“See what Elise gave me,” he remarked, as he showed the bronze paper-knife. “Jolly, isn’t it?”
“Yes, indeed,” returned Patty, relieved to see that Elise had not given him the ring after all. “It’ll be fine to cut your briefs when you’re a real out-and-out lawyer. What are briefs, anyway?”
“Little girls shouldn’t use words of which they don’t know the meaning,” said Kenneth, reprovingly.
“Well, anyway, if they’re brief enough, they won’t need cutting,” returned Patty, saucily, and then returned to the opening of her own presents.
She had pretty little gifts from Hilda Henderson, Lorraine Hamilton, Clementine Morse, and many of the other girls, some of whom she had not seen since her return to New York.
“Isn’t it lovely to have so many friends?” said she, looking over her pile of gifts at Kenneth.
“Do you love them all?” he asked, smiling back at her happy face.
“Oh, indeed I do. Not exactly because they’ve given me all these pretty things, for I love the girls just as much in the summer time as at Christmas. But because they’re my friends, and so,—I love them.”
“Boys are your friends, too,” suggested Kenneth.
“Of course they are!” Patty agreed; “and I love them, too. I guess I love everybody.”