Patty laughed gaily at him.

“Don’t stare at me, Mr. Cromer,” she said, saucily.  “Baby May pulled my hair down, but I have the grace to be ashamed of my untidiness.”

“It’s exquisite,” said Cromer, looking at her admiringly; “a sweet disorder in the dress.”

“Oh, I know that lady you quote!  She always had her shoestrings untied and her hat on crooked!”

Cromer looked amazed, as if a saint had been guilty of heresy, and Patty laughed afresh at his astonished look.

“If you want to see sweet disorder in dress, here’s your chance,” cried Mona.  “Here comes Daisy Dow, and she’s one who never has her hat on straight, by any chance!”

Sure enough, as a big car whizzed up under the porte-cochere, a girl jumped out, with veils flying, coat flapping, and gloves, bag, and handkerchief dropping, as she ran up the steps.

“Here I am, Mona!” she cried, and her words were unmistakably true.

Daisy Dow was from Chicago, and she looked as if she had blown all the way from there to Spring Beach.  She was, or had been, prettily dressed, but, as Mona had predicted, her hat was awry, her collar askew, and her shoelace untied.

The poetical idea of “a sweet disorder in the dress” was a bit overdone in Daisy’s case, but her merry, breezy laugh, and her whole-souled joy at seeing Mona again rather corresponded with her disarranged finery.

“I’m all coming to pieces,” she said, apologetically, as she was introduced to the others.  “But we flew along so fast, it’s a wonder there’s anything left of me.  Can’t I go and tidy up, Mona?”

“Yes, indeed.  Come along with me, Daisy.  They’re all here now, Patty, except Bill and Roger.  You can look after them.”

“All right, I will.  I don’t know Mr. Bill, but that won’t matter.  I know Roger, and of course the other one will be the gentle Bill.”

“‘Gentle’ is good!” laughed Mona.  “Little Billy is about six feet eight and weighs a ton.”

“That doesn’t frighten me,” declared Patty, calmly.  “I’ve seen bigger men than that, if it was in a circus!  Skip along, girls, but come back soon.  I think this house party is too much given to staying in the house.  Are you for a dip in the ocean before dinner, Mr. Cromer?”

“No; not if I may sit here with you instead.”

“Oh, Aunt Adelaide and I are delighted to keep you here.  All the guests seem to run away from me.  I know not why!”

Naughty Patty drew a mournful sigh, and looked as if she had lost her last friend, which look, on her pretty, saucy face, was very fetching indeed.

“I’ll never run away from you!” declared Mr. Cromer, in so earnest a tone that Patty laughed.

“You’d better!” she warned.  “I’m so contrary minded by nature that the more people run away from me the better I like them.”

“Ah,” said Laurence Cromer, gravely; “then I shall start at once.  Mrs. Parsons, will you not go for a stroll with me round the gardens?”