“Come Patty, at once.”
“Must you obey him?” asked Miss Kent.
“She must,” said Farnsworth, sternly. “Come, Patty.”
“I must,” said Patty, and with a strange look in her eyes, she rose. “I’ll see you again about this, Maude,” she said.
“She’ll never see you again, about this, or anything else,” Farnsworth declared, and his face was set and his voice hard. “Good day, Miss Kent.”
“Good afternoon, Mr. Farnsworth. Au revoir, Patty.”
The two started home in silence. Patty’s mind was full of conflicting emotions. The idea of going on the stage was so ridiculously unthinkable as to be of no importance, but the fact that she had been asked to do so filled her with a strange pride and satisfaction.
It was after a long time that Farnsworth said, gently, “Patty, you’re so many kinds of a fool.”
“Yes, sir,” and Patty sighed, partly from relief that he wasn’t going to scold and partly because she agreed with him.
“Now you see why I didn’t want you to have anything to do with that Kent woman.”