“Oh, Billee-ee-ee——”
“I’m sorry, dear, but I must disappoint you. My employers expect me in Boston tomorrow night, and I must not fail them.”
“Well, can’t we stay here, even if you go away? Jim and Adele could manage things, and we don’t want servants. We could sort of camp out. I’m a good cook, and we’d have a lovely time.”
Farnsworth considered. He looked far off and his fine brows knit as he thought over Patty’s request. She looked at him and noted the cloud that came over his blue eyes as he turned to her, and said: “No, Apple Blossom, it can’t be done. This place is a trust to me, in a way, and I’m responsible. I may not leave it to others. And I cannot remain myself. So there’s no help for it, I must refuse you.”
There was an air of finality about Bill’s tones that told Patty there was no use in further coaxing.
“What’s the matter, Patty?” he went on. “It isn’t like you to tease so. I wish with all my heart I could give you what you ask, it hurts me worse than you know to refuse you anything. But I wouldn’t be worthy of the trust reposed in me, if I failed in my duty.”
“I hate duty,” said Patty, petulantly; “it’s a regular nuisance!”
“Gently, little girl, gently. What has happened to stir you up so? It’s more than this ungratified whim of not staying here longer.”
“What makes you think that?”
“I don’t think, I know it. Why, Patty dear, I know every expression of your flower face, every look in your blue eyes, every droop of your sensitive mouth. And now it’s drooping like a—like a, well, more like a perverse baby than anything else.”