Small wonder, then, that the library was the favourite room in the house and that after dinner Patty proposed they go there for their coffee.
"Some room!" ejaculated Chick Channing, as they sauntered in and stood about, gazing at the wealth of books.
"Glorious!" agreed Mona, who had a mere pretence of a library in her own home. "I didn't know you were so literary, Patty."
"Oh, I'm not. It's Little Billee's gigantic intellect that planned this room, and he's the power that keeps it going. Every week he sends up a cartload of new books--"
"Oh, come, now, Patty,--I haven't bought a book for a fortnight!" laughed Farnsworth. "But I've just heard of a fine old edition of Ike Walton that I can get at--"
"There, there, my son, don't get started on your hobby," implored Channing. "We're ignoramuses, Mona and I, and we want to talk about less highbrow subjects."
"Count me on your side," said a smiling girl, whose big gray eyes took on a look of awe at the turn the conversation had taken. "I don't know if Ike Walton is a book or a steamboat!"
The speaker was Beatrice Gale, a neighbour of the Farnsworths. She was pretty and saucy looking,--a graceful sprite, with a dimpled chin, and soft brown hair, worn in moppy bunches over her ears. She was called Betty by her friends, and Patty and Bill had already acquired that privilege.
"Now, Betty," and Patty shook her head at her, "you are a college graduate as well as a débutante,--you _must_ know old Ike!"
"But I don't! You see, my début meant so much more to me than my commencement, that all I ever learned at college flew out of my head to make room for all I'm going to learn in society."
"Have you much left to learn?" asked Elise, looking at the piquant face that seemed to show its owner decidedly conversant with the ways of the world,--at least, her own part in it.
"Oh, indeed, yes! I only know how to smile and dance. I'm going to learn flirting, coquetry and getting engaged!"
"You're ambitious, little one," remarked Van Reypen. "Have you chosen your instructors?"
"I'm sure you won't need any," put in Elise, who was already jealous of Philip's interested looks at the new girl. "I think you could pass an efficiency examination already!"
"You ought to know," said Betty, with such an innocent and demure look at Elise, that it was difficult to determine whether she meant to be impertinent or not.