It was set with a single pearl, which he had told Patty suited her far better than a diamond.
“Do you like it?” he asked eagerly. “Oh, Patty Blossom, do you?”
“I think it the most beautiful ring I ever saw!” she replied, her eyes glistening, as he slipped it on her finger.
“My pearl,” he whispered, close to her ear, “my Patty Pearl. This seals our betrothal, and makes you mine forever.”
“Am I any more yours than I was before I had it?”
“No, you little goose! But this is the bond, – the sign manual – ”
“Oh, Little Billee! what a joke! But I accept my bond, – I glory in it! Oh, Billee, what a beauty pearl it is!”
“The purest and best I could find, – for my own Patty Blossom. Now, I’ve bad news, darling.”
“Bad news soon told, Br’er Fox,” smiled Patty, quoting from her well-beloved Uncle Remus. “What is it?”
CHAPTER III
CAPTAIN BILL
“It’s this,” said Farnsworth, looking serious. “I have to go to Washington.”
“Good gracious!” exclaimed Patty, “one would think you were booked for Kamschatka or Siberia, the way you say it!”
“But I mean, I have to go there to stay.”
“How long?”
“Indefinitely. I’ve no idea how long; also – I may have to go further yet.”
“Over there?”
“Yes. But that’s not likely at present. However, it’s bad enough to go to Washington. How can I leave you?”
“I’ll go, too.”
“No, dear, that won’t be practicable. I shall be in the University Camp, drilling engineers, I suppose, but I want to do more and bigger things than that. I can’t tell you all about it, Posy Face, but as soon as I get further orders I’ll know better where I’m at.”
“Are you bothered and troubled, my Billee Boy?”
“I am, Patty. I don’t want to worry you with it, dearest, and you couldn’t understand it all, anyway, but there is a lot of backbiting and undermining and wire-pulling in Washington, and it even mixes into Army and Navy matters.”
“Then you’ll have to be an undermining engineer, won’t you?”
“Patty! You little rogue! You’d make a joke out of anything, I believe.”
“’Course I would! Now, Billee, you mustn’t look so down-hearted. You’ve got me for a joy and a comfort, – not for a burden and a – a millstone about your neck!”
“I like to have you about my neck, all right, – but you’re a featherweight, not a millstone.”
“Where will you be? What’s this camp?”
“The Engineering Corps, you mean? Oh, well, there are a lot of units, – Camouflage, Foresters, Gas and Flame, Wireless, Telephone, – ”
“There, there, that’ll do! I’m bewildered. Which are you to be in?”
“That’s the trouble. It looks to me as if I’d be in the Searchlight gang – ”
“What do you know about searchlights!”
“Nothing. To be sure I’ve invented one – ”
“Oh, Billee, have you? And you never told me!”
“Hadn’t time. There’s only time enough, when I’m with you, to tell you what I think of you.”
“What do you think of me?”
The lovely face was wistful and sweet, the blue eyes shone with affection and the scarlet mouth drew down a little at the corners, for Patty saw by Farnsworth’s pained expression, that he was really disturbed at their coming separation and the uncertainties of his future.
“I think,” the big man spoke, slowly, “I think you’re the loveliest thing God ever made. A thousand times too good for a big brute of a man like me – ”
“You don’t treat me like a brute,” observed Patty.
“No; I treat you as I think of you, – a lovely rose petal of a girl, – who ought not to hear of wars or rumours of wars – ”
“Nothing of the sort, William Farnsworth! If I were that, I’d deserve to be put under a glass bell, and left there to die of asphyxiation! I’m not a silly roseleaf, – I’m a willing, working patriot! Why, I’m as energetic as – as Molly Pitcher or Barbara Frietchie – or Joan of Arc!”
“That’s right, dear, that’s the right spirit! But you know, Pattibelle, you’re not physically fitted to go on the rampage, as your flashing eyes indicate. You’re the sort who must ‘stay, stay at home my heart and rest; homekeeping hearts are happiest.’”
“Little Billee, you do quote the beautifullest poetry! Where do you pick it all up?”
“Oh, I’ve a store of it somewhere in the top of my head. And I mean no disparagement of your enthusiasm, Patty, but you can’t do hard work, and so – ”
“And so I must knit and knit and knit, I s’pose! Billee, dear, when you go to Washington why can’t I go too, and work in the Canteen Department?”
Farnsworth smiled at her. “Do you know what the Canteen Department is?”
“Not exactly; but Louise Dempster has gone to it, – ”
“Oh, it’s the Commissariat Department, but it’s no place for you – ”
“Why?”
“There, there, don’t snap my head off! Only because you’re not robust enough for the work. If you’re going in for real help, there’s always the hospital or ambulance work.”
“I – I couldn’t, Billee! I – I’d faint, I know! Oh, dear, I’m no good, and never was and never will be!”
“Not so very much good to your Uncle Samuel I admit,” and Farnsworth grinned at her, “but a whole heap of good to one of his humble citizens.”
“Which one?”
“This one!” and Bill grabbed her in his arms.
“Drop me,” Patty murmured, half smothered in his shoulder, “somebody’s coming!”
“Let ’em!” But he set her down and began to speak seriously. “You do all you can for the Red Cross, dear, and that will be your share. Now, don’t worry over it, or think you ought to get into the game in any other way. You can’t do it, but you can and do accomplish a whole lot, – besides your knitting. Blossom Girl, remember I’m in this world, as well as the rest of the U.
