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Page 20
"They aren't brick-red!"
"No? Well, a sort of crushed strawberry shading to magenta, then!"
Patty laughed, in spite of herself, and Jack smiled back at her.
"Am I forguv?" he asked, in a wheedling voice.
"On condition that you'll be particularly nice to Mona all summer.
And it's not much to your credit that I have to ASK such a thing
of you!"
"You're right, Patty," and Jack looked honestly penitent. "I'm a
good-for-nothing brute! A boor without any manners at all! Not a
manner to my name! But if you'll smile upon me, and let me,--er--
surprise you once in a while, I'll,--oh, I'll just tie myself to
Mona's apron strings!"
"Mona doesn't wear aprons!"
"No, I know it," returned Jack, coolly, and they both laughed.
But Patty knew she had already gained one friend for Mona, for
heretofore, Jack Pennington had ignored the girl's existence.
"What are you doing to-morrow, Patty?" asked Dorothy Dennison, as
she and Guy Martin came up to the corner where Patty and Jack were
sitting. It was a pleasant nook, a sort of balcony built out from
the main veranda, and draped with a few clustering vines. The
veranda was lighted with Japanese lanterns, whose gayer glow was
looked down upon by the silvery full moon.
"We're going to the Sayres' garden party,--Mona and I," said
Patty.
"Oh, good gracious!" rejoined Dorothy. "I suppose Mona will have
to be asked everywhere, now you're staying with her!"
"Not to YOUR parties, Dorothy, for I'm sure neither of us would
care to come!"
It was rarely that Patty spoke crossly to any one, and still more
rarely that she flung out such a bitter speech as that; but she
was getting tired of combating the prevalent attitude of the young
people toward Mona, and though she had determined to overcome it,
she began to think it meant real warfare. Dorothy looked perfectly
amazed. She had never heard gentle, merry Patty speak like that
before.
Guy Martin looked uncomfortable, and Jack Pennington shook with
laughter.
"Them cheeks is now a deep solferino colour," he observed, and
Patty's flushed face had to break into smiles.
"Forgive me, Dorothy," she said; "I didn't mean what I said, and
neither did you. Let's forget it."
Glad of this easy escape from a difficult situation, Dorothy broke
into a merry stream of chatter about other things, and the
quartette were soon laughing gaily.
"You managed that beautifully, Patty," said Jack, as a little
later, they returned to the house for the last dance. "You showed
fine tact."
"What! In speaking so rudely to Dorothy?"
"Well, in getting out of it so adroitly afterward. And she had her
lesson. She won't slight Mona, I fancy. Look here, Patty. You're a
brick, to stand up for that girl the way you do, and I want to
tell you that I'll help you all I can."
"Oh, Jack, that's awfully good of you. Not but what I think you
OUGHT to be kind and polite to her, but of course you haven't the
same reason that I have. I'm her guest, and so I can't stand for
any slight or unkindness to her."
"No, of course not. And there are lots of ways that I can--"
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