His tone was gay again, and glad that the tension of the situation was relieved, Patty went with him to the valentine tables.
“Here’s a dandy!” remarked the pretty girl who was selling them. “New idea, too. Funny and yet clever! Want one?”
Herron took the one offered, and smiled as he read its lines.
“You wouldn’t dare send _that_ to your fiance!” he said, laughingly.
Carelessly, Patty glanced at it. It was a well-done little sketch of a lover and his lass, leaning over a rustic stile, in true valentine fashion. Cupids and turtle-doves hovered above, and hearts and darts formed a conventional margin.
“Our love is high as Heaven And wide as rolling sea; The vows cannot be riven That bind my love and me. But should our pledge be broken, Or should your love be dead, Send back this tender token And let us never wed.”
“Good gracious!” laughed Patty, “what a woe-begone outlook for such a happy-looking pair! And I’m sure such a dismal foreboding could never come true for these rustic swains! They’re a real Strephon and Chloe couple!”
“All the same, I see you don’t take my dare.”
“I dare you to send that valentine to Captain Farnsworth.”
“What! You think I hesitate, lest he return it to me!” The absurdity of this struck Patty as very funny, and she laughed outright.
“Yes, I think so,” and Herron laughed, too.
“How ridiculous you are! Why, I’d just as lief send that as not!”
“Go ahead, and do it, then. Prove your words.”
“Will you buy it for me, at a goodly price?”
“All right. What’s the price, Maisie?” Greatly amused, the gay little sales-girl said, “Ten dollars, sir.”
A little daunted, but true to his word, Herron paid the price, and took Patty to the library, where there was a desk made ready for any who desired to address and despatch their missives then and there.
Patty wrote Farnsworth’s Washington address, and Herron held out his hand for the envelope.
“I’ll mail it as I go home,” he said, and Patty gave it to him.
The whole incident made little impression on her, for though she didn’t particularly admire the valentine, nor did she care for the so-called “poetry” on it, yet, at the same time, it meant an extra ten dollar bill in the coffers of the committee, and that was well worth while.
