"Fortune tellers are never interesting. They just make up a lot of stuff with no sense to it."
"But lots of things with no sense to them are interesting," laughed Patty. "I begin to think, Captain Sayre, that you're blase. I never met any one before who was really blase. Do tell me how it feels."
"Nonsense, child, you're poking fun at me. I'm not blase at all."
Captain Sayre was not more than five or six years older than Patty, but he had the air of a man of the world, while Patty's greatest charm was her simple, unsophisticated manner.
"I wish you were," she said, a little regretfully; "all the boys I know are nice, enthusiastic young people, like myself, and I'd like some one to be different, just for a change."
"Well, I can't. I assure you, I'm both nice and enthusiastic, if not so awfully young."
Patty smiled up at him. "Prove it," she said, gaily.
"All right, I'll prove it by poking an inquisitive nose into every tent on the place. Come on."
They went the rounds of the gay little festival, and so vivacious and entertaining did the captain prove, that Patty confessed frankly that she had misjudged him.
"You're NOT blase," she declared. "I never saw any one less so. If you fight with as much energy as you enjoy yourself you must be a fine soldier indeed!"