ly called me 'Miss Wyatt.' I opened the door with my knees shaking
when I heard that 'Patty dear,' and she took my hand and said, 'I am
sorry to have to tell you that I have heard bad news from your brother.'

"'Tommy?' I gasped.

"'No; Robert.'

"I was dazed. I racked my brains, but I couldn't remember any brother
Robert.

"'He is very ill,' she went on. 'Yes, I must tell you the truth, Patty;
poor little Robert passed away this morning'; and she laid the telegram
before me. Then, when it flashed over me what it meant, I was so
relieved that I put my head down on her desk and simply laughed till I
cried; and she thought I was crying all the time, and kept patting my
head and quoting Psalms. Well, then I didn't dare to tell her, after she
had expended all that sympathy; so as soon as I could stop laughing
(which wasn't very soon, for I had got considerable momentum) I raised
my head and told her--trying to be truthful and at the same time not
hurt her feelings--that Robert was not a brother, but just a sort of
friend. And, do you know, she immediately jumped to the conclusion that
he was a fiance, and began stroking my hair and murmuring that it was
sometimes harder to lose friends than relatives, but that I was still
young, and I must not let it blast my life, and that maybe in the future
when time had dulled the pain--and then, remembering that it wouldn't do
to advise me to adopt a second fiance before I had buried my first, she
stopped suddenly and asked if I wished to go home to the funeral.

"I told her no, that I didn't think it would be best; and she said
perhaps not if it hadn't been announced, and she kissed me and told me
she was glad to see me bearing up so bravely."

"Patty!" Priscilla exclaimed in horror, "it's dreadful. How could you
let her think it?"

"How could I help it?" Patty demanded indignantly. "What with being
frightened into hysterics first, and then having a strange fiance thrust
at me without a moment's notice, I think that I carried off the
situation with rare delicacy and finesse. Do you think it would have
been tactful to tell her it was nothing but a bull pup she was quoting
Scripture about?"

"I don't see how it was exactly your fault," Georgie acknowledged.

"Thank you," said Patty. "If you had a brother like Tommy Wyatt you
would know how to sympathize with me. I suppose I ought to be grateful
to know that the dog is dead, but I should like to have had the news
broken a litt