ong
braids, with curly tails; a dainty dressing-gown enveloped her slight
figure; and on her bare feet were heelless satin slippers. She found Lady
Kitty in an armchair before the wood fire, awaiting her.

Patty threw a big, fat sofa pillow at her friend's feet, and settled
herself cosily upon it.

"Well, girlie," said Lady Hamilton, "come to the story at once. What
happened to you as a grown-up?"

"What usually happens to grown-ups, I suppose," said Patty, demurely;
"the Earl of Ruthven proposed to me."

"What!" cried Lady Hamilton, starting up, and quite upsetting Patty from
her cushion.

"Yes, he did," went on Patty, placidly; "shall I accept him?"

"Patty, you naughty child, tell me all about it at once! Oh, what shall I
say to your father and mother?"

Patty grinned. "Yes, it was all your fault, Kitty. If I hadn't worn your
gown, he would never have dreamed of such a thing."

"But, Patty, it _can't_ be true. You must have misunderstood him."

"Not I. It's my first proposal, to be sure; but I know what a man means
when he says he loves me and begs me to call him by his first name. And I
did--twice."

Patty went off in shrieks of laughter at the remembrance of it, and she
rocked back and forth on her cushion in paroxysms of mirth.

"Patty, behave yourself, and tell me the truth. I've a mind to shake
you!"

"I _am_ shaking," said Patty, trying to control her voice. "And I _am_
telling you the truth. His first name is Sylvester. Lovely name!"

"Where did this occur?"

"In the rose garden. Oh, right near the terrace. Not a dozen yards away
from you all. I'm sure if you'd been listening, you could have heard me
say, 'Sylvester--_Sylvester!_'"

Again Patty went off in uncontrollable merriment at this recollection,
and Lady Kitty had to laugh too.

"What did you tell him?"

"I told him to wait till to-morrow, and he'd probably change his mind.
And I see my trunks have come, so he surely will. You see he proposed to
that long-tailed gown and jewelled tiara I had on----"

"It wasn't a tiara."

"Well, it looked something like one. I'm sure he thought it was. He
doubtless wants a dignified, stately Lady Ruthven, and he thought I was
_it_. Oh, Kitty! if you could have heard him."

"I don't think it's nice of you, to take him that way."

"All right, I won't. But I'm not going to take him at all. Why, Kitty,
when he sees me to-morrow in my own little pink muslin, he won't know me,
let alone remembering