"Ah, I thought so."
"How did you know? I mean, why did you think so?"
"By your heightened colour and your generally wrought-up condition.
Why, your heart isn't beating normally yet."
Patty looked up at him, indignantly, but his blue eyes were very kind and his smile gentle and even concerned.
"What was it about, Patty? Who has been tormenting you?"
"Nobody tormented me, exactly, but they criticise me and they say mean things about my friends——"
"Never let them do that! Your friends must be sacred to you,—I mean from adverse criticism of others."
"That's what I think, Little Billee. What shall I do, when everybody ridicules them and calls them names?"
"Just what I am sure you did do. Flare up like a wrathy kitten and helplessly paw the air."
"Of course that's what I did," and Patty laughed at the graphic description, "but it didn't seem to do much good."