PRINCESS POPPYCHEEK
On the night of the musicale at Marie Homer's, her talented cousin
arrived long before any guests were expected.
"I couldn't wait, Aunt Frances," he said, as Mrs. Homer greeted him.
"I'm so impatient to see My Girl."
Kit had told the Homers of the telephone conversations, because he was
so anxious to find out his lady's name. Of course, he had not told all
they said, and from his incoherent ravings about a black-haired beauty
Marie never guessed he could mean Patty.
"You're a foolish boy, Kit," said his Aunt.
"I don't believe that girl is any one we know, but is some mischievous
hoyden who is leading you a dance. You won't see her to-night,--if you
ever do."
"Then I shall think up the easiest death possible, and die it,"
declared Kit, cheerfully. "Why, you know, Aunt Frances, I never took
any interest in a girl before, except of course Marie and Bee, but this
girl is so different from everybody else in the world. Her voice is
like a chime of silver bells,--and her laugh----"
"There, there, Kit, I haven't time to listen to your rhapsodies! You're
here altogether too early, and you'll have to excuse me, for I have
some household matters to look after. Marie isn't quite dressed yet, so
you'll have to amuse yourself for awhile. Play some sentimental music
on your violin, if that fits your mood."
With a kindly smile at her nephew, Mrs. Homer bustled away, and Kit was
left alone in the music-room.
He played some soft, low music for a time, and then Marie came in.
"You're an old goose, Kit," she remarked, affectionately, "to think
that mysterious girl of yours will be here to-night. There isn't
anybody who knows me well enough to come without an invitation, that I
haven't already invited. I've added to my list of invitations until it
now numbers about thirty, and that's all the really musical friends I
have. If this girl of yours sings as well as you say, she's probably a
soubrette or a chorus girl."
"Nothing of the sort!" Kit exclaimed. "She's the sweetest, daintiest,
refinedest, culturedest little thing you ever saw!"
"How do you know? You haven't seen her."
"No, but I've talked with her. I guess I know." And Kit turned
decidedly sulky, for he began to think it WAS rather doubtful about his
seeing his girl that evening.
And then the guests began to arrive, and Mr. Kit put on a smiling face
and made himself agreeable to his cousin's friends.
Patty came among the latest arrivals. She looked her prettiest in a
filmy gown of pale-blue chiffon, with touches of silver embroidery. An
ornament in her hair was of silver filigree, with a wisp of pale-blue
feather, and her cheeks were a little pinker than usual.
Kit glanced at her as she came in, and, though he noticed that she was
an extremely pretty girl, he immediately glanced away again and
continued his watch for the black-eyed girl he expected. The room was
well filled by this time, and Patty took a seat near the front, where
sat a group of her intimate friends. They greeted her gaily, and Kit,
on the other side of the room, paid no attention to them.
The programme began with a duet by Kit on his violin, and his Cousin
Marie at the piano.
The man was really a virtuoso, and his beautiful playing held the
audience spellbound. Patty watched him, enthralled with his music, and
admiring, too, his generally worth-while appearance.
"He does look awfully jolly," she thought, to herself, "and it's plain
to be seen he has brains. I wonder if he will be terribly disappointed
in me, after all. I've a notion to run away."
For the first time in her life Patty felt shy about singing. Usually
she had no trace of self-consciousness, but to-night she experienced a
feeling of embarrassment she had never known before. She realized this,
and scolded herself roundly for it. "You idiot!" she observed,
mentally, to her own soul; "if you want to make a good impression,
you'd better stop feeling like a simpleton. Now brace up, and do the
best you can, and behave yourself!"
Miss Curtiss sang before Patty did. She was a sweet-faced young woman,
with a beautiful and well-trained contralto voice. Patty cast a furtive
glance at Kit Cameron, and found that he was looking intently at the
singer. She knew perfectly well he was wondering whether this might be
the girl of the telephone conversations, and she saw, too, that he
decided in the negative, for he shook his head slightly, but with
conviction.
Suddenly the humour of the whole situation struck Patty. The incident
was not serious, but humorous, and as soon as she realised this her
shyness disappeared, and the spirit of mischief once again took
possession of her. She knew now she would do herself credit when she
sang, and when her turn came she rose and walked slowly and gracefully
to the platform which had been temporarily placed for the musicians.
Marie was to play her accompaniment, and Patty had expected to sing
first a somewhat elaborate aria, using "Beware" as an encore.
