"It's just as pretty as the other porch," Elise decided, looking critically at the festoons of wistaria, which was on three sides of the house. "But I'll adopt the first one. Anybody looking for me will find me there--'most always."
"We're always looking for you," said Channing, gallantly, as he took up his teacup, "and it is a comfort to know where to find you. Of late you've been inaccessible."
"Not to you," and Elise glanced coquettishly from under her eyelashes.
"To me, then," put in Van Reypen. "I've not seen you, Elise, since I came back from Over There. You've grown a lot, haven't you?"
"Mercy no! I mean mentally. You seem more--more grown up like."
"Everybody is, since the war work. Yes, Phil, I have grown,--I hope."
"There, there," warned Patty; "no serious talk just now, please,--and no war talk. For the moment, I claim your attention to my new house and its surroundings."
"Some claim you've staked out," and Chick grinned. "I want to see it all. And,--moreover,--I want to see the rest of the family!"
Patty beamed. "You dear!" she cried; "do you really want to see my daughter?"
"_My_ daughter," Farnsworth added; "but I didn't know you chaps would be interested in our infant prodigy. I never cared about seeing other people's babies."
"I do," stoutly insisted Channing. "I'm a connoisseur on kiddies. Let me see him."
"He isn't him," laughed Patty, "he's a she."
"So much the better," Chick avowed. "I love girl babies. Where is she?"
"You can't see her now, she's probably asleep. To-morrow she'll be on exhibition. I hear a car! It must be Mona!"
"I'll go and fetch her," said Farnsworth, springing up, and after a short time he returned with two newcomers, Mona Farrington and her husband, Roger.
Then there was more greeting and exclamation and laughter, as the latest guests admired the new home, and accepted Patty in her becoming role of hostess.
"To think of little Patty as the chatelaine of this palatial ménage!" said Roger, "and actually acting as if it belonged to her!"
"It isn't palatial," corrected Patty, "but it _does_ belong to me,--that is, to me and my friend William. He vows I claim the baby for all my own property,--but I'll accord him a share in the place."
"It _all_ belongs to me," said Farnsworth, with a careless sweep of a big arm. "The wistaria, Patty, the baby, and all!"