"And we'll stand by Annis. Come—you do like us a little, do you not?"
He put both hands on her shoulders and smiled in a very winsome manner.
"Of course she does." Patty stooped and kissed her. "You must not mind Rene when she gets in a temper. See, there's Jacky and I, two girls on your side, and Louis and Charles, I am quite sure. Don't you know Jack told you we were always taking sides?"
"But—what will—Rene do?"
The tone was so half-reluctant, pity fighting against inclination, that Louis could not forbear smiling while he hugged her to his heart.
"Rene must be punished. It isn't the first time she has been snappy, Louis. She quarreled with Charles the other day because—"
Patty finished the sentence with raising her brows and making very big eyes.
"Because," said Annis in a low tone, "he was reading to me and would not leave his book to go and play."
Annis looked very pretty with her downcast eyes and the softened truth in her tone.
"Charles was a gentleman. All Virginia boys should be. And now, little Annis, isn't it all made up? You will not want to go away?"