you perfectly. As for me, I'm starving; if papa doesn't come pretty
soon, he will find an emaciated skeleton in place of the plump daughter
he left behind him."

As Mr. Fairfield arrived at that moment, there was no occasion for
further anxiety, but in response to their queries he gave them no
satisfaction as to the cause of his unusual tardiness, and only smiled
at their exclamations.

It was not until they were seated at the dinner table that Mr. Fairfield
announced he had something to tell them.

"And I'm sure it's something nice," said Patty, "for there's a twinkle
in the left corner of your right eye."

"Gracious, Patty!" cried Nan, "that sounds as if your father were cross-
eyed, and he isn't."

"Well," went on Mr. Fairfield, "what I have to tell you is just this: I
have arranged for the immediate future of Miss Patricia Fairfield."

Patty looked frightened. There was something in her father's tone that
made her feel certain that his mind was irrevocably made up, and that
whatever plans he had made for her were sure to be carried out. But she
resolved to treat it lightly until she found out what it was all about.

"I don't want to be intrusive," she said, "but if not too presumptuous,
might I inquire what is to become of me?"

"Yours not to make reply, yours not to reason why," said her father