“What for? Do you think this is a joy ride?” The conductor radiated sarcasm.

Patsy crimsoned. “I haven’t mine. I—I was to—meet my—aunt—who had the ticket—and—she must have missed the train.”

“Where are you going?”

“I—I—Why, I was telling—My aunt had the tickets. How would I know where I was going without the tickets?”

The conductor snorted.

Patsy looked hard at him and knew the time had come for wits—good, sharp O’Connell wits. [Pg 30]She smiled coaxingly. “It sounds so stupid, but, you see, I haven’t an idea where I am going. I was to meet my aunt and go down with her to her summer place. I—I can’t remember the name.” Her mouth drooped for the fraction of a second, then she brightened all over. “I know what I can do—very probably she missed the train because she expects to be at the station to meet me—I can look out each time the train stops, and when I see her I can get off. That makes it all right, doesn’t it?” And she smiled in open confidence as a sacrificial maiden might have propitiated the dragon.

[Pg 30]

But it was not reciprocated. He eyed her scornfully. “And who pays for the ticket?”

“Oh!” Patsy caught her breath; then she sent it bubbling forth in a contagious laugh. “I do—of course. I’ll take a ticket to—just name over the stations, please?”

The conductor growled them forth: “Hampden, Forestview, Hainsville, Dartmouth, Hudson, Arden, Brambleside, Mayberry, Greyfriars—”

“What’s that last—Greyfriars? I’ll take a ticket to Greyfriars.” She said it after the same fashion she might have used in ordering a mutton chop at a restaurant, and handed the conductor a bill.

When he had given her the change and passed [Pg 31]on, still disgruntled, Patsy allowed herself what she called a “temporary attack of private prostration.”

[Pg 31]

“Idiot!” she groaned in self-address. “Ye are the biggest fool in two continents; and the Lord knows what Dan would be thinking of ye if he were topside o’ green earth to hear.” Whereupon she gripped one vagabond glove with the other—in fellow misery; and for the second time that afternoon her eyes closed with sheer 

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