It was still sealed. Why would he think she had opened it? Oh, well, she thought, something has made him think so. I must write him at once that I didn’t. He’ll believe me, of course. I know his faith and trust, and they are not misplaced, that’s certain!
So, a letter was quickly written and despatched telling the Captain that his aid and helper in New York had not been false to her trust in the minutest particular.
But Patty was still puzzled and gave much thought to the matter.
When Van Reypen came to say good-bye on the eve of his departure for camp, he found a quiet and worried little girl, who received him with but a slight smile.
“Well, my Lady Fair, you look as if you’d lost your last friend,—or, perhaps, as if you were about to lose him! May I take this general air of gloom as a tribute to my regrettable absence? Is it just ’cause you’re going to lose your little old friend that you look so disconsolate?”
“No, sir! it isn’t! In the first place, I don’t look sad, and in the second place, if I do, it isn’t because I’m doing any ‘Leah, the forsaken,’ act! I shall miss you, of course, but in these days we must learn to miss people!”
“That’s true, Patty, and have you any idea,—any faint glimmering of a notion, how I shall miss you?”
“Phil, I know all grades of missing! I’m no novice at it. Since this war called them, I’ve missed acquaintances, casual friends, old friends, relatives, and, of course, most of all, my own Little Billee. Now, I shall miss you,—and I know you’ll miss me,—but, you’ll soon get so interested in your work—in the great game,—that you’ll—oh, not forget me, I’m sure,—but my memory will become, let us say, a little blurred.”
“Indeed it won’t! But, hold on here, if it isn’t my departure, what is it that has made your countenance sicklied o’er with a pale cast of—something or other?”
“Rice powder, probably! Does it really make me look sickly? Good gracious!” Patty scrubbed at her cheeks with her handkerchief, until they were rosy indeed.