Suddenly Patty realised that he thought she was a giddy girl who would love the lark as he planned it, and who was only kept from giving consent by a foolish promise. He had no idea her promise was to her a sacred rite, and to break it was her horror. Moreover, he knew nothing of the danger she had been through. When she showed him her clipped lock of hair, he was even more distressed than she.
“Oh, I am so sorry! Can you ever forgive me! What pluck! Miss Fairfield, you are a heroine!”
And indeed Patty was. She was praised and exploited and complimented on her bravery and cleverness until she was positively embarrassed.
And the Lieutenant told her that if Captain Farnsworth had any punishment in store for him, he would submit to it without a murmur.
“But,” he grinned, “it’s something to tell of all my life! Cut off her hair on the fly! Gee whiz!”
CHAPTER XVIII
PATTY’S WEDDING
“And I went up in an aeroplane,” Patty said, looking squarely into Bill’s blue eyes.
They stood in the pretty little drawing-room at Rose Barrett’s. Farnsworth had just come, hastening to see Patty, on her arrival in Washington.
He held Patty’s two hands in his own, and after a deep gaze into the troubled eyes lifted to his, he said:
“Who tricked you into it?”