"Here you go!" he said, laughing at her surprised face. "One,—two—"
"Mr. Farnsworth!" exclaimed a shocked voice, and Aunt Adelaide came hastening toward them.
Bill set Patty down, not hastily, but very deliberately, and then said, with an anxious air:
"How did it go, Mrs. Parsons? We're practising for our great scene in the Pageant—the Spirit of the Sea, tossed by old Father Neptune. I do my part all right, but Miss Fairfield needs more practice, don't you think so?"
Aunt Adelaide looked scrutinisingly at the young man, but his expression was so earnest that she couldn't doubt him.
"Patty looked scared to death," she said, with reminiscent criticism.
"Oughtn't she to look more gay and careless?"
"She certainly ought," assented Bill. "Will you try the scene once more, Miss Fairfield, with Mrs. Parsons for audience?"
"I will not!" exclaimed Patty, and trying hard to repress her giggles, she fled back through her window, and drew the curtains.
"I didn't know you were to have acting on the floats," said Aunt
Adelaide, innocently.
"I'm not sure that we shall," returned Farnsworth, easily. "I had a notion it would be effective, but perhaps not. Do you know where Miss Dow is, by any chance?"