After all, was there a
hidden self, a buried forest within her soul which she had never
discovered?
"But Patty has not given you her message!" she exclaimed, startled and
confused by the strangeness of the sensation.
"Oh, there isn't much to tell," answered Patty, wondering if she could
ever learn, even if she practised every day, to speak and move like
Corinna. "It was only that you ought to stand by your friends."
"To stand by my friends," repeated Vetch; then he drew in his breath
with a whistling sound. "Well, I like his impudence!" he exclaimed.
Corinna rose with a laugh. "So do I," she observed, "and he seems to
possess it in abundance." Then she folded Patty in a light and fragrant
embrace. "You must be the belle of the ball," she said. "I have a genius
for being a chaperon."
When she had gone, and they watched her car pass the monument, the girl
turned back into the hall, with her hand clinging tightly to Vetch's
arm.
"Father, what do you suppose that message meant?"
"Is it obliged to mean anything?"
"Things generally do, don't they?"
Vetch smiled as he looked down at her; but his smile conveyed anxiety
rather than amusement to her observant eyes.
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