r say 'yes'
till I'm more in love than I am now!"

There were other reasons why she did not want to ask Waitstill's advice.
Not only did she shrink from the loving scrutiny of her sister's eyes,
and the gentle probing of her questions, which would fix her own motives
on a pin-point and hold them up unbecomingly to the light; but she had
a foolish, generous loyalty that urged her to keep Waitstill quite aloof
from her own little private perplexities.

"She will only worry herself sick," thought Patty. "She won't let me
marry without asking father's permission, and she'd think she ought not
to aid me in deceiving him, and the tempest would be twice as dreadful
if it fell upon us both! Now, if anything happens, I can tell father
that I did it all myself and that Waitstill knew nothing about it
whatever. Then, oh, joy! if father is too terrible, I shall be a married
woman and I can always say: 'I will not permit such cruelty! Waitstill
is dependent upon you no longer, she shall come at once to my husband
and me!'"

This latter phrase almost intoxicated Patty, so that there were moments
when she could have run up to Milliken's Mills and purchased herself a
husband at any cost, had her slender savings permitted the best in the
market; and the more impersonal the husband the more delightedly Patty
rolled the phrase under her tongue.

"I can never be 'published' in church," she thought, "and perhaps nobody
will ever care enough about me to brave father's displeasure and insist
on running away with me. I do wish somebody would care 'frightfully'
about me, enough for that; enough to help me make up my mind; so that I
could just drive up to father's store some day and say: 'Good afternoon,
father! I knew you'd never let me marry--'" (there was always a dash
here, in Patty's imaginary discourses, a dash that could be filled in
with any Christian name according to her mood of the moment)"'so I just
married him anyway; and you needn't be angry with my sister, for she
knew nothing about it. My husband and I are sorry if you are displeased,
but there's no help for it; and my husband's home will always be open to
Waitstill, whatever happens.'"

Patty, with all her latent love of finery and ease, did not weigh the
worldly circumstances of the two men, though the reflection that she
would have more amusement with Mark than with Philip may have crossed
her mind. She trusted Philip, and respected his steady-going, serious
view of life