Bob was the first one to reappear, and he found Patty and her father chatting on the front veranda.

“How do you do, Uncle Fred?” he said.  “You may know my name, but I doubt if you remember my features.”

“Hello, Bob, my boy,” said Mr. Fairfield, cordially grasping the hand held out to him.  “As I last saw you with features of infantile vacancy, I am glad to start fresh and make your acquaintance all over again.”

“Thank you, sir,” said Bob, as he seated himself on the veranda railing.  “I didn’t know you as an infant, but I dare say you were a very attractive one.”

“I think I was,” said Mr. Fairfield; “at least I remember hearing my mother say so, and surely she ought to know.”

Just then Bumble came out on the porch with her hair-ribbon in her hand.

“Please tie this for me, Patty,” she said.  “I cannot manage it myself, and get it on quick before Uncle Fred sees me.”

“But I am so glad to see you, my dear Bumble,” said Mr. Fairfield, “that even that piece of pretty blue ribbon can’t make me any gladder.”

Bumble smiled back at him in her winning way, and Patty tied her cousin’s hair-ribbon with a decided feeling of relief that in all other respects Bumble’s costume was tidy and complete.

“Where’s Nan?” she inquired; “isn’t she ready yet?”

“Why, it’s the funniest thing,” said Bumble, “I tapped at her door as I came by, but she told me to go on and not wait for her, she would come down in a few minutes.”

Just as Pansy appeared to announce dinner, Nan did come down, and Patty stared at her in amazement.  Bob whistled, and Bumble exclaimed: 

“Well, for goodness gracious sakes!  What are you up to now?”

For Nan, instead of wearing the pretty gown which Bumble knew she had brought in her suitcase, was garbed in the complete costume of a trained nurse.  A white pique skirt and linen shirt-waist of immaculate and starched whiteness, an apron with regulation shoulder-straps, and a cap that betokened a graduate of St. Luke’s Hospital, formed her surprising, but not at all unbecoming, outfit.

Nan’s roguish face looked very demure under the white cap, and she smiled pleasantly when Patty at last recovered her wits sufficiently to introduce her father.

“Nan,” she said, “if this is really you, let me present my father; and, papa, this is supposed to be Miss Nan Allen, but I never saw her look like this before.”

“I am very glad to meet you, Miss Allen,” said Mr. Fairfield, “and though we are all apparently very well at present, one can never tell how soon there may be need of your professional services.”

“I hope not very soon,” said Nan, laughing; “for my professional knowledge is scarcely sufficient to enable me to adjust this costume properly.”

“It seems to be on all right,” said Patty, looking at it critically; “but where in the world did you get it?  And what have you got it on for?  We’re not going to a masquerade.”