“But I shall be in Washington,” blurted Patsy. “Oh, no—of course, I forgot.” The blue shoulders sagged a bit forlornly as they turned again to solitaires. “I shall be very glad to help Dorry all I can,” finished Patsy, stiffly. “What do you think of this platinum one, Timothy?”
Timothy straightened his glasses to a critical focus. “Very nice—the claws are so thin and fine—like those in the pin Warren gave you when the Angel was born. I was always fond of that pin.” Timothy was talking mostly to himself as he squinted closer at the solitaire. “I remember Warren’s face when he went in to give it to you—‘’Tisn’t half good enough,’ he said. And it didn’t seem to me then that it was, either.”
Patsy was staring at a case of watches—staring hard and with her back to Timothy. Surreptitiously she got out her handkerchief.
“Then you’ll lay that one aside,” she suggested, lightly, though still with her back turned. “And the flat one—Doromea might like that, it’s so—so awfully subtle, you know. And Dorry always——”
“But not now,” corrected Timothy, gently. “She has advanced to the infinite subtlety of forgetting that there is such a thing. I think we won’t consider the flat one. What are you looking at over there, Pats?”
“Rattles,” replied Patsy, in a strangled voice. “Warren promised to come in and get one with me for the Angel’s seventh birthday—seventh-month birthday, you know. We bought his six-months one—that’s next Sunday—three weeks ago!” The handkerchief went up to Patsy’s impudent little nose, and blew it hard. “If it only wasn’t for Warren’s mother—” she scolded, sotto voce, so that the clerk should not hear—“you know, Timothy, I—but there, what’s the use in telling you? You wouldn’t understand.”
“I might—though I do write things,” encouraged Timothy. “Why not try me? We can pretend to be comparing rings over by the window.”
“All right.” Patsy gave a deep sigh. “You see, this is the way it is. When—when I married Warren I was in love with him—I really was, Timothy.”
“I remember you were,” said Timothy, gravely.
“Yes. And of course I was awfully young—awfully young; though, to be sure, I’m twenty-one now; I didn’t want to get married, you know——”