“Out with it,—what’s the trouble?”
“N-nothing.”
“Which, being interpreted, means something pretty awful! Don’t try to fool me, Pattibelle! Have you been flying again?”
“No;” and then Patty gave a long, steady look into Farnsworth’s blue eyes. What she saw there was so reassuring, so absolutely all-powerful to clear away her troubles, that she laughed outright and said:
“Oh, you dear, splendid old thing, you! I’m not worthy of you!”
“That, my child, is the one thing I won’t allow you to say, and unless you retract it, there’ll be grave trouble with tumultuous consequences. Do you take it back?”
“I can’t——”
“You’d better,” and Patty saw from Bill’s smile that unless she did he would indeed bring about some “tumultuous consequences.”
“All right,—I do,” she said, hastily, as he prepared to swoop her into his arms.
“That’s not enough. Say, ‘I am far too good for you.’”