"Fine! And after you get yours all planned will you help me with mine?" "Will I! I live but for that! You, my Elise, must wear corn colour, or, say, maize colour, and poppies." "Yes, now that you speak of it, that's just what I want. Shall us ask Philip down, Patty?" "No; I'd like to have one time of my life without his revered presence." "Look here, Patty, between you and me and the circus, aren't you expecting to be the eventual Mrs. Philip?" "Oh, Elise, don't bother me about such far-away eventualities." "All right, I won't, 'cause I know all about that. You're trying him out, and if he passes his exams, you're going to say yes, pretty soon, now." "Good gracious! I believe my loving friends know more about my affairs than I do myself!" "If we didn't we wouldn't know much! You are the most wabbly-hearted person I ever knew! Say, Pats, what did you do to big Bill Farnsworth to send him flying off out West again?" "I?" and Patty opened her blue eyes wide at Elise. "Yes, you, you saucer-eyed doll! One day, he was shining brightly all over the place, and the next, he was like a thunder cloud, and departed straightway for the wild and woolly." "Oh, well, Elise, I can't feel sure that it's precisely your affair; but, as you show a polite interest, I don't mind telling you that we quarrelled." "About Philip Van Reypen." "Clairvoyant! Well, if you will have it so,--yes." "Oh, Patty, then you do like Phil better than Mr. Farnsworth!" "Do I?" "You must! or you never would have sent one away because of the other. And, Patty, you did just right. Phil Van Reypen is worth a dozen of that Western giant. He's nice, Mr. Farnsworth is, but Philip is so much more--oh,--aristocratic and--and smart-looking, you know." "Bill is smart enough," said Patty, thoughtfully. "I don't mean smart in the sense of clever, but----" "I know; you mean well-dressed and fashionable." "Yes, and correct-mannered, and generally all round a gentleman." "Bill Farnsworth is a gentleman." "Of course. But not the polished type Philip is. He's an aristocrat." "Oh, fiddlestrings. I'm sick and tired of hearing that Phil Van Reypen is an aristocrat! If I were an aristocrat, I'd try to hide it! Anyway, I wouldn't advertise it all the time!" "Patty! you ought to be ashamed of yourself! Phil doesn't advertise it!" "Well, he doesn't employ you to do it for him, either, so you may as well stop it. I know all about Phil's aristocracy. And it's all right. I never said it wasn't. But a man has got to be something more than an aristocrat before I can fall desperately in love with him. And I must be desperately in love with the man I promise to marry." Patty spoke seriously, and her blue eyes took on a violet light as she looked out of the window and far away to the sky beyond the pine trees. "Of course, you must, Patty. Every girl feels that way. But when Phil adores you so, how can you resist him?"