Patty—Bride

“I didn’t,” said Patty happily.

“No, you didn’t, but it was a narrow squeak!”

But Patty only smiled at him, and they both knew that neither had reason to doubt the other in any way.

The party went off gaily. But though no hint was dropped, somehow there was a feeling in the air as of a farewell occasion, and Patty felt a vague unrest.

But it was the next day before she learned the truth.

In the morning Farnsworth came to the Barrett house and the moment Patty saw him, she knew he had come to say good-bye.

With a white face and trembling lips she met him at the door.

“Come for a walk, will you, dear?” Farnsworth said gently.

She ran for her wraps, and soon they were off by themselves. Unheeding the people in the streets, they wandered far off toward the less crowded areas, and after a time Farnsworth told her that he was to sail that night.

“It’s all right,” said Patty, bravely struggling to keep back her tears. “I’ll be good, – I won’t make it harder for you by weeping and wailing and gnashing my teeth, – but, oh, my Little Billee, – I think I shall die!”

“Really, Patty! Do you really care like that?”

“Oh, I do! I do! I didn’t know it myself till just this minute! Captain, my Captain, I can’t part from you.”

“You needn’t, Blossom Bride, you shall go with me!”

Patty looked up in amazement, and saw in Farnsworth’s eyes a look she had never seen before. He seemed almost transfigured, the joy fairly radiated from his countenance.

“Patty,” he whispered, “the reason I was going without you was because I didn’t think you loved me quite well enough to go too. Do you?”

They had paused, and stood facing each other, with quickly beating hearts. There were no passers-by, and the sun shone straight down on Patty’s face, as she looked up at his question.

She knew all it meant, all it implied, and with a firm voice that had a glorious, triumphant ring in it, she said, “I do, my Heart’s Dearest, I do.”

“Then – ” Farnsworth hesitated.

“Yes, yes,” Patty assured him.

“You’ll go with me!”

“Yes, to the ends of the earth!”

“Patty!”

“Little Billee!”

And right there, in broad daylight, he clasped her in his arms and gave her a kiss that sealed the compact once and for all.

“We must hop around,” he said, laughing for very joy. “Oh, Patty, we must skittle!”

“We will! We can do it. I don’t care for anything but to go with you, – always with you. Are you sure I may go?”

“Oh, yes, I looked out for that.”

“What! You expected me to?”

“I hoped, Patty, I only hoped. Now I’ll get you back to Rose’s and you and she fix up the wedding-bells. I’ll breeze in about seven with the minister. Can’t get things fixed before that. Darling! I’m crazy! You won’t change your mind – no, I know you won’t, my true, my loyal Patty Blossom!”

There was some scurrying about when Patty told Rose. That efficient young woman telephoned for caterers, florists and musicians.

She called up friends and invited them. She gave orders right and left, and harangued Patty in the meantime.

“Go for a rest first,” she said. “Go straight to your room and lie down. I’ll be there in a few minutes. Helen will help you dress.”

And right here for about the first time in her life Bumble showed efficiency.

“Yes,” she said, “I will. Come along, Patty, and take it easy. There’s lots of time before seven o’clock, and you’ve nothing to do but dress. Come along with your old reliable, – your standby, the steady-going Bumble.”

Relieved to get away from Rose’s fluster and hurry, Patty went with Helen.

“I’ve got to do it, Bumble,” she said, as if by way of apology. “I can’t stay here and let him go away, so I’m going, too – ”

“Sure you are,” and Helen nodded, understandingly. “And, oh, by the way, Patty, where’s your wedding gown?”

“That’s so! Where is it?” and Patty began to look over her frocks in the wardrobe. “This rose-coloured one, I think.”

“Nixy; white, if it’s only a tub frock! Let’s see your white ones. Ah, here we are!” Helen took down a white chiffon, daintily embroidered, and pronounced it the very thing.

Patty dressed at once, saying laughingly that Bill might make an even earlier start than now planned.

And just as the bride-to-be completed her toilette, a commotion down stairs announced the arrival of her father and Nan.

“What are you doing here?” she cried, in amazement.

“We’re here for your wedding, my little girl,” said Mr. Fairfield, taking her in his arms.

“But – how did you know? How did you get here so quickly?”

“Ask Bill,” said Nan, laughingly; and then others crowded in, and all was bustle and excitement.

At seven, Farnsworth came, looking stunningly handsome in his uniform and with a glow of happiness on his fine, kindly face.

“Are you sure, Patty?” he whispered, as he met her in the hall.

“Sure, Little Billee,” she answered, happily.

“And you don’t regret the gorgeous wedding you were planning for June?”

“I like this better,” she said, simply.

And indeed, as a wedding, the occasion was all that could be desired.

As if by magic, flowers had bloomed everywhere. Guests in festal garb had arrived, and at last, to the soft strains of some stringed instruments, Patty walked with her father to meet the man to whom she so willingly and gladly entrusted her life’s happiness.

Then the guests crowded about with gay greetings and good wishes.

“I shall miss you, Patty,” said Phil Van Reypen, his face clouded at the thought.

“Good for you, Philip, do, please! But let me tell you a great secret; something you don’t dream of, – yet.”

Patty smiled mysteriously, and whispered low, in Philip’s ear:

“Your girl is waiting for you. She doesn’t know it, – you don’t know it, – but I do! When I come back from France – I hope everybody will know it!”

Van Reypen looked a little self-conscious, but gaily protested he didn’t know what she was talking about.

And then, the time came to go. Like a dream, Patty saw the people all about; saw herself being whisked upstairs and put into a travelling gown; saw Nan and Helen packing things; saw a maze of faces, a whirl of good-byes – and then, – she was alone with Farnsworth in a motor-car – and they were rolling away, as the jubilant orchestra played “For the Flag and the Girl Back Home.”

“How did Father and Nan get there?” Patty asked, as she emerged from her husband’s first embrace.

“I sent for ’em. Telephoned early this morning, and they just made it.”

“Early this morning! You hadn’t asked me to go, then!”

“Took a chance.”

“Oh, Little Billee! You knew I’d go?”

“Yes, My Little Girl, I knew you’d go. I learned yesterday that you loved me —almost enough. So I sent for your people, in case my hopes proved true, and today you found out that you couldn’t get along without me.”

“Well. You are – ”

“What?”

“My lord and master, it would seem,” and Patty’s lovely face flushed with happiness and content. Farnsworth drew her close as he whispered:

“And you are my Patty Bride!”

THE END