But as she reached the platform, and as she noticed Kit Cameron's face,
its expression politely interested, but in no wise enthusiastic, she
suddenly changed her mind. She put the music of "Beware" on the piano
rack, and murmured to Marie, "This one first."
Marie looked puzzled, but of course she couldn't say anything as Patty
stood waiting to begin.
For some reason Patty was always at her prettiest when she sang. She
thoroughly enjoyed singing, and she enjoyed the evident pleasure it
gave to others. She stood gracefully, her hands lightly clasped before
her, and the added excitement of this particular occasion gave a flush
to her cheek and a sparkle to her blue eyes that made her positively
bewitching.
And then she sang the foolish little song, "Beware," just as she had
sung it over the telephone, coquettishly, but without artificiality or
forced effect.
She scarcely dared look at Kit Cameron. A fleeting glance showed her
that he was probably at that moment the most nonplussed young man in
existence.
She looked away quickly, lest her voice should falter from amusement.
Luckily, all the audience were regarding Patty attentively, and had no
eyes for the astonished face of Kit Cameron. He had taken no special
interest in the blonde singer, but when her first notes, rang out he
started in surprise. As the voice continued he knew at once it was the
same voice he had heard over the telephone, but he couldn't reconcile
the facts. He caught the fleeting glance she gave him, he saw the
roguish smile in her eyes, and he was forced to believe that this girl
was his dark-eyed unknown.
"The little rascal!" he said, to himself. "The scamp! the rogue! How
she has tricked me! To think she was Patty Fairfield all the time! No
wonder Marie didn't know whom I was talking about! Well!"
As the song finished no one applauded more enthusiastically than Kit
Cameron.
But Patty would not look toward him, and proceeded to sing as an encore
the aria she had intended to sing first.
She was in her best voice, and she sang this beautifully, and, if the
audience was surprised at the unusual order of the selections, they
were unstinted in their applause.
Leaving the stage, instead of returning to her seat, Patty stepped back
into the next room, which was the library.
Cameron was there to receive her. He had felt sure she would not return
to the audience immediately, and he took the chance.
He held out both hands and Patty laid her hands in his.
"Captive Princess," he murmured.
"My Knight!" Patty whispered, and flashed a smile at him.
"Can you EVER forgive the things I said?" he asked, earnestly, as he
led her across the room and they sat down on a divan.
"There's nothing to forgive," she said, smiling; "you detest blondes, I
know, but I'm thinking seriously of dyeing my hair black."
"Don't! that would be a sacrilege! And you MUST remember that I told
you I always adored blondes, until you told me you were brunette."
"But I didn't," said Patty, laughing. "Somehow you got the notion that
I was dark, and I didn't correct it. Are you TERRIBLY disappointed in
me?"
Naughty Patty raised her heavenly blue eyes and looked so like a fair,
sweet flower that Kit exclaimed:
"Disappointed! You are an angel, straight from heaven!"
"Nonsense! If you talk like that, I shall run away."
"Don't run away! I'll talk any way you like, but now that I have found
you I shall keep you. But I am still in depths of self-abasement.
Didn't I say most unkind things about Miss Fairfield?"
"No unkinder than I did. We both jumped on her, and said she was vain
and horrid."
"_I_ never said such dreadful things! I'm sure I didn't. But, if I did,
I shall spend the rest of my life making up for it. And I called you
Poppycheek!"
Cameron looked at Patty's cheeks in such utter dismay that she laughed
outright.
"But you know," she said, "there are pink poppies as well as scarlet.
Incidentally there are white and there are saffron yellow."
"So there are," said Cameron, delightedly. "How you DO help a fellow
out! Well, yours are just the colour of a soft, dainty pink poppy that
is touched by the sunlight and kissed by a summer breeze."
"I knew you were a poet," said Patty, smiling, "but I don't allow even
a summer breeze to kiss my cheeks."
"I should hope not! A summer breeze is altogether too promiscuous with
its kisses. I hope you don't allow any kisses, except those of your own
particular swansdown powder puff."
"Of course I don't!" laughed Patty, and then she blushed furiously as
she suddenly remembered how Farnsworth had kissed both her cheeks the
night of Christine's wedding.
"I see you're blushing at a memory," said Cameron, coolly; "I suppose
the powder puff was too audacious."
