AN UNATTAINED AMBITION
To say that Boxley Hall was in readiness for the party would be stating
it very mildly. It was overflowing,--yes, fairly bursting with readiness.
New Year's day was on Thursday, and Patty had decreed that on that day
none of the Elliotts should go to Boxley Hall until they came as guests.
Dinner was to be at two o'clock, and in the morning Patty and her father
went over to their new home together.
"Just think, papa," said Patty, squeezing his hand as they went along,
"how many times we have walked--and run, too, for that matter--from Aunt
Alice's over to our house; but this time it's different. We're going to
stay, to live, really to _reside_ in our own home; and whenever we go to
Aunt Alice's again, it will be to visit or to call. Oh, isn't it
perfectly lovely! If I can only live up to it, and do things just as you
want me to."
"Don't take it too seriously, Pattikins; I don't expect you to become an
old and experienced housewife all at once. And I don't want you to wear
yourself out trying to become such a personage. Indeed, I shall be
terribly disappointed if you don't make ridiculous mistakes, and give me
some opportunity to laugh at you."
"You are the dearest thing, papa; that's just the way I want you to feel
about it; and I think I can safely promise to make enough blunders to
keep you giggling a good portion of the time."
"Oh, don't go out of your way to furnish me with amusement. And now, how
about your party to-day? Is everything in tip-top order?"
"Yes, except a few thousand things that I have to do this morning, and a
few hundred that I want you to do."
"I shall see to it, first, that the carving-knife is well sharpened. It's
the first time that I have carved at my own table for a great many years,
and I want the performance to be marked by grace and skill."
"It will be, if you do it, papa; I'm sure of that," and by this time they
had reached the gate, and Patty was skipping along the path and up the
steps, and into the door of her own home.
Mancy and Pansy Potts were already there, and, to a casual observer, it
looked as if there was nothing more to do except to admit the guests.
Patty had set the table the day before, and, to the awestruck admiration
of Pansy Potts, had arranged the beautiful new glass and china with most
satisfactory effects. Pansy had watched the proceedings with intelligent
scrutiny and, when it was finished, had told Patty that the next time she
would be able to do it herself.
"You'll have a chance to try," Patty had answered, "for in the evening
we'll have supper, and you may set the table all by yourself; and I'll
come out and look it over to make sure it's all right."
But, as Patty had said, there was yet much to be done on Thursday
morning, even though there were eight hands to make the work light.
Boxes of flowers had arrived from the florist's, and these had to be
arranged in the various rooms; also, a few potted plants in full bloom
had come for the conservatory, and these so delighted the soul of Pansy
Potts that Patty feared the girl would spend the whole day nursing them.
"Come, Pansy," she called; "let them grow by themselves for a while; I
want your help in the kitchen."
"But, oh, Miss Patty, they're daisies! Real white daisies, with
yellow centres!"
"Well, they'll still be daisies to-morrow, and you'll have more time to
admire them then."
Patty's ambitions in the culinary line ran to the fanciful and elaborate
confections which were pictured in the cook-books and in the household
periodicals; especially did she incline toward marvellous desserts which
called for spun sugar, and syllabubs, and rare sweetmeats, and patent
freezing processes.
For her New Year's dinner party she had decided to try the most
complicated recipe of all, and, moreover, intended to surprise
everybody with it.
Warning her father to keep out of the kitchen on pain of excommunication,
she rolled up her sleeves and tied on a white apron; and with her open
book on the table before her, began her proceedings.
Pansy Potts was set to whipping cream with a new-fangled syllabub-churn,
and Mancy was requested to blanch some almonds and pound them to a paste
in a very new and very large mortar.
Though the good-natured Mancy was more than willing to help her young
mistress through what threatened to be somewhat troubled waters, yet she
had the more substantial portions of the dinner to prepare, and there was
none too much time.
As Patty went on with her work, difficulties of all sorts presented
themselves. The cream wouldn't whip, but remained exasperatingly fluid;
the sugar refused to "spin a thread," and obstinately crystallised
itself into a hard crust; the almonds persisted in becoming a lumpy mass,
instead of a smooth paste; and the gelatine, as Patty despairingly
remarked, "acted like all possessed!"
But, having attempted the thing, she was bound to carry it through,
though it was with some misgivings that she finally poured a queer and
sticky-looking substance into the patent freezer.
Pansy Potts had declared herself quite able to accomplish the freezing
process; but, as she was about to begin, she announced in tragic tones
that the extra ice hadn't come.
"Oh!" exclaimed Patty, in desperation, "everything seems to go wrong
about that dessert! Well, Pansy, you use what ice there is, and I'll
telephone for some more, right away."
But when Patty called up the ice company she found that their office was
closed for the day, and, hanging up the receiver with an angry little
jerk, she turned to find her father smiling at her.
"I see you have begun to amuse me," he said; "but never mind about my
entertainment now, Puss; run away and get dressed, or you won't be ready
to receive your guests. It's half-past one now."
"Oh, papa, is it so late? And I have to get into that new frock!"
"Well, scuttle along, then, and make all the haste you can."
Patty scuttled, but during the process of making all the haste she could,
she very nearly lost her temper.
