Patty burst into a peal of laughter at this notion of Kenneth"s.
"I could do that, Ken, about as easily as you could teach me to be a quiet, demure, little person like Christine Hepworth. This is Christine:"
Patty sat upright with her hands clasped in her lap, and drew down the corners of her mouth, and rolled her eyes upward with a saint-like expression.
Then, "This is me!" she said. And jumping up, she pirouetted, whirling, around the room, waving her arms like a graceful b.u.t.terfly skimming over flowers. Faster and faster she went, seeming scarcely to touch the tips of her toes to the floor, and smiling at Kenneth like a tantalising fairy.
Harper gazed at her, fascinated, and then as she hovered near him, jumped up, and caught her in his arms.
"You beauty!" he cried, but Patty slipped away from him.
"You haven"t caught me yet, Ken," she said, laughing, "not for keeps, you know." The rollicking dance had restored her gaiety, and relieved the seriousness of the situation.
"You know perfectly well," she went on, standing across the room from him, and shaking a little pink forefinger at him, "you know perfectly well, Kenneth-boy, that we"re not a bit suited to each other. I go through life the way I just flew around the room; and you go this way:"
Patty dropped her arms at her side and marched stiffly around the room with a military air, gazing straight ahead of her.
"Now, how COULD we ever keep step?" she said, pausing in front of him and looking up into his face.
"I"m afraid you"re right, Patty," and Kenneth looked at her with serious eyes. "But I WANT you so!" and he held out his arms.
"Nay, nay, Pauline," and Patty danced away again. "Who gets me, I think, will have to swoop down in an aeroplane, and grabble me all up and fly away with me!"
"Where do they keep aeroplanes for sale?" inquired Kenneth, looking at her meditatively.
"You dear old Ken!" and Patty danced up to him again and laid her hand on his arm. "Isn"t that just exactly like you! You"d go right off and buy an airship, I believe, and try to come swooping after me!"
"Indeed I would, if it were practicable and possible."
"Yes, that"s your motto: practical and possible. But you see, Mr. Ken, I like the impractical and the impossible."
"Supposing, then, that I take up those things as a serious study?"
"Oh, yes, a SERIOUS study! Is everything serious with you?"
"My love for you is very serious, Patty."
But Patty was not willing to treat it so. "That"s the trouble," she said; "now if your love for me were frivolous----"
"Then it wouldn"t be worth having, Patty."
"Oh, I--don"t--know! At any rate, Ken, can"t you mix it? Say three parts seriousness to one part frivolousness? Though I"d rather have the proportions reversed."
"Patty, you"re incorrigible!"
"Good gracious! what"s that? It must be something awfully nice, if I"m it."
"Well, you are it,--and I don"t know what to do with you."
"You mean, you don"t know what to do without me!"
"Same thing. But you"ll promise me this, won"t you? To think it over seriously and not decide at once."
"Yes, I"ll promise that. How long do you want me to think it over, Ken?"
"The rest of your life, Patty."
"Ken, if you say such clever things as that, I"m afraid I"ll fall in love with you!"
"Patty, darling,--don"t tease me like that! If I thought you meant it---"
"But, anyway, Ken, if I take the rest of my life to think this thing over, I can"t give you an answer till my dying day! And that seems late----"
"Patty, stop talking like that! You"ll drive me crazy! Now listen, little girl, I"m going now. And you"re going to think over what I"ve said to you. And--try to think kindly,--won"t you?"
"I"ve never thought of you any way but kindly, Ken."
"Well, think more than kindly, then,--think lovingly. Good-night, Patty."
Kenneth held out his hand and Patty put her little hand slowly into it.
As she felt his strong, warm clasp, a mischievous impulse moved her to say, demurely: "I think it would be polite, Ken, if you kissed my hand, instead of squeezing it to pieces!"
Kenneth gave her one look, dropped a light kiss on the back of her little hand, and with a courteous bow left the room.
For a moment Patty stood where he had left her, then, as she heard the front door close, she looked curiously at the back of her hand, almost as if expecting to see a mark there.
"Dear old Ken," she said, softly, to herself, and then she went upstairs.
CHAPTER XV
AN INVITATION
Notwithstanding the experience of the evening, Patty slept dreamlessly all night, and was only awakened, when Jane came in the morning with her breakfast tray.
"h.e.l.lo, Jane," she said, sleepily, opening her eyes, "will you ask Mrs.
Fairfield to come up here right away?"
"What is it, Patty?" said Nan, appearing a moment later; "are you ill?
Jane said you wanted me right away."
"No, I"m not ill," and Patty gave her stepmother a quizzical glance.
"Sit down, Nan, and brace yourself for a shock. In me you behold a charming young debutante who has received her first proposal from a most worthy young man."
"Good gracious, Patty! Kenneth?"