one else
says."

"Oh, pshaw,--your staying late,--that was nothing. But what did they
do over there so interesting? I can't see any sense in their talk."

"I can't see much myself, and that's why I want to learn. I'm awfully
ignorant of higher ethics,--and--things like that."

"Higher ethics? H--m. Is it sort of Uplift ideas?"

"No, not that exactly."

"Fudge, you don't know what it is, 'exactly,' and between you and me, I
don't think you have the glimmer of a ghost of an idea what it is all
about! Now, have you?"

"If I had, I couldn't make you understand! You're antagonistic. You
have to be receptive and responsive and----"

"Patty, you're a goose! A silly idiot of a goose! But such a dear,
pretty little goose, that with all your faults we love you still! Now,
I'll scoot, and you get dressed, for we're going somewhere today."

"Where?"

"Never you mind, Miss Curiosity. Just put on a house dress and come
down to breakfast, and you'll find out."

Elise ran away, but Mona lingered.

"Patty," she said, a little gravely, "Philip is terribly upset about
last night."

"I don't care if he is, Mona. He has no right to be. He has no
authority over me."

"What! When you've become engaged to him?"

"I'm not engaged to him at all."

"He says you are."

"Did he really say that, Mona?"

"Not in so many words, but he implied that there was an understanding
between you."

"Understanding! I hate that word,--used that way! There's a
misunderstanding between us, if there's anything!"

"But you're going to be engaged to him, aren't you, Patty?"

"No, I don't think so. Not after last night. Why, he was horrid,
Mona, after I came home. He scolded me, and I wouldn't stay to listen.
I ran upstairs."

"Oh, Patty, I wish you'd make up with him, and be friends again, and be
engaged to him, and announce it at my wedding."

"Did he say all that to you last night? Did he make those delightful
plans, and talk them over with you and Roger?"

"Don't look so furious. It just came about, you see. We were sitting
there, waiting for you to come home, and Phil was saying how he adores
you, and how he wanted your promise, but he had to wait a certain time
before you would say positively. And, of course, we were talking about
my wedding, and I said it would be nice to announce your engagement
then, it's always so picturesque to announce one wedding at another----"

"I'm sorry I can't oblige you, Mona,