The new white frock was complicated; the broad white hair-ribbons were
difficult to tie; and, as it was the first time that she had made a
toilette in her new home, it is not at all surprising that many useful or
indispensable little articles were missing.
"Pansy," she called, as she heard the girl in the dining-room, "do, for
mercy's sake, come up and help me. I can't find my shoe-buttoner, and I
can't button the yoke of this crazy dress without it."
Pansy came to the rescue, and just as the Elliott family came in at the
front gate, Patty completely attired, but very flushed and breathless
from her rapid exertions--flew downstairs and tucked her arm through her
father's, as he stood in the hall.
"I'm here," she said demurely, and trying to speak calmly.
"Oh, so you are," he said. "I thought a white cashmere whirlwind had
struck me. I _hope_ you didn't hurry yourself."
"Oh, no!" said Patty, meeting his merry smile with another. "I just
dawdled through my dressing to kill time."
"Yes, you look so," said her father, and just then the doorbell rang.
"Oh, papa," cried Patty, her eyes dancing with excitement, "_isn't_ it
just grand! That's the first ring at our own doorbell, our _own_
doorbell, you know; and hasn't it a musical ring? And now it will be
answered by our own Pansy."
Without a trace of the hurry and fluster that had so affected her young
mistress, Pansy Potts, in neat white cap and apron, opened the door to
the guests.
Patty nudged her father's arm in glee, as they noted the correct
demeanour of their own waitress, and then all such considerations were
drowned in the outburst of enthusiasm that accompanied the entrance of
the Elliotts. The younger members of the family announced themselves with
wild war-whoops of delight, and the older ones, though less noisy, were
no less enthusiastic.
"I like Cousin Patty's house," announced Gilbert, sitting down in the
middle of the floor. "I will stay here always. Where is the Pudgy
kitty-cat?"
"I'll get her for you, right away," said Patty. "She is fatter than ever;
but, first, let me make grandma comfortable."
Taking Mrs. Elliott's bonnet and wraps, Patty led the old lady to a large
easy-chair, and announced that she must sit there for a few moments and
rest, before she made a tour of inspection around the house.
Grandma Elliott had not been allowed in the new house while it was being
arranged, lest she should take cold, and so to-day it burst upon her in
all its glory. By this time Frank and Marian were investigating the
conservatory, and little Edith was announcing that Cousin Patty had a
"Crimson Gambler."
"She means Crimson Rambler!" exclaimed Patty; "or, as Pansy calls it,
'that bunchy rosebush.'"
Although the guests had been invited to a two-o'clock dinner, yet when
the clock hands pointed to nearly three, the meal had not been announced.
There was so much to be talked about that the time did not drag, but Aunt
Alice looked at Patty a little curiously.
Patty caught the glance, and excusing herself, went out into the kitchen.
"Mancy!" she exclaimed; "it's almost three o'clock. Why don't you
have dinner?"
"Well, honey, yo' took so much of my time mashin' your old nuts dat my
work got put behind. Dinner'll come on after a while; it's mos' ready."
Patty went back to the parlour, laughing.
"If anybody can hurry up Mancy," she said, "they're welcome to try it. I
didn't realise it was so late, and I'm awfully sorry; but I guess we'll
have dinner pretty soon, now."
"Don't be sorry we're going to have it soon," said Frank; "none of the
rest of us are, I assure you."
Although served about an hour late, the dinner was a great success.
It had been carefully planned; Mancy's cooking was beyond reproach,
and Pansy Potts proved a neat-handed and quick-witted, if
inexperienced, Phyllis.
Encouraged by the general excellence of the courses, as they succeeded
one another, Patty began to hope that her gorgeous dessert would turn out
all right after all.
Seated at the head of her own table, she made a charming little hostess,
and many a glance of happy understanding passed between her and the
gentleman who presided at the other end.
"I say, Patty, it's right down jolly, you having a house of your own,"
said Frank.
"Except that we miss you awfully over home," added Uncle Charley.
"I don't see how you can," said Patty, smiling; "as I took breakfast
there this morning, you haven't yet gathered round your lonely board
without me."
"No, but we shall have to," said Uncle Charley, "and it is that which is
breaking my young heart."
"Well, _this_ is what's breaking _my_ young heart," said Patty, as she
watched Pansy Potts, who was just entering the room with a dish
containing a most unattractive-looking failure.
"I may as well own up," she said bravely, as the dessert was placed in
front of her. "My ambition was greater than my ability."
"Don't say another word," said Aunt Alice. "_I_ understand; those
spun-sugar things are monuments of total depravity."
Patty gave her aunt a grateful glance, and said, "They certainly are,
Aunt Alice; and I'll never attempt one again until I've made myself
perfect by long practice."
"Good for you, my Irish Pat," said Frank; "but, do you know, I like them
better this way. There's an attraction about that general conglomeration
that appeals to me more strongly than those over-neat concoctions that
look as if they had sat in a caterer's window for weeks."
But, notwithstanding Frank's complimentary impulses, the dessert proved
uneatable, and had to be replaced with crackers and cheese and fruit
and bonbons.