"No; wear the same frock you had on for lunch. Twist up that yellow mop of yours, and come along down, now. I want you to take a stroll around the domain while there's a sc.r.a.p of daylight left."

The hour before dinner soon pa.s.sed, and then, laughing with merriment, the hosts and guest went in to dinner.

The Kenerleys were in specially gay spirits, it seemed to Patty, and she held her own in fun and repartee.

"You must stay a long time, Patty," Jim declared. "You're more fun than a barrel of monkeys! I'm awfully glad you came."

"So'm I," a.s.sented Patty; "I wanted to get away from the giddy whirl, and lead the simple life for a few days."

"Sometimes the simple life is very complicated," observed Kenerley, and he glanced at the clock.

Adele took the hint. "You want to get away, don't you, dear?" she said. "And we've been dawdling over dessert! Patty, I shan't give you any coffee tonight. I'm afraid it will keep you awake, and you need sleep. My, but you're hollow-eyed! I suppose you've kept late hours all winter."

"Pretty much. But I sleep a good deal, too. And I feel all right, now. I'm not going to bed before you come back, Jim."

"Indeed you are!" cried Adele. "Now, not a word from you, Miss! I'm your nurse at present, and you will obey my orders!"

Kenerley started off to drive to the station for Farnsworth. He felt sure his wife would have Patty out of the way when they returned, but he didn't know just how she'd manage it.

Nor was it easy. But Adele wandered about the house with her guest, and finally declared the moonlight view was prettier from Patty's windows than anywhere else. She lured the girl upstairs, and then cleverly persuaded her to don a dressing-gown and lie down, while she, Adele, looked after some household matters, and she would then return for a confab.

CHAPTER XX

BLOSSOM GIRL

Such a clever and resourceful housekeeper as Adele Kenerley found no trouble in arranging a second dinner for half-past seven, although one had been served at six. Patty safely out of the way, Adele presided at the board with a light-hearted gaiety that surprised even her husband.

Farnsworth, too, was in good spirits, though both the Kenerleys detected a roving eye and an alert ear that made them think he suspected, or at least hoped, that Patty was there. But he said nothing that indicated his thoughts except to ask on arrival if there were other guests.

"As you see," said Adele. "But I'm flattering myself that you came this time just to visit the Kenerleys."

"What more could one desire?" returned Farnsworth. And the conversation continued in a light and impersonal tone. Patty's name was mentioned, and innocently enough. Adele asked how she was.

"Well, I trust," said Farnsworth. "I was at her house at a Sale affair, last night, and she was all right then. Very much all right.

But today, I called up the house, and they said she had gone away. I don't know where."

"And you thought she was up here! Oh, Big Bill, and I thought you came to see us!" Adele looked deeply chagrined.

"I'm jolly glad to see you, Adele, but to be honest, that little Patty person has turned my head."

"Truly, Bill?"

"Very truly, Adele. It's one thing or the other with me now. I must find her and if she says me nay, I go back to Arizona for good and all.

No more East for me."

Jim Kenerley, catching the earnest note in Farnsworth's voice, had all he could do to keep from telling him then and there of Patty's presence under that same roof, but a decided head-shake from Adele restrained him.

For Adele felt in honour bound to keep Patty's secret, unless the girl herself released her from her promise.

As soon as she could, Adele excused herself and left the two men to smoke and chat together. She went to Patty's room, determined to find out the true state of affairs. But Patty was asleep, and so profoundly did she slumber that it seemed a shame to waken her.

So the game went on. Adele went back downstairs, and the three friends spent a pleasant evening together. At bedtime Farnsworth declared his intention of leaving in the morning, and sure that he would do so, Adele hospitably urged him to remain till after dinner. To her surprise, he acquiesced, and said he would go down to New York on a late afternoon train.

"Now, you have done it!" said Kenerley to his wife, after their guest had gone to his room.

"I know it, Jim. It was all my fault! But I never dreamed he'd stay over so easily! Oh, if I'd only let him go on the morning train!"

"We'll have to keep up the hide and seek."

"Yes, and we can do it. Only it would have been so much easier the other way."

"Perhaps Patty will relent."

"Not she! If you had seen her eyes flash, when she spoke of him.

She's desperately angry with him, for some reason. But tomorrow morning will be all right. And I'll plan the day. There'll be no trouble."

Adele's clever managing made her words good. Patty had breakfast in her room, of course, and at nine o'clock, Farnsworth and the Kenerleys had their own morning meal. A pleasant affair it was in the sunny dining-room, and, without seeming to do so, Adele tactfully gave her guest an opportunity to depart, by saying that Jim had to go for a long trip in the motor.

But Farnsworth said, "Good! I'll go along. Unless I'm in the way, old chap?"

"Not at all," returned Kenerley, cordially, and that matter was settled.

The two men left about eleven, and Adele went to Patty's room.

"I'm all over my tired-outness," declared a very fresh-looking, rosy young person. "I've had my tub, and now I'm going to dress up and behave like a good citizen. You're a duck, Adele, to put up with a worn-out wreck, as I was yesterday, but now I'm myself again. I want to go for a motor ride, and for a walk, and eat a big luncheon, and come back to life, generally."

"Good for you! And have you settled all the troublesome affairs that were bothering you?"

"How did you know I had any?"

"Now, don't confide in me unless you want to." Wily Adele knew the touch of perversity in Patty's make-up.

"Oh, there's nothing much to confide. I got fearfully mad at Bill Farnsworth, and I ran up here to get away from him. That's the story of my life."

"What was the bone of contention?"

"Well, I suppose I was. Also, he was very rude and unmannerly.

Also,--and this is why I hate him so,--he's suddenly grown rich, Adele, and he's terribly ostentatious about it----"

"Bill Farnsworth ostentatious! I don't believe it!"

"Yes, he is. He showed off big rolls of money at the Sale----"

"But, Patty, he was buying things, wasn't he?"

"I don't care if he was. And, besides, Adele, he--well, he implied, if he didn't say it straight out, that now he was rich, maybe I'd marry him! As if I was a fortune-hunter!"