time enough for a heap of surprises. Just you wait! But,--
I say,--I suppose--oh, pshaw, I know this sounds horrid, but I've
got to say it. I suppose everything you're invited to, Mona must
be also?"
Patty's eyes blazed at what she considered a very rude
implication.
"Not necessarily," she said, coldly. "You are quite at liberty to
invite whom you choose. Of course, I shall accept no invitations
that do not include Mona."
"Quite right, my child, quite right! Just what I was thinking
myself."
Patty knew he was only trying to make up for his rudeness, and she
looked at him severely. "You ought to be ashamed of yourself," she
said.
"I am! Oh, I AM! deeply, darkly, desperately ashamed. But I've
succeeded in making your cheeks turn that peculiar shade of brick-
red again!"
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