“’Twasn’t his fault,” Patricia laughed. “Don’t you honestly think, Polly, that if you had consented to an engagement he wouldn’t have been so jealous? You see, then he’d have been sure of you.” Polly shook her head. “It would have been just the same,” she said. “Well, I don’t know,” the other concluded. “But I do know this--you have been too meek from the first. If you’d flirted round with the other boys, he’d have got used to it. Even now you stick to him, I know you do; you haven’t been with anybody else all summer long. Catch me being so loyal to a man of David Collins’s caliber! Why don’t you wake up and have a good time? You know you could have anybody in our set. They’d run for you if you’d as much as wave your little finger, every man of them.” “Patricia Illingworth! what nonsense you are talking! I am not in need of any man, and you know I abominate flirting. I shall never marry. I am going to be a nurse--I have made up my mind.” “A nurse! a nurse! Polly Dudley a nurse!” Patricia swayed in a paroxysm of glee. “That’s too funny!” “I don’t see anything to laugh at,” grumbled Polly. “Don’t be so silly!” as Patricia broke into fresh giggles. “What will you wager that you’ll be engaged before I am?” “Oh, Patty, stop your nonsense! I am in no mood for fun of that kind.” “Then you ought to be. This nursing business right on top of the David affair is making a regular nun of you. I think I’ll speak to your father about it.” “I think you won’t! I want you to come up to Overlook and stay a week next month. Will you?” “A week in that out-of-the-world place? I should die of homesickness. Who’s going to be there, anyway?” “Just the children and the housekeeper, and one doctor and the dietitian, besides me.” “And ‘me’ is worth the whole posse put together. Which doctor?” “Dr. Abbe.” “Abbe? Abbe?--oh! that good-looking little fellow? Does he know how to flirt?” “I hope not! He knows too much to be a fool. If he didn’t I wouldn’t have him there.” “Guess I’ll come and teach him how--yes, I’ll come.” “You won’t come to visit me unless you promise not to lead him on--to nothing. Besides, you might get caught in your own toils.” “I can take care of myself, thank you.” “I am not so sure of that,” Polly demurred. “You didn’t use to be this way, Patty. What’s the matter?” She had dropped into a confidential tone. Patricia’s face grew pink. She laughed uncertainly. “Oh, I’m all right!” she returned, stooping ostensibly to tie her shoe, which the other was positive did not need tying. “I don’t like it,” Polly went on softly; “I like you best as you always have been. You are too much a woman to be a flirt.” “It’s fun!” laughed Patricia. “You may as well break men’s hearts as to have them break yours.” The eyes of the girls met, Polly’s soft with sympathy, the other’s sharp with recklessness.