“Oh, Little Billee, how did you know that was the way it happened?”
“Why, it couldn’t happen any other way. You promised me you wouldn’t, and so you must have been coerced or tricked into it.”
“Just what I was!” and Patty described the whole performance.
Farnsworth shuddered as she told of her hair getting caught in the piston, and drew her closely to him.
“Oh, my darling,—my blessed little girl, how can I go off and leave you? In these times nobody is safe from dangers! But you’ll never even run such a chance again, will you?”
“Of course not. I’ve had my lesson!”
“And a severe one. Why, the shock might have made you ill.”
“It did, nearly. But I had to stay on deck till I could see you, and tell you about it. And then, I didn’t have to tell you! You knew yourself! How did you understand so perfectly and so quickly?”
“Patty, you and I are—well, I can’t think of the perfect English word. The French would say en rapport, the Italians would say simpatica. But we are—at one, is perhaps the best phrase. We shall always be so. It’s utter trust, you know, and absolute faith in each other. Isn’t it, my girl?”
“Yes, dear,” and Patty laid her hand caressingly on the khaki-clad shoulder of the big man, as she gave him a smile of perfect confidence. “Oh, my Little Billee, I don’t want you to go away from me. I’ve just begun to realise what losing you will mean to me.”