“How are you, Christine?” asked Patty, looking anxiously at the girl’s pale cheeks.
“Oh, I’m all right. A little tired, but a day or two down here will set me up wonderfully, I know.”
“A day or two! You must stay a week, at least.”
“No, I can’t possibly, Patty. My work is very important just now, and I must go back day after to-morrow.”
“We’ll see about that;” and Patty wagged her head, positively. “And look here, Christine, while I have you by yourself, I want to tell you something. Elise Farrington is here, you know, and she has a silly notion of some sort that makes her resent my friendship for you. Now I want to ask you, as a special favour to me, not to pay any attention to her foolishness. If she snubs you right out, I’ll attend to her case myself; but, if she just flings little bits of hateful allusions at you, don’t mind them, will you, dear?”
“I can’t help it, Patty. Unkind speeches shrivel me all up somehow; I just can’t stand them!”
“Well, stand them for my sake, please. You know I can’t help it, and, if I had thought you wouldn’t have a good time, I wouldn’t have asked you here when Elise is here. But, you see, it’s my birthday house party, and I want all of my dearest friends with me.”
“And you count me among them? Oh, Patty, how good you are to me! Truly, I will try not to be foolishly sensitive, and I promise not to notice anything Elise may do or say, if I can possibly help it.”
“That’s a good girl,” said Patty, giving Christine’s arm a little squeeze. “But isn’t it funny, Christine, that I have these little petty troubles among my girl friends, and never among my boy friends. The boys are all so nice to me, and they never get jealous of each other or anything silly like that. But you see this place we’re just passing? It’s called ‘Red Chimneys,’ and I have a girl friend in there,—at least, she’s an acquaintance,—who makes me a lot of trouble, too.”
“I don’t make you trouble, Patty, do I?”