"Nonsense, Lord Ruthven," she said, though her cheeks were pink; "don"t talk like that. Please cut me that lovely cl.u.s.ter of roses, and then take me back to Lady Hamilton."
The Earl drew a penknife from his pocket, and cut the flowers she asked for. Then he stood, tr.i.m.m.i.n.g off the thorns, and looking down at her.
Patty had never looked so winsome. Her garb made her seem a grown woman, and yet the situation alarmed her, and her perplexed face was that of a troubled child.
"Tell me," he repeated, "that you like me a little."
"Of course I like you a little," returned Patty, in a matter-of-fact voice. "Why shouldn"t I?"
"That"s something," said the Earl, in a tone of satisfaction, "and now will you accept these flowers as a gift from me? As, for the moment, I"ve nothing else to offer."
Patty took the flowers in both hands, but Lord Ruthven still held them, too, saying: "And will you let them mean----?"
"No," cried Patty, "they don"t mean anything--not anything at all!"
Lord Ruthven clasped Patty"s two hands, roses and all, in his own.
"They do," he said quietly; "they mean I love you. Do you understand?"
He looked straight into the troubled, beseeching eyes that met his own.
"Please let me go, Lord Ruthven--_please!_" said Patty, her hands trembling in his own.
"You may go, if you will first call me by some less formal name. Patty, dearest, say Sylvester--just once!"
This desperate request was too much for Patty"s sense of humour.
"Why can"t I say it twice?" she said in a low tone, but her voice was shaking with laughter.
"You little witch!" exclaimed the Earl, and his clasp tightened on her hands. "Now you shan"t go until you _have_ said it twice!"
"Sylvester--Sylvester--there!" said Patty, her eyes twinkling with fun, and her lips on the verge of laughter. Then, gently disengaging her hands from his, she gathered up her long white train, and prepared to run away.
The Earl laid a detaining hand on her arm. "Miss Fairfield," he said, "Patty, I won"t keep you now, but to-morrow you"ll give me an opportunity, won"t you? to tell you----"
"Wait till to-morrow, my lord," said Patty, really laughing now. "You will probably have changed your mind."
"How little you know me!" he cried, reproachfully, and then they had reached the terrace, and joined the others.
Soon after the guests all retired to their own rooms, and the moonlight on Herenden Hall saw no more the gay scene on the terrace.
Patty, pa.s.sing through her own room, discovered that her two trunks had arrived and had been unpacked. She went straight on and tapped at Lady Hamilton"s door. "Get me out of this gown, please, Marie; I"ve had quite enough of being a grown-up young woman!"
"What"s the matter, Patty?" said Lady Kitty, looking round. "Didn"t you have a good time this evening?"
"The time of my life!" declared Patty, dropping into her own graphic speech, as she emerged from the heap of lace and silk. "I"ll see you later, Kitty," and without further word she returned to her own room.
And later, when Marie had been dismissed, Patty crept back to Lady Hamilton, a very different Patty, indeed. Her hair fell in two long braids, with curly tails; a dainty dressing-gown enveloped her slight figure; and on her bare feet were heelless satin slippers. She found Lady Kitty in an armchair before the wood fire, awaiting her.
Patty threw a big, fat sofa pillow at her friend"s feet, and settled herself cosily upon it.
"Well, girlie," said Lady Hamilton, "come to the story at once. What happened to you as a grown-up?"
"What usually happens to grown-ups, I suppose," said Patty, demurely; "the Earl of Ruthven proposed to me."
"What!" cried Lady Hamilton, starting up, and quite upsetting Patty from her cushion.
"Yes, he did," went on Patty, placidly; "shall I accept him?"
"Patty, you naughty child, tell me all about it at once! Oh, what shall I say to your father and mother?"
Patty grinned. "Yes, it was all your fault, Kitty. If I hadn"t worn your gown, he would never have dreamed of such a thing."
"But, Patty, it _can"t_ be true. You must have misunderstood him."
"Not I. It"s my first proposal, to be sure; but I know what a man means when he says he loves me and begs me to call him by his first name. And I did--twice."
Patty went off in shrieks of laughter at the remembrance of it, and she rocked back and forth on her cushion in paroxysms of mirth.
"Patty, behave yourself, and tell me the truth. I"ve a mind to shake you!"
"I _am_ shaking," said Patty, trying to control her voice. "And I _am_ telling you the truth. His first name is Sylvester. Lovely name!"
"Where did this occur?"
"In the rose garden. Oh, right near the terrace. Not a dozen yards away from you all. I"m sure if you"d been listening, you could have heard me say, "Sylvester--_Sylvester!_""
Again Patty went off in uncontrollable merriment at this recollection, and Lady Kitty had to laugh too.
"What did you tell him?"
"I told him to wait till to-morrow, and he"d probably change his mind.
And I see my trunks have come, so he surely will. You see he proposed to that long-tailed gown and jewelled tiara I had on----"
"It wasn"t a tiara."
"Well, it looked something like one. I"m sure he thought it was. He doubtless wants a dignified, stately Lady Ruthven, and he thought I was _it_. Oh, Kitty! if you could have heard him."
"I don"t think it"s nice of you, to take him that way."
"All right, I won"t. But I"m not going to take him at all. Why, Kitty, when he sees me to-morrow in my own little pink muslin, he won"t know me, let alone remembering what he said to me."
"Patty, you"re incorrigible. I don"t know what to say to you. But I hope your parents won"t blame me for this."
"Of course they won"t, Kitsie. You see it was an accident. A sort of case of mistaken ident.i.ty. I don"t mind it so much now that it"s over, but I was scared stiff at the time. Only it was all so funny that it swallowed up my scare. Now I"ll tell you the whole story."
So Patty told every word that the Earl had said to her during the evening, in the ballroom and on the terrace. And Lady Hamilton listened attentively.