“How can I tell?  I don’t know how long it would take to learn to care for you a little.  And, anyway, I do care for you a little,—­but only a very, very little.”

“Yes, I know that.  You don’t fool me any.  You wouldn’t care if you never saw me again.”

“Why, Kit Cameron, I would so!  If I though I’d never see you again—­ I’d—­I’d—­I’d drown myself!”

“Yes you would!  You little witch, how can you trifle with me like that, when my heart is just breaking for you?”

“Oh, come now, Kit, it isn’t as bad as that!  And let me tell you something.  Do you know I think you are one of the very nicest friends I ever had, and I’m not going to have our friendship spoiled by any foolishness!  So you might as well stop right where you are now.  That is, if you’re in earnest.  If you’re just talking foolishness on account of the moonlight—­and all,—­I don’t mind.  But I won’t have you serious about it.”

“All right, Poppycheek.  I’m pretty serious, or I would be if you’d let me, but if you don’t want it you shan’t have it.”

“Well, I don’t.  I don’t want seriousness from anybody.  And, anyway, Kit, I’d be afraid of seriousness from you.”

“Why, Patty?”

“’Cause it would probably turn out to be a practical joke.”

“Joke nothing!  The regard I have for you, Miss Poppycheek Fairfield, is too everlasting real to have any joke about it!”

“And the friendship I have for you, Mr. Kit Cameron, is so nice and real, that I’m going to keep it up.”

Patty knew from the undertones of Kit’s voice that he was very much in earnest, and as she felt no interest in him beyond that of a good friend, she shrank from wounding his feelings by letting him go on further.  And so she determinedly led the conversation further and further away from personal matters, and soon she gaily declared that it was getting too late for moonlight chat and she was going in the house.

Kit followed her in, and though he showed in no way the appearance of a rejected suitor, he was quieter than usual and less inclined to merriment.  “He’ll get over it,” said Patty to herself, after she reached her room that night.  “I s’pose all girls have to go through with these scenes, sooner or later.  But I didn’t mind Kit so much, because he was nice and sensible about it.”

Then Daisy came in for a kimono confab, and perched herself on the edge of Patty’s bed.

“What’s the matter between you and Bill Farnsworth, Patty?” she asked without prelude of any sort.

“Nothing,” said Patty, as she took the hairpins from a long shining strand of hair.

“There is, too.  He asked me why you were so cool to him.”

“He did!  Well, I’m sure I don’t know what he meant, for I wasn’t cool to him,—­or anything else.  I treated him politely, as I would any casual friend.”

“Politely!  I saw you refuse to dance with him, myself.  If you call that polite!”