"Yes, that's it," said Patty, her liking for this young man increased
by the pleasantry of his light banter. "And now we must return to the
music-room. I came here a moment to catch my breath after singing; but
how did you happen to be here?"
"I knew you'd come here; ostensibly, of course, to catch your breath,
but really because you knew I'd be here."
"You wretch!" cried Patty. "How dare you say such things! I never
dreamed you'd be here; if I had, I shouldn't have come."
"Of course you wouldn't, you little coquette! It's your nature to be
perverse and capricious. But your sweet good-humour won't let you carry
those other traits too far. Oh, I know you, My Girl!"
"I object to that phrase from you," Patty said, coldly, "and I must ask
you not to use it again."
"But you ARE my girl, by right of discovery. By the way, you're not
anybody else's girl, are you?"
"Just what do you mean by that?"
"Well, in other words, then, are you engaged, betrothed, plighted,
promised, bespoke----"
Patty burst out laughing. "I'm not any of those things," she said,
"but, if ever I am, I shall be bespoke. I think that's the loveliest
word! Fancy being anybody's Bespoke!"
"Of course, it's up to me to give you an immediate opportunity," said
Cameron, sighing. "But somehow I don't quite dare bespeak you on such
short acquaintance."
"Faint heart----"
"Oh, it isn't that! I'm brave enough. But I'm an awfully punctilious
man. If I were going to bespeak you, now, I should think it my duty to
go first to your father and correctly ask his permission to pay my
addresses to his daughter."
"Good gracious! How do you pay addresses? I never had an address paid
to me in my life."
"Shall I show you how?" And Cameron jumped up and fell on one knee
before Patty, with a comical expression of a make-believe love-sick
swain.
Patty dearly loved fooling, and she smiled back at him roguishly, and
just at that moment Philip Van Reypen came into the room.
In the dim half-light he descried Patty on the divan and Cameron
kneeling before her, and, as Mr. Van Reypen was blessed with a quick
temper, he felt a sudden desire to choke the talented Mr. Cameron.
"Patty!" Philip exclaimed, angrily.
"Yes, Philip," said Patty, in a voice of sweet humility.
"Come with me," was the stern command.
"Yes, Philip," and Patty arose and walked away with Van Reypen, leaving
Kit Cameron still on his knee.
"Well, I'll be hammered!" that gentleman remarked, as he rose slowly
and deliberately dusted off his knee with his handkerchief; "that girl
is a wonder! She's full of the dickens, but she's as sweet as a peach.
I always did like blondes best, whether she believes it or not. But if
I hadn't, I should now. There's only one girl in the world for me. I
wonder if she is mixed up with that Van Reypen chap. He had a most
proprietary manner, but all the same, that little witch is quite
capable of scooting off like that, just to tease me. Oh, I'll play her
own game and meet her on her own ground. Little Poppycheek!" With a
nonchalant air, Mr. Cameron sauntered back to the music-room, and
seated himself beside Miss Curtiss, with whom he struck up an animated
conversation, not so much as glancing at Patty.
Patty observed this from the corner of her eye, and she nodded her head
in approval.
"He's worth knowing," she thought; "I'll have a lot of fun with him."
The programme was almost over, but Kit was to play once again. With
Marie, he played a fine selection, and then, as he was tumultuously
encored, he went back to the platform alone. Without accompaniment he
played the little song, "Beware," that Patty had sung, and,
improvising, he made a fantasia of the air. He was clever as well as
skilled, and he turned the simple little melody into thrilling,
rollicking music with trills and roulades until the original theme was
almost lost sight of, only to crop up again with new intensity.
Patty listened, enthralled. She loved this sort of thing, and she knew
he was playing to her and for her. The strains would be now softly
romantic, now grandly triumphant, but ever recurring to the main
motive, until one seemed fairly to see the fickle maiden of the song.
When it was ended, the room rang with applause. Cameron bowed simply,
and laying aside his violin, went straight to Patty and sat down by
her, coolly appropriating the chair which his cousin Marie had just
left.
"I made that for you," he said, simply. "Did you like it?"
"Like it!" exclaimed Patty, her blue eyes dancing; "I revelled in it!
It was wonderful! Was it really impromptu?"
"Of course. It was nothing. Any one can play variations on an old song."
"Variations nothing!" remarked Patty. "It was a work,--a chef
d'oeuvre,--an opus!"
