Patty—Bride. Wells Carolyn

Patty, who had returned to the tea-table.

      “One lump or two?” she asked, holding the sugar tongs.

      “One and a smile,” he replied.

      Gravely, Patty dropped one lump in his cup, equally gravely, she gave him an idiotic smile, that was merely a momentary widening of her mouth.

      “Very pretty,” commented Phil; “don’t see how you manage such a sweet smile! The tea is ’most too sweet, I think. Give me another bit of lemon.”

      “Here you are,” said Patty, spearing the lemon with a little fork. “Now, Philip, listen to me. I want you to do all you can to make it pleasant for Bumble, – I mean, Helen, while she’s here.”

      “Of course I will. I’m always nice to your friends, you know that.”

      “I do know it, but I want you to be specially nice.”

      “All right. Say, flowers tonight, – candy tomorrow, – opera invitation as soon as I can manage it, – a theatre party, – ”

      “There, there, now don’t overdo it! No; she doesn’t eat candy, but you may send some flowers.”

      “Some to you too.”

      “No; not to me – ”

      “Then not to her.”

      “Oh, Phil, you said you’d be nice!”

      “Well, I will; to both of you. But not to Bumble – I mean, Helen, alone.”

      “But you mustn’t send flowers to me, now that I’m engaged. Come here a minute, please, Little Billee.”

      “Yours to command,” said Farnsworth, approaching.

      “Tell Philip he can’t send me flowers.”

      “Philip, you can’t send Patty flowers,” Farnsworth said, obediently.

      There was a smile on his face, but in his voice there rang a note of command that angered Van Reypen exceedingly.

      “I can send them,” he returned, defiantly, “she needn’t accept them.”

      “Leave it that way, then,” Bill said, carelessly, as if the matter were of no moment. “Patty, come out to the dining-room a minute, will you, dear?”

      Jumping up, Patty left the room without a glance at Philip.

      Farnsworth followed her, and they went into the dining-room.

      They were alone there, and he took her gently in his arms.

      “What is it, Patty?” he asked. “Van Reypen been kicking over the traces?”

      “Yes; he seems to think he – he likes me yet.”

      “Of course he does. How can he help it? But, my darling, there’s to be no petty jealousy between us and him. I trust you, dear, too well, to think for a minute that you’d listen to him if he says things that you don’t want to hear. Now, never think it will bother me, for it won’t. You love me, don’t you, Patty?”

      “Yes,” she returned, and the blue eyes that met his left no room for doubt.

      “Then, that’s all right. Don’t give him a thought. Darling, I’ve brought your ring.”

      With a smile of pleasure, Farnsworth produced a lovely ring. It was set with a single pearl, which he had told Patty suited her far better than a diamond.

      “Do you like it?” he asked eagerly. “Oh, Patty Blossom, do you?”

      “I think it the most beautiful ring I ever saw!” she replied, her eyes glistening, as he slipped it on her finger.

      “My pearl,” he whispered, close to her ear, “my Patty Pearl. This seals our betrothal, and makes you mine forever.”

      “Am I any more yours than I was before I had it?”

      “No, you little goose! But this is the bond, – the sign manual – ”

      “Oh, Little Billee! what a joke! But I accept my bond, – I glory in it! Oh, Billee, what a beauty pearl it is!”

      “The purest and best I could find, – for my own Patty Blossom. Now, I’ve bad news, darling.”

      “Bad news soon told, Br’er Fox,” smiled Patty, quoting from her well-beloved Uncle Remus. “What is it?”

      CHAPTER III

      CAPTAIN BILL

      “It’s this,” said Farnsworth, looking serious. “I have to go to Washington.”

      “Good gracious!” exclaimed Patty, “one would think you were booked for Kamschatka or Siberia, the way you say it!”

      “But I mean, I have to go there to stay.”

      “How long?”

      “Indefinitely. I’ve no idea how long; also – I may have to go further yet.”

      “Over there?”

      “Yes. But that’s not likely at present. However, it’s bad enough to go to Washington. How can I leave you?”

      “I’ll go, too.”

      “No, dear, that won’t be practicable. I shall be in the University Camp, drilling engineers, I suppose, but I want to do more and bigger things than that. I can’t tell you all about it, Posy Face, but as soon as I get further orders I’ll know better where I’m at.”

      “Are you bothered and troubled, my Billee Boy?”

      “I am, Patty. I don’t want to worry you with it, dearest, and you couldn’t understand it all, anyway, but there is a lot of backbiting and undermining and wire-pulling in Washington, and it even mixes into Army and Navy matters.”

      “Then you’ll have to be an undermining engineer, won’t you?”

      “Patty! You little rogue! You’d make a joke out of anything, I believe.”

      “’Course I would! Now, Billee, you mustn’t look so down-hearted. You’ve got me for a joy and a comfort, – not for a burden and a – a millstone about your neck!”

      “I like to have you about my neck, all right, – but you’re a featherweight, not a millstone.”

      “Where will you be? What’s this camp?”

      “The Engineering Corps, you mean? Oh, well, there are a lot of units, – Camouflage, Foresters, Gas and Flame, Wireless, Telephone, – ”

      “There, there, that’ll do! I’m bewildered. Which are you to be in?”

      “That’s the trouble. It looks to me as if I’d be in the Searchlight gang – ”

      “What do you know about searchlights!”

      “Nothing. To be sure I’ve invented one – ”

      “Oh, Billee, have you? And you never told me!”

      “Hadn’t time. There’s only time enough, when I’m with you, to tell you what I think of you.”

      “What do you think of me?”

      The lovely face was wistful and sweet, the blue eyes shone with affection and the scarlet mouth drew down a little at the corners, for Patty saw by Farnsworth’s pained expression, that he was really disturbed at their coming separation and the uncertainties of his future.

      “I think,” the big man spoke, slowly, “I think you’re the loveliest thing God ever made. A thousand times too good for a big brute of a man like me – ”

      “You don’t treat me like a brute,” observed Patty.

      “No; I treat you as I think of you, – a lovely rose petal of a girl, – who ought not to hear of wars or rumours of wars – ”

      “Nothing of the sort, William Farnsworth! If I were that, I’d deserve to be put under a glass