"Would it amuse your Royal Highness to
learn that you're going home this afternoon?"
"That is but a cruel jest," said Patty, "and so, not amusing. If it
were the truth, it would be good hearing, indeed."
"But it IS the truth, fair lady." Cameron looked at his watch. "In
about an hour, the speedy motor will convey us all back to the busy
mart and to our homes."
"What do you mean?" cried Patty, starting up; for she saw that it
was not a mere jest.
"May I make a speech?" and Cameron took the middle of the floor,
while his hearers sat in breathless silence.
Mrs. Perry had a twinkle in her eye, Kenneth looked hopeful, but the
girls' faces expressed only blank wonder.
"To begin with," said Mr. Cameron, in a cool, even voice, "we're not
quarantined, and never have been. To proceed, Babette has not the
diphtheria, and never has had. In a word, and I trust I shall not be
flayed alive,--this whole affair is a practical joke, which I have
had the honour to perpetrate on Miss Patricia Fairfield, and for
which I claim the payment of a wager made by the fair lady herself!"
Patty's blue eyes stared at him. At first, a furious wave of anger
swept over her, and then her sense of justice made her realise that
she had no right to be angry.
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