"Why, Patty?"
"'Cause it would probably turn out to be a practical joke."
"Joke nothing! The regard I have for you, Miss Poppycheek Fairfield, is too everlasting real to have any joke about it!"
"And the friendship I have for you, Mr. Kit Cameron, is so nice and real, that I'm going to keep it up."
Patty knew from the undertones of Kit's voice that he was very much in earnest, and as she felt no interest in him beyond that of a good friend, she shrank from wounding his feelings by letting him go on further. And so she determinedly led the conversation further and further away from personal matters, and soon she gaily declared that it was getting too late for moonlight chat and she was going in the house.
Kit followed her in, and though he showed in no way the appearance of a rejected suitor, he was quieter than usual and less inclined to merriment. "He'll get over it," said Patty to herself, after she reached her room that night. "I s'pose all girls have to go through with these scenes, sooner or later. But I didn't mind Kit so much, because he was nice and sensible about it."
Then Daisy came in for a kimono confab, and perched herself on the edge of Patty's bed.
"What's the matter between you and Bill Farnsworth, Patty?" she asked without prelude of any sort.
"Nothing," said Patty, as she took the hairpins from a long shining strand of hair.
"There is, too. He asked me why you were so cool to him."