"Fine! You'll do a rushing business. I'll give you some wares to sell up there, too. Say, some Oriental couch cushions, and some Persian slippers, and things from Auntie's wardrobe."
"Do you think you ought to?"
"Why, of course. All her things are mine, and there are such quantities of really valuable stuffs and trinkets I don't know what to do with them. And as to Aunty Van's own wishes, I know she would have been glad to have them used in this way,—especially for you."
Patty looked up at him, quickly. She well remembered Mrs. Van Reypen's affection for her, and what form it took.
"Phil," she said, "I don't want you to give these things for my sake——"
"Now, don't you worry, Curlyhead, I give them solely and wholly for the good of the cause. Indeed, if you weren't connected with the affair, I'd give twice as many!"
Philip's smile contradicted this awful taradiddle, and Patty rejoiced at his nonsense. Much as she wanted his gifts for the Sale, she didn't want to feel that it placed her under special obligations to him.
Just then the doorbell sounded, and in a moment Daisy Dow and Bill Farnsworth appeared. They were in gay spirits, having been to see a new comic opera, which proved such a bore that they left before it was over.
"Such rubbish!" Daisy exclaimed. "Old jokes, old music, old dances.
So I proposed we leave it to its fate and run up here. Glad to see us,
Patty?"
"Yes, indeed! Just listen while I tell you of all the things I've wheedled out of Philip for our Sale."