“And Farnsworth wouldn’t have me?”
“Well,—I said not to have you.”
“Oh, you did! What a nice friend you are!”
“Now, Phil, don’t talk like that. I said—I said——”
“Bless your heart, I know just how it was. Or nearly. But you could have had me asked—and you didn’t! Now, my lady, just for that, I am going to Poland Spring—start tomorrow. And,—listen, now,—if you really don’t want me to come over to the Farnsworth House, then you must come over to the Poland Spring House to see me! Get that?”
“Why, Phil, absurd! How could I go alone?”
“You needn’t come alone. Bring a chaperon, or another girl or a crowd of people if you like, or even a servant, but come! That’s all, so good-night, little girl. Pleasant dreams!”
The telephone clicked as Phil hung up, and with a little gasp, Patty hung up her receiver and threw herself on a couch to think it over. She couldn’t help laughing at the coil she was in, for she well knew she couldn’t go to Poland Spring House, unless with the whole crowd,—or nearly all of them. She pictured Bill reaching there to be greeted by Philip Van Reypen! Dear old Bill; after all he had done to make it pleasant for them, to hurt his feelings or to annoy him in any way, would be mean. She wished Phil had kept out of it. She wished there wasn’t any Phil nor any Little Billee, nor—nor—anybody,—and somehow Patty’s long, brown lashes drooped over her pansy blue eyes,—and, still robed in her chiffon and lace peignoir, and all curled up on the soft, spacious couch,—she fell sound asleep.
CHAPTER IV
BLUE ROCK LAKE