“Bill Farnsworth says I’m good-looking enough,” began Patty, slowly, and then she stopped short and changed the subject. She wanted to think it out for herself, before there was any more talk about it. So, if any one recurred to the matter, she quickly spoke of something else, and the evening passed merrily away.
CHAPTER XI
A BUBBLE BURST
One afternoon, about a week later, Philip Van Reypen called at the Fairfields home in New York. Being informed that Patty was out, he asked to see Mrs. Fairfield, and Nan received him in the library.
“So sorry Patty isn’t here,” she said, as she greeted him cordially. “She’ll be sorry, too.”
“Perhaps it’s just as well,” returned Philip. “I’d like a little talk with you. Look here, Mrs. Nan, has Patty said anything to you about going on the stage?”
“Unless you mean a Fifth Avenue stage, she certainly has not,” and Nan smiled at the idea.
“No, don’t laugh, it’s serious. You know I met the crowd coming down from Maine, at Boston, and I was with them one evening. Well, they talked,—jestingly, it’s true,—but they talked about Patty being in light opera some time,——”
“Why, Philip, how perfectly ridiculous! It was entirely a joke, of course.”
“I don’t think so. It seems, as near as I can make out, that Farnsworth put her up to it.”