"Quite right, my child, quite right! Just what I was thinking
myself."

Patty knew he was only trying to make up for his rudeness, and she
looked at him severely. "You ought to be ashamed of yourself," she
said.

"I am! Oh, I AM! deeply, darkly, desperately ashamed. But I've
succeeded in making your cheeks turn that peculiar shade of brick-
red again!"

"They aren't brick-red!"

"No? Well, a sort of crushed strawberry shading to magenta, then!"

Patty laughed, in spite of herself, and Jack smiled back at her.

"Am I forguv?" he asked, in a wheedling voice.

"On condition that you'll be particularly nice to Mona all summer.
And it's not much to your credit that I have to ASK such a thing
of you!"

"You're right, Patty," and Jack looked honestly penitent. "I'm a
good-for-nothing brute! A boor without any manners at all! Not a
manner to my name! But if you'll smile upon me, and let me,--er--
surprise you once in a while, I'll,--oh, I'll just tie myself to
Mona's apron strings!"

"Mona doesn't wear aprons!"