“Don’t tease me, Nan. I’m not sure I want to learn.”
“Then don’t! Patty, sometimes you’re perfectly ridiculous!”
“Huh! Just ’cause you happened to get a perfectly splendid man like my father, and didn’t have to think twice, you think everybody can decide in a hurry!”
Nan burst into laughter. “Oh, you are too funny!” she cried, and Patty had to laugh, too.
“I suppose I am,” she said, dolefully, “to you. But to me it doesn’t seem funny a bit.”
“Forgive me, dear,” said Nan, repentantly; “I won’t laugh any more. Tell me about it.”
“It’s that old promise thing. Mrs. Van told Phil I had told her I would learn to love him, and he asked me if I did. And I had to say yes. And of course I couldn’t tell him she made me promise. Now, could I?”
“I don’t know. It is a little serious, Patty, unless, as I said before, unless you want to learn to love him. Do you?”
“I don’t know, but I don’t think so. I wish to goodness he wouldn’t bother me about it!”
“He sha’n’t! Patty, it is a shame for you to be bothered if you don’t want to be. Now, I’ll help you out. I’ll tell Phil, myself, that you’re not well enough yet to be troubled about serious matters, and he must wait till you are. He won’t be angry, I can explain it to him.”