"Then I have a fair show, anyway." And Philip drew the curtain that shut out the moonlight, and switched on the electric light. "Exit Romance!" he said, "and enter Comedy! Now, Patty, you're my little playmate; we're just two kiddies in the pantry, stealing jam,--that is, if we can find any jam." "The pantry's the place," said Patty; "there's nothing in the sideboard but biscuit and raisins." "They don't sound very good to me. To the pantry!" Into the pantries they went, and there, in cupboards and iceboxes, found all sorts of good things. Cold turkey, game pate, jellies, custards, cakes, and all varieties of food. "This is ever so much more fun than moonlight," said Patty, as she perched herself on a table, there being no chair, and held a partridge wing in one hand and a macaroon in the other. "Could you find me a glass of milk, Philip?" "Yes, indeed; anything you want, my Princess." "I thought you said Jim was about," Patty remarked. "He was," returned Philip, calmly. "I saw him go upstairs as we came in the dining-room." "Did he see us?" "Sure! He grinned at me and I grinned at him. I didn't invite him to come with us,--so being a polite gentleman, he didn't come. He doesn't mind our eating up his food. He's awful hospitable, Jim is." "Well, I've had enough of his food, and now I'm going back to my downy couch. If I don't see you to-morrow before you leave,--good-bye, Philip." "That's a nice, casual way to say good-bye to a man who has just proposed to you!" "Good gracious! _Was_ that a proposal?" "Well, rather! What did you think it was? A sermon, or just a bit of oratory?" "Do you know, Philip, truly I didn't realise it at the time," and Patty's smile was very provoking, as she looked up into his face. "Would your answer have been different if you had?" he asked, eagerly. "Oh, no, not that! But I just want you to understand that I don't consider it a real proposal," and Patty laughed and ran away, leaving Philip to "clear up" the pantry. She stopped a moment in the library, long enough to get her blue letter, and then scuttled up the stairs and into her own room. CHAPTER XV A CHRISTMAS CARD Once safely behind her locked door, Patty tore open her blue envelope. It was only a card,--but not an ordinary printed Christmas card. In the upper corner was a spray of apple blossoms, exquisitely painted; and on the card were some verses, written in a hand that was small and fine, but unmistakably the same as the address on the outside of the envelope. With a little sigh of pleasure, Patty cuddled up in her arm-chair to read the Christmas message. But it proved to be not very Christmassy, after all; for this is what she read: "MY LADY OF DELIGHT