“Your tone belies your words; what do you mean, Lieutenant?”
Patty’s eyes gave an ominous flash that her friends all knew indicated serious indignation, but Herron answered lightly, “Oh, nothing, really. I only happened to hear from a friend, of Farnsworth’s infatuation for a little dark-eyed beauty down in Washington.”
Patty looked at him, amusedly.
“If you’re teasing me, your jest is in poor taste, Lieutenant Herron. If you’re in earnest, I refuse to listen to you.”
“There, there, don’t get huffy! I didn’t mean to stir you up! I only heard rumours,—doubtless there’s nothing in them.”
“Doubtless there isn’t,—and, also, doubtless it doesn’t concern you, if there is!”
Patty was thoroughly angry at the man’s impertinence, but she did not want to do anything so conspicuous as to get up and leave the dining-room, where many small tables were occupied by a merry crowd of guests.
“Not at all! not at all! yet, I can’t regret my words, since they have given me an opportunity of seeing you when you are ruffled! Prettier than ever! How blue eyes can flash!”
Suddenly Patty felt a fear of this man. He did not seem to ring true. But her quick-wittedness made her realise that to continue angry, was to make him more amused and interested, so she changed her tactics.
“Any girl’s eyes would flash at your insinuations,” she said, with a sudden bright smile.