"I'll be still now. Avoid that subject you consider dangerous and tell me all about yourself."
"Well, once upon a time, there was a beautiful young man who rejoiced in the poetic and musical name of Eddie Bell. I know he was a beautiful young man, because he was said to resemble the most beautiful girl in the whole world. Well, one evening he had the supreme good fortune to meet this girl, and he realised at once that he had met his Fate,—his Fate with a VERY large F. Incidentally, the F stood for Fairfield, which made his Fate all the more certain. And so——"
"Patty, are you here?" and Ken Harper came through the palms toward them. "This is our dance."
"Good gracious, Ken, is this dance the next dance? I mean is this dance over, or is this dance our dance."
"You seem a little mixed, Patty, but this is our dance and I claim it.
Are you RESTED enough?"
Patty rose and, with a simple word of excuse to Mr. Bell, went away with Kenneth.
"That's the first time, Ken, in all our friendship that I ever knew you to say anything horrid," and Patty looked at him with a really hurt expression.
"I didn't say anything horrid," and Kenneth's fine face wore a sulky expression.
"You did, too. You asked me if I were RESTED in a horrid, sarcastic tone; and you meant it for a reproof, because I sat out that dance with Mr. Bell."
"You had no business to go and hide behind those palms with him."