She opened her lips to give the fatal assent. "No," they said, it seemed to her entirely without her volition. "What!" he exclaimed. "I said 'no,'" she repeated, feeling as if amare had been removed from her breast. "I like you very much, Clarence; but I don't think we are quite suited for each other." "You don't!" he retorted, smarting with wounded love and vanity. "Then why couldn't you say so at once, and not keep me making a fool of myself for nothing all summer?" "I own I've treated you horridly," she said humbly. "And I beg your pardon; but I didn't know my own mind." "You ought to have known," he continued, becoming more angry as she grew more yielding. "You may go farther and fare worse, Patty Sanford. I might have known you were leading me on. I always thought you were a flirt, but I did think you'd treat an old friend decently. Thank Heaven, I needn't go to the world's end for a wife!" "Indeed!" Mistress Sanford said, drawing herself up with fine dignity. "I congratulate you on your escape from the snare into which I have been leading you. I might have known your penetration was too keen not to see through the wiles of a mere flirt." "I--that is"--he stammered in confusion. "I am very sorry I have taken so much of your time," she continued. "But then, as you just remarked so happily, it isn't as if you had to go to the world's end to find a wife." "I didn't mean" began he, thoroughly abashed,--"I didn't mean"-- "Very likely not," she interrupted. "I didn't either. I beg your pardon," she added more calmly. "Did I show you those views aunt Shasta sent us from Paris last week?" "Yes--I don't know," Clarence replied. "I must be going." "I am very glad you called," Patty said. "I have enjoyed it very much. You must be neighborly. You know the Brecks are gone; and Flossy is so absorbed in Burleigh that I am sure to be lonesome." And she bowed out the rejected suitor, who went home with a tingling sensation about his ears. "I might have known," he muttered to himself; "but her mother was so sure she'd have me. Confound it! It isn't safe to trust anybody's opinion of a woman but your own, and it's best to be d----d doubtful of that." As for Patty, she went back to her chamber bitterly ashamed of herself, yet happier than she had been for many a long day. CHAPTER XLIV. WILL AND EASE.