“I don’t!” and Patty’s smile and blush showed plainly where her heart had been given.
Phil winced, but he said, blithely, “Very good, my lady. There’s no use being too down-hearted about it all. Give me my chance,—that’s all I ask.”
“But, Phil, the time for your ‘chance’ as you call it, is past. I’m engaged to Little Billee;—to me that’s as sacred, as unbreakable a promise, as my marriage vows will be.”
“Oh, no, it isn’t! Lots of people break off an engagement.”
Philip’s lightness annoyed Patty, and her mood changed.
“Well, then,” she said, “if you can so bewitch me that I want to break my engagement to Bill Farnsworth, I’ll do it, but you’ve about as much chance as—as nothing at all!”
“I’ll make a chance! Oh, Patty, don’t forget you said that! Don’t forget you said if I can win you away from him, I may do so! Listen, dear. I’m not over conceited, or vain, but I do think that you don’t quite know your own mind, and you’re a little bit dazzled by Bill’s big masterfulness and you don’t realise that perhaps there are other things worth while.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I’ll stick to my word. And I’ll add that I know you never can cut Bill out, because I love him too much. So, there now!”
“Maybe I can’t, maybe you’re right, but I’ll have a go at it, all the same.”
“Of course, you know, I’ll tell him of this conversation.”