Patty—Bride

“All the same. But you need a rest. Come along, and take it, and come back to your work refreshed.”

Patty was tired, and so she asked some one else to take her place for a while, and sauntered off with Herron.

They found a pleasant table in the supper room, and sat down together.

“I saw your friend Van Reypen yesterday,” said Herron, after he had given their order.

“Oh, you did? How is he?”

“Fit as a fiddle, and learning to fly, like a young robin!”

“I thought he’d be an apt pupil. Phil is clever at ’most anything.”

“Yes, he is. And he takes to aviation like a duck to water. What do you hear from your other friend?”

“My other friend! Have I then but one more?”

Patty well knew Lieutenant Herron meant Little Billee, but she was always chary of talking about Farnsworth to anybody.

“Only one that you care for; isn’t that so?”

“Oh, no! I care for lots of people, and I care for all our soldiers! How can you think otherwise?”

“Yes, in a sense. But only one you care for especially.”

“Naturally. If you mean Captain Farnsworth, and I suppose you do, – most girls care especially for the men they are engaged to.”

“Are you really engaged to him?”

“Of course I am! Why do you ask?”

“Oh, nothing.”

“Your tone belies your words; what do you mean, Lieutenant?”

Patty’s eyes gave an ominous flash that her friends all knew indicated serious indignation, but Herron answered lightly, “Oh, nothing, really. I only happened to hear from a friend, of Farnsworth’s infatuation for a little dark-eyed beauty down in Washington.”

Patty looked at him, amusedly.

“If you’re teasing me, your jest is in poor taste, Lieutenant Herron. If you’re in earnest, I refuse to listen to you.”

“There, there, don’t get huffy! I didn’t mean to stir you up! I only heard rumours, – doubtless there’s nothing in them.”

“Doubtless there isn’t, – and, also, doubtless it doesn’t concern you, if there is!”

Patty was thoroughly angry at the man’s impertinence, but she did not want to do anything so conspicuous as to get up and leave the dining-room, where many small tables were occupied by a merry crowd of guests.

“Not at all! not at all! yet, I can’t regret my words, since they have given me an opportunity of seeing you when you are ruffled! Prettier than ever! How blue eyes can flash!”

Suddenly Patty felt a fear of this man. He did not seem to ring true. But her quick-wittedness made her realise that to continue angry, was to make him more amused and interested, so she changed her tactics.

“Any girl’s eyes would flash at your insinuations,” she said, with a sudden bright smile.

“But now I know you are chaffing, I don’t mind.”

“And how do you know I’m chaffing?”

“Because your own eyes twinkle so.”

As a matter of fact, Herron’s eyes were snapping maliciously, but Patty ignored this, and deftly turned the subject.

“When do you go back to the Aviation Field?” she inquired.

“Tomorrow, alas! I had hoped for longer leave, but a new class is to be trained, and I must be on the job.”

“I can’t help marvelling at the courage and bravery of an aviator. It seems to me that you take your life in your hands ever more desperately and dangerously than those actually at the front.”

“In a sense, we do,” agreed Herron, a little gravely. “As the darky said, ‘If yuh gets killed on the ground, yuh knows where yuh is; but if yuh gets killed up in de air, – where is yuh?’”

“And so many do get killed.”

“Yes, but the proportion continually grows smaller, of course, as we learn more of the art.”

“Do you call aviation an art?”

“Yes, an Art with a big A! It’s a science as well, to be sure; it’s also a mechanical process and – it’s largely sheer luck!”

“I’m glad Mr. Van Reypen is doing well. He has a cool head, you know.”

“Yes, and that’s a great thing. A steady nerve, and mental poise come first in the requirements for a successful flyer. When are you to be married, Miss Fairfield?”

“Good gracious! You take my breath away with your sudden questions. Incidentally, they are a bit rude. Do you ask about such personal matters in your home town?”

Herron had the grace to blush. But he said, slowly, “I suppose I would, if I cared as much to know as I do in this case.”

“Why?”

“Why? You know why! You must know! Because I’m over head and ears in love with you, myself! Because, though it would add to my misery to know you’re to be married soon, yet it would be a blessed relief to know it would not be soon!”

“I cannot see, Lieutenant Herron, that these matters concern you at all,” said Patty, icily, and then the look of pained reproach he gave her smote her heart. For Patty was a gentle soul, and rarely hurt the feelings of anybody.

“I think I must ask you to drop this subject and never refer to it again.” But she spoke softly, and shook off her air of offended dignity.

“Forgive me,” he murmured, “truly I didn’t mean to! But I couldn’t help it. You’re right, it’s none of my business, and I apologise. Come, I see you’re ready to leave here, let us go and buy a valentine, which you shall send to your betrothed, and then you’ll forgive me.”

His tone was gay again, and glad that the tension of the situation was relieved, Patty went with him to the valentine tables.

“Here’s a dandy!” remarked the pretty girl who was selling them. “New idea, too. Funny and yet clever! Want one?”