"Yes; Opus One of my new cycle." "What are you two talking about?" said
Marie, returning. "Have you found your girl, Kit? What do you think,
Patty?--Kit's crazy over a black-eyed girl whom he doesn't know!"
"Is he?" said Patty, dropping her eyes demurely.
"I found My Girl, Marie," Cameron announced, calmly; "I find I made a
trifling mistake about her colouring, but that's a mere detail. As it
turns out, the lady of my quest is Miss Fairfield."
"Good gracious, are you, Patty?" said Marie, impetuously; "are you
Kit's girl?"
"Yes; I am," and Patty folded her hands with a ridiculous air of
complacency.
"Patty!" growled Van Reypen, who was sitting behind her.
"Yes, Philip," said Patty, sweetly, turning partly round.
"Behave yourself!"
"I am behaving, Philip," and Patty looked very meek.
"Of course you are," said Marie; "you're behaving beautifully. And you
look like an angel, and you sang like a lark, and if you're Kit's Girl,
I'm glad of it. Now come on, everybody's going to supper."
"You come along with me," said Philip Van Reypen, as he took Patty by
the arm.
"Why?" And Patty looked a little defiant at this command.
"Because I want you to. And I want you to stop making up to that
Cameron man."
"I'm not, Philip; he's making up to me."
"Well, he'd better stop it! What was he doing on his knees before you
in the library?"
"I don't remember," said Patty, innocently. "Oh, yes, he was telling me
my cheeks were red, or some foolishness like that."
"And your eyes were blue, I suppose, and your hair was yellow! Didn't
you know all those things before?"
"Why, Philip, how cross you are! Yes, I've known those things for
nineteen years. It's no surprise to me."
"Patty, I'd like to shake you! Do you know what you are? You're just a
little, vain, silly, babbling coquette!"
"I think that's a lovely thing to be! Do you want me to babble to you,
Philip, or shall I go and babble to somebody else?"
"Don't babble at all. Here's a chair. You sit right down here, and eat
your supper. Here's another chair. You lay your shawl and bonnet on
that, to keep it for me, and I'll go and forage for some food."
Patty laid her scarf and fan on the chair to reserve it for Philip, but
she was not unduly surprised when Mr. Cameron came along, picked up her
belongings, and seated himself in the chair.
"That's Mr. Van Reypen's chair," said Patty; "if he finds you there,
he'll gently but firmly kill you."
"I know it," said Kit, placidly; "but a Knight is always willing to
brave death for his Lady."
"But I don't want you killed," said Patty, looking sad, "I wouldn't
have anybody to telephone to."
"If I run away then, to save my life, will you telephone me to-night?"
"Indeed I won't! that's all over. But please, Mr. Cameron, run away,
for here comes Philip, with both hands full of soup, and I know he
wouldn't hesitate to scald you with it."
Mr. Cameron arose, as Mr. Van Reypen came in, and with an air of
willingly relinquishing his seat to Philip, he said, "My Girl's Orders."
Philip didn't hear it, but Patty did, and she blushed, for Cameron's
departure that way showed greater deference to her wishes than if he
had stayed with her.
"What did he say?" Philip asked, as he offered Patty a cup of bouillon,
and then sat down beside her.
"He said you were such a sweet-tempered man, he didn't wonder I liked
you," and Patty beamed pleasantly.
"I would be sweet-tempered, Patty, if you didn't tease the very life
out of me!"
"Now, Philip, you wouldn't be much good if you couldn't stand a little
teasing."
"Go ahead, then; tease me all you like," and Van Reypen looked the
personification of dogged endurance.
"I will!" said Patty, emphatically, and then some others joined them,
and the group began to laugh and talk together.
"Your cousin is stunning, Marie," said Mona Galbraith; "why have we
never met him before?"
"He's a freak," Marie said, laughingly. "I couldn't persuade him to
come to my valentine party, and to-night I couldn't keep him away! All
musicians are freaks, you know."
"He's a musician, all right," said Kenneth Harper. "The things he did
to that simple little song must have made some of the eminent composers
turn in their graves!"
"He's awfully clever at that sort of thing," said Marie; "sometimes
when we're here alone, he'll take a simple little air and improvise the
most beautiful melodies from it."
"Is he amiable?" asked Mona, casually.
"Not very; or rather, not always. But he's a dear fellow, and we're all
fond of him. How did you like him, Patty?"
"I thought he was lovely," said Patty, and Van Reypen glared at her.