Page:Herbert Jenkins - Patricia Brent Spinster.djvu/258

 and breathless by the precipitancy with which she made friends. "I'm sure I will if I possibly can," she replied.

"I want you to come and lunch with us," said Lady Peggy.

"It's very kind of you, I shall be delighted some day," replied Patricia conventionally.

"No, now!" said Lady Peggy. "This very day that ever is. I want you to meet Daddy. He's such a dear. Goddy will come, so you won't be lonely," she added.

"I'm afraid I've got" began Patricia.

"Please don't be afraid you've got anything," pleaded Lady Peggy. "If you've got an engagement throw it over. Everybody throws over engagements for me."

"But" began Patricia.

"Oh, please don't be tiresome," said Lady Peggy, screwing up her eyebrows. "I shall have all I can do to persuade Goddy to come, and it's so exhausting."

"I will come with pleasure," said Elton, "if only to protect Miss Brent from your overwhelming friendliness."

"Oh, you odious creature!" cried Lady Peggy, then turning to Patricia she added with mock tragedy in her voice, "Oh! the love I've languished on that man, the gladness of the eyes I have turned upon him, the pressures of the hand I've been willing to bestow on him, and this is how he treats me." Then with a sudden change