orth!"

"What were you laughing at, anyway?" demanded Georgie.

Patty smiled again. "Why, _this_" she said, unfolding the Hotel A----
letter. "It's from an Englishman, Mr. Todhunter, some one my father
discovered last summer and invited out to stay with us for a few days.
I'd forgotten all about him, and here he writes to know whether and when
he may call, and, if so, will it be convenient for him to come to-night.
That's a comprehensive sentence, isn't it? His train gets in at
half-past five and he'll be out about six."

"He isn't going to take any chances," said Priscilla.

"No," said Patty; "but I don't mind. I invited him to come out to dinner
some night, though I'd forgotten it. He's really very nice, and, in
spite of what the funny papers say about Englishmen, quite
entertaining."

"Intentionally or unintentionally?" inquired Georgie.

"Both," said Patty.

"What's he doing in America?" asked Priscilla. "Not writing a book on
the American Girl, I hope."

"Not quite as bad as that," said Patty. "He's corresponding for a
newspaper, though." She smiled dreamily. "He's very curious about
college."

"Patty, I _hope_ you were not guilty of trying to make an Englishman, a
guest in your father's house, believe any of your absurd fabrications!"

"Of course not," said Patty; "I was most careful in everything I told
him. But," she acknowledged, "he--he gets impressions easily."

"It is easy to get impressions when one is talking with you," observed
Georgie.

"He asked me," Patty continued, ignoring this remark, "what we studied
in college! But I remembered that he was an alien in a foreign land, and
I curbed my natural instincts, and outlined the courses in the catalogue
verbatim, and I explained the different methods of instruction, and
described the library and laboratories and lecture-rooms."

"Was he impressed?" asked Priscilla.

"Yes," said Patty; "I think you might almost say dazed. He asked me
apologetically if we ever did anything to relieve the strain,--had any
amusements, you know,--and I said, oh, yes; we had a Browning and an
Ibsen club, and we sometimes gave Greek tragedies in the original. He
was positively afraid to come near me again, for fear I'd forget and
talk to him in Greek instead of English."

In view of the facts, Patty's friends considered this last remark
distinctly humorous, for she had flunked her freshman Greek three times,
and had been advised by the faculty to take it over sop