"Why, it's you!" she exclaimed, as if she hadn't known it all the
time.
"Yes," and Big Bill smiled at her over the armful of roses he
still held. "I've completely stripped the rose garden, but I had
to bombard you with something!"
"Are you a bombardier?"
"No, I'm a beggar. I'm begging you to come out here for a few
minutes and see the moonlight on the ocean."
"Why, there isn't any moon!"
"That's so! I mean the sun."
"Well, the sun isn't QUITE up yet!"
"That's so! Well, I mean the--the stars,--there, I knew SOMETHING
was shining!"
Bill's laugh was so infectious that Patty couldn't help joining
it, but she said:
"I can't, Little Billee. It's too late, and I'm too tired, and--"
"But I'm going away to-morrow."
"You are! I didn't know."
"Do you CARE? Oh, Patty, come out for a minute, I want to tell you
something."
Still in her green draperies and silver wreath, Patty stepped out
on the veranda, saying, "Just for a tiny minute, then."
Bill had discarded his Neptune trappings, and in evening dress,
was his handsome self again.
"You were fine as Neptune," said Patty, looking at him critically
as he stood against a veranda pillar, "but you're better as a
plain man.
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