At times the noted eyes of Atwater & Rooter were gentled o'er with the soft cast of enchantment, especially when Patty felt called upon to reprove the two with little coquetries of slaps and pushes. Noted for her sprightliness, she was never sprightlier; her pretty laughter tooted continuously, and the gentlemen accompanied it with doting sounds so repulsive to Florence that without being actively conscious of what she did, she embodied the phrase, "perfeckly sickening," in the hymn she was crooning, and repeated it over and over to the air of "Rock of Ages."
"Now I tell you what let's play," the versatile Patty proposed, after exhausting the pleasures of "Geography," "Ghosts" and other tests of intellect. "Let's play 'Truth.' We'll each take a piece o' paper and a pencil, and then each of us asks the other one some question, and we haf to write down the answer and sign your name and fold it up so nobody can see it except the one that asked the question, and we haf to keep it a secret and never tell as long as we live."
"All right," said Henry Rooter. "I'll be the one to ask you a question, Patty."
"No," Herbert said promptly. "I ought to be the one to ask Patty."
"Why ought you?" Henry demanded. "Why ought you?"
"Listen!" Patty cried, "I know the way we'll do. I'll ask each of you a question--we haf to whisper it--and each one of you'll ask me one, and then we'll write it. That'll be simply grand!" She clapped her hands; then checked herself. "Oh, I guess we can't either. We haven't got any paper and pencils unless----" Here she seemed to recall her hostess. "Oh, Florrie, dear! Run in the house and get us some paper and pencils."
Florence gave no sign other than to increase the volume of her voice as she sang: "Perf'ly sick'ning, clef' for me, let me perf'ly sick-kin-ning!"
"We got plenty," said Herbert; whereupon he and Henry produced pencils and their professional note-books, and supplied their fair friend and themselves with material for "Truth." "Come on, Patty, whisper me whatever you want to."
"No; I ought to have her whisper me, first," Henry Rooter objected. "I'll write the answer to any question; I don't care what it's about."
"Well, it's got to be the truth, you know," Patty warned them. "We all haf to write down just exackly the truth on our word of honour and sign our name. Promise?"