“My father,” said Patty. “I’ve been promising to join him all summer, but somehow I didn’t get off, and now he suddenly says we’re all to go home.”
“All?”
“Yes, father and Nan and me. Nan’s my dear little stepmother. She’s the sweetest thing,—I just love her. I’m really crazy to see them both again, but I don’t want to go back to New York quite yet. I’ll soon get used to the idea, but coming just now, it’s a disappointment.”
“It is to me, I assure you. Why, we’re just beginning to be friends.”
“Yes, I shall always remember you pleasantly.”
Patty was really thinking of something else, and said this so perfunctorily that Floyd Austin drawled out:
“Having made a polite speech, the young lady promptly forgot the very presence of the gentleman who was addressing her.”
“Nonsense,” said Patty laughing; “there, I’ll put this rather disturbing telegram away for the present, and devote my attention entirely to you!”
“Heaven be praised!” murmured Austin, rolling his melancholy eyes toward the ceiling. “But oughtn’t you to answer it? You know the henchman awaiteth.”