I think this house party is too much given to
staying in the house. Are you for a dip in the ocean before
dinner, Mr. Cromer?"
"No; not if I may sit here with you instead."
"Oh, Aunt Adelaide and I are delighted to keep you here. All the
guests seem to run away from me. I know not why!"
Naughty Patty drew a mournful sigh, and looked as if she had lost
her last friend, which look, on her pretty, saucy face, was very
fetching indeed.
"I'll never run away from you!" declared Mr. Cromer, in so earnest
a tone that Patty laughed.
"You'd better!" she warned. "I'm so contrary minded by nature that
the more people run away from me the better I like them."
"Ah," said Laurence Cromer, gravely; "then I shall start at once.
Mrs. Parsons, will you not go for a stroll with me round the
gardens?"
Aunt Adelaide rose with alacrity, and willingly started off with
the young artist, who gave not another glance in Patty's
direction.
"H'm," said Patty to herself, as the pair walked away. "H'm! I
rather like that young man! He has some go to him." She laughed
aloud at her own involuntary joke, and stood, watching Aunt
Adelaide's mincing steps, as she tripped along the garden path.
As Patty stood thus, she did not see or hear a large and stalwart
young man come up on the veranda, and, smiling roguishly, steal up
behind her.
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