"
Frank confided to Patty afterward that he felt like responding that the
sailing party had had quite enough of her, but instead he said politely:
"Oh, don't be so easily discouraged! Better luck next time."
To which Ethelyn replied, still crossly, "There'll be no next time for
me."
CHAPTER XIX
MORE COUSINS
Patty was not sorry when her Elmbridge cousins concluded their visit, and
the evening after their departure she sat on the veranda with her father,
talking about them.
"It's a pity," she said, "that Ethelyn is so ill-tempered; for she's so
pretty and graceful, and she's really very bright and entertaining when
she is pleased. But so much of the time she is displeased, and then
there's no doing anything with her."
"She's selfish, Patty," said her father; "and selfishness is just about
the worst fault in the catalogue. A selfish person cannot be happy. You
probably learned something to that effect from your early copybooks, but
it is none the less true."
"I know it, papa, and I do think that selfish ness is the worst fault
there is; and though I fight against it, do you know I sometimes think
that living here alone with you, and having my own way in everything, is
making me rather a selfish individual myself."
"I don't think you need worry about that," said a hearty voice, and
Kenneth Harper appeared at the veranda steps. "Pardon me, I wasn't
eavesdropping, but I couldn't help overhearing your last remark, and I
think it my duty to set your mind at rest on that score.
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