"Oh, I know the most of them by this time. She usually reads the
interesting ones out loud, and the ones that aren't interesting she
never answers, so they stop writing. Hurry up; the bell's going to
ring"; and they pushed in among the crowd of girls on the steps of the
recitation-hall.
The bell did ring just as they reached the class-room, and Priscilla
dropped the letters, without comment, into Patty's lap as she went past.
Patty was reading poetry and did not look up. She had assimilated some
ten pages of Shelley since the first bell rang, and as she was not sure
which would be taken up in class, she was now swallowing Wordsworth in
the same voracious manner. Patty's method in Romantic Poetry was to be
very fresh on the first part of the lesson, catch the instructor's eye
early in the hour, make a brilliant recitation, and pass the remainder
of the time in gentle meditation.
To-day, however, the unwonted bulk of her correspondence diverted her
mind from its immediate duty. She failed to catch the instructor's eye,
and the recitation proceeded without her assistance. Priscilla watched
her from the back seat as she read the Yale letter with a skeptical
frown, and made a grimace over the blue and the yellow; but before she
had reached the Hotel A----, Priscilla was paying attention to the
recitation again. It was coming her way, and she was anxiously forming
an opinion on the essential characteristics of Wordsworth's view of
immortality.
Suddenly the room was startled by an audible titter from Patty, who
hastily composed her face and assumed a look of vacuous innocence--but
too late. She had caught the instructor's eye at last.
"Miss Wyatt, what do you consider the most serious limitations of our
author?"
Miss Wyatt blinked once or twice. This question out of its context was
not illuminating. It was a part of her philosophy, however, never to
flunk flat; she always crawled.
"Well," she began with an air of profound deliberation, "that question
might be considered in two ways, either from an artistic or a
philosophic standpoint."
This sounded promising, and the instructor smiled encouragingly. "Yes?"
she said.
"And yet," continued Patty, after still profounder deliberation, "I
think the same reason will be found to be the ultimate explanation of
both."
The instructor might have inquired, "Both what?" but she refrained and
merely waited.
Patty thought she had done enough, but she plunged on desperately: "In
spite of his really deep philosophy we notice a certain--one might
almost say _dash_ about his poetry, and a lack of--er--meditation which
I should attribute to his immaturity and his a--rather wild life. If he
had lived longer I think he might have overcome it in time."
The class looked dazed, and the corners of the instructor's mouth
twitched. "It is certainly an interesting point of view, Miss Wyatt,
and, as far as I know, entirely original."
As they were crowding out at the end of the recitation Priscilla pounced
upon Patty. "What on earth were you saying about Wordsworth's youth and
immaturity?" she demanded. "The man lived to be over eighty, and
composed a poem with his last gasp."
"Wordsworth? I was talking about Shelley."
"Well, the class wasn't."
"How should I know?" Patty demanded indignantly. "She said 'our author,'
and I avoided specific details as long as I could."
"Oh, Patty, Patty! and you said he was wild--the lamblike Wordsworth!"
"What were you laughing at, anyway?" demanded Georgie.
Patty smiled again. "Why, _this_" she said, unfolding the Hotel A----
letter. "It's from an Englishman, Mr. Todhunter, some one my father
discovered last summer and invited out to stay with us for a few days.
I'd forgotten all about him, and here he writes to know whether and when
he may call, and, if so, will it be convenient for him to come to-night.
That's a comprehensive sentence, isn't it? His train gets in at
half-past five and he'll be out about six."
"He isn't going to take any chances," said Priscilla.
"No," said Patty; "but I don't mind. I invited him to come out to dinner
some night, though I'd forgotten it. He's really very nice, and, in
spite of what the funny papers say about Englishmen, quite
entertaining."
"Intentionally or unintentionally?" inquired Georgie.
"Both," said Patty.
"What's he doing in America?" asked Priscilla. "Not writing a book on
the American Girl, I hope."
"Not quite as bad as that," said Patty. "He's corresponding for a
newspaper, though." She smiled dreamily. "He's very curious about
college."
"Patty, I _hope_ you were not guilty of trying to make an Englishman, a
guest in your father's house, believe any of your absurd fabrications!"
"Of course not," said Patty; "I was most careful in everything I told
him. But," she acknowledged, "he--he gets impressions easily."
"It is easy to get impressions when one is talking with you," observed
Georgie.
"He asked me," Patty continued, ignoring this remark, "what we studied
in college! But I remembered that he was an alien in a foreign land, and
I curbed my natural instincts, and outlined the courses in the catalogue
verbatim, and I explained the different methods of instruction, and
described the library and laboratories and lecture-rooms."
"Was he impressed?" asked Priscilla.
"Yes," said Patty; "I think you might almost say dazed. He asked me
apologetically if we ever did anything to relieve the strain,--had any
amusements, you know,--and I said, oh, yes; we had a Browning and an
Ibsen club, and we sometimes gave Greek tragedies in the original. He
was positively afraid to come near me again, for fear I'd forget and
talk to him in Greek instead of English."
In view of the facts, Patty's friends considered this last remark
distinctly humorous, for she had flunked her freshman Greek three times,
and had been advised by the faculty to take it over sophomore year.
"I hope, since he's a newspaper writer," said Priscilla, "that you'll do
something to lighten his impression, or he'll never favor women's
colleges in England."
"I hadn't thought of that," said Patty; "perhaps I ought."
They had reached the steps of the dormitory. "Let's not go in," said
Georgie; "let's go down to Mrs. Muldoon's and get some chocolate cake."
"Thank you," said Priscilla; "I'm in training."
"Soup, then."
"Can't eat between meals."
"You come, then, Patty."
"Sorry, but I've got to take my white dress down to the laundry and have
it pressed."
"Are you going to dress up for him to the extent of evening clothes?"
"Yes," said Patty; "I think I owe it to the American Girl."
"Well," sighed Georgie, "I'm hungry, but I suppose I might as well go in
and dress that doll for the College Settlement Association. The show's
to-night."
"Mine's done," said Priscilla; "and Patty wouldn't take one. Did you see
Bonnie Connaught sitting on the back seat in biology this morning,
hemming her doll's petticoat straight through the lecture?"
"Really?" laughed Patty. "It's a good thing Professor Hitchcock's
near-sighted."
The College Settlement Association, by way of parenthesis, was in the
habit of distributing three hundred dolls among the students every year
before Christmas, to be dressed and sent to the settlement in New York.
The dolls were supposed to be so well dressed that the East Side mothers
could use them as models for the clothing of their own children, though
it must be confessed that the tendency among the girls was to strive for
effect and not for detail. On the evening before the dolls were to be
shipped a doll show was regularly held, at which two cents admittance
was charged (stamps accepted) to pay the expressage.
* * * * *
IT was ten minutes past six, and Phillips Hall (such of it as was not
late) was dining, when the maid arrived with Mr. Algernon Vivian
Todhunter's card. Patty, radiant in a white evening gown, was trying,
with much squirming, to fasten it in the middle of the back.
"Oh, Sadie," she called to the maid, "would you mind coming in here and
buttoning my dress? I can't reach it from above or below."
"You look just beautiful, Miss Wyatt," said Sadie, admiringly.