“Shan’t! They know you’re mine, and I’ve a perfect right to have my arm round you!”
“But—it isn’t done! It isn’t conventional!”
“I make my own conventions! Hello, Bumble! How d’you do, Mrs. Fairfield? Excuse this small parcel I hold in my left arm, but I can’t let go of it.”
Farnsworth’s bonny smile was so glad and gay that Nan smiled in sympathy.
“All right,” she said, “don’t mind us.”
“We don’t,” said Patty, and she cuddled contentedly in Big Bill’s outstretched arm, as they returned to the sofa.
“You see,” Farnsworth explained, “I’ve had the dickens of a time to get away at all, and everything interfered and detained me. I can only stay a few hours,——”
“What!” cried Patty, “you’re going right back? Tonight?”
“Yes, dear; I’m on a big mission,—two big missions, in fact, one connected with my country and one with my sweetheart. I try not to let them get mixed up,—but it’s difficult to give undivided attention to either.”
“What’d you come for,” demanded Patty, “if you have to go right away again?”