"'Gentle' is good!" laughed Mona. "Little Billy is about six feet eight and weighs a ton."
"That doesn't frighten me," declared Patty, calmly. "I've seen bigger men than that, if it was in a circus! Skip along, girls, but come back soon. I think this house party is too much given to staying in the house. Are you for a dip in the ocean before dinner, Mr. Cromer?"
"No; not if I may sit here with you instead."
"Oh, Aunt Adelaide and I are delighted to keep you here. All the guests seem to run away from me. I know not why!"
Naughty Patty drew a mournful sigh, and looked as if she had lost her last friend, which look, on her pretty, saucy face, was very fetching indeed.
"I'll never run away from you!" declared Mr. Cromer, in so earnest a tone that Patty laughed.
"You'd better!" she warned. "I'm so contrary minded by nature that the more people run away from me the better I like them."
"Ah," said Laurence Cromer, gravely; "then I shall start at once. Mrs.
Parsons, will you not go for a stroll with me round the gardens?"
Aunt Adelaide rose with alacrity, and willingly started off with the young artist, who gave not another glance in Patty's direction.
"H'm," said Patty to herself, as the pair walked away. "H'm! I rather like that young man! He has some go to him." She laughed aloud at her own involuntary joke, and stood, watching Aunt Adelaide's mincing steps, as she tripped along the garden path.