to the troublesome matter.

CHAPTER III

HAPPY SATURDAYS

As was not to be wondered at, Patty slept late the next morning. And
when she awakened, she lay, cozily tucked in her coverlets, thinking
over the occurrences of the night before.

Presently Jane came in with a dainty tray of chocolate and rolls, and
then, with some big, fluffy pillows behind her, Patty sat up in bed,
and thoughtfully nibbled away at a crust.

Then Nan came in, in her pretty morning gown, and, drawing up a little
rocker, sat down by Patty's bedside.

"Are you in mood for a gossip, Patty?" she asked, and Patty replied,
"Yes, indeedy! I want to talk over the whole thing. In the first
place, Nan, it was a howling, screaming success, wasn't it?"

"Why, yes, of course; how could it be otherwise? with the nicest
people and the nicest flowers and the nicest girl in New York City!"

"In the whole United States, you mean," said Patty, complacently, as
she took a spoonful of chocolate. "Yes, the party in all its parts was
all right. There wasn't a flaw. But, oh, Nan, I got into a scrap with
the boys."

"What boys? and what _is_ a scrap? Patty, now that you're out, you
mustn't use those slang words you're so fond of."

"Nan," and Patty shook her spoon solemnly at her stepmother, "I've
come to realise that there is slang and slang. Now, the few little
innocent bits I use, don't count at all, because I just say them for
fun and to help make my meaning clear. But that man last night,--that
Lansing man,--why, Nan, his slang is altogether a different matter."

"Well, Patty, he, himself, seems to be an altogether different matter
from the people we know."

"Yes, doesn't he? And yet, Nan, he isn't so bad. Well, anyway, let me
tell you what Mr. Galbraith says."

"That's just it!" declared Nan, after Patty had finished her story.
"That man _is_ a fortune-hunter, and he means to try to marry Mona for
the sake of her father's money!"

"Oh, my!" exclaimed Patty, laughing; "isn't it grand to be grown up! I
see I'm mixed up in a matrimonial tangle already!"

"Nothing of the sort, you foolish child! There won't be any matrimonial
tangle. Mr. Galbraith is quite right; this man must be discouraged, and
Mona must be made to see him in his true light."

"But, Nan, he isn't so awful. You know, sometimes he was quite
fascinating."

"Yes, you think that, because he has big dark eyes and rolled them at
you."

"Goodness! it sounds like a game of bow