A HOUSE PARTY
Somehow or other Mr. Cameron immediately became a prominent factor in
the Fairfield household. He appeared frequently, and even more
frequently he telephoned or he wrote notes or he sent flowers or
messages, until Patty declared he was everlastingly under foot!
But he was so gay and good-natured, so full of pranks and foolery, that
it was impossible to snub him or to be annoyed with him.
He was a civil engineer, having already built up a good-sized business.
But he seemed to be both able and willing to leave his office at any
hour of the day or night for any occasion where Patty was concerned.
But he apparently fulfilled her wishes as to being her friend and chum
and comrade, without falling in love with her.
"He's a thoroughly nice chap," Mr. Fairfield often said; "good-natured
and right-minded, as well as clever and talented."
So, as he was also a favourite with Nan, he dropped in at the Fairfield
house very often, and Patty grew to like him very much.
The opera party had duly taken place and had been a pleasant success.
The musical entertainment was being planned for some weeks hence, as it
was not easy to find a near-by date which suited all concerned.
One morning, as Patty was fluttering around her boudoir and looking
over her mail, the telephone rang and the familiar "Hello, Princess,"
sounded in her ear.
"Hello, most noble Knight," she responded, "what would'st thou of me?"
"A boon so great that I fear to ask it! Won't you promise it in
advance?"
"What I promise in advance, I never fulfil."
"Don't do it, then! I'll ask you first. You see, it's this way. My
angelic and altogether delightful sister Lora lives in Eastchester with
her stalwart husband and a blossom-bud of a kiddy. Now it seems that
there's a wonderful country-club ball up there, and she thinks it will
be nice if you and I should attend that same."
"And what do YOU think about it?"
"Oh, I don't have any thoughts concerning it, until I know what YOU
think. And then, of course, that's precisely what _I_ think."
"When is it?"
"To-morrow night."
"Mercy me! So soon! Well, I haven't anything on for to-morrow night;
but the next night Mr. Van Reypen is making a theatre party for me that
I wouldn't miss for anything."
"H'm! how LOVELY! Well, Princess, what say you to my humble plea?"
"What are your plans? How do I get there?"
"Why, thusly; my sister will invite you to her home, and incidentally
to the ball. She will also ask my cousin Marie and Mr. Harper, who is
not at all averse, it seems to me, to playing Marie's little lamb!"
"Have you noticed that? So have I. Well, go on."
"Well, then, I thought it would be nice if we four should motor out to
Eastchester to-morrow afternoon, go straight to sister's, do up the
ball business and motor back the next day. There's the whole case in a
nutshell. Now pronounce my doom!"
"It seems to me just the nicest sort of a racket, and if your sister
invites me, I shall most certainly accept."
"Oh, bless you for ever! Princess Poppycheek. I shall telephone Lora at
once, and she will write you an invitation on her best stationery, and
she will also telephone you, and if you wish it she will come and call
on you."
"No, don't bother her to do that. I've met her, you know, and if she
either writes or telephones, it will be all right. What time do we
start?"
"About three, so as to make it easily by tea-time."
"I'll be ready. Count on me. Good-bye."
Patty hung up the telephone suddenly, as she always did. She often said
it was her opinion that more time was wasted in this world by people
who didn't know how to say good-bye, than from any other cause. And her
minutes were too precious to be spent on a telephone, after the main
subject of conversation had been finished.
She danced downstairs to tell Nan all about it.
"Very nice party," Nan approved; "I've met Mrs. Perry, you know, and
she's charming. You'll be home Thursday, of course. You know you've a
theatre party that night."
"Yes, I know; I'll be home," said Patty, abstractedly. "What would you
take for the ball, Nan? My pink chiffon or my yellow satin?"
"They're both so pretty, it's hard to choose. The yellow satin, I
think; it's a dream of a frock."
Mrs. Perry wrote a most cordial invitation and also telephoned, saying
how glad she would be to welcome Patty to her home.
And so, the next afternoon, the young people started on their motor
trip.
It was easily accomplished in two hours, and then Patty found herself a
very much honoured guest in Mrs. Perry's pleasant home.
"It's dear of you to come," said the vivacious little hostess, as she
took Patty and Marie to their rooms upon their arrival.
"It's dear of you to ask me." returned Patty; "I love to go to parties,
and I love to go into new people's houses,--I mean people's new
houses,--oh, well, you know what I mean; I mean HERE!"
"The house IS new," said Mrs. Perry, laughing, "but we're getting to be
old people, and we want you young folks to liven us up."
"Old people!" and Patty smiled at the pretty young matron.
"Yes, wait till you see my baby. She's almost three years old! Fancy my
going to balls, with a big girl like that."
"You're just fishing," said Patty, laughingly, "and I shan't humour
you. I know you young mothers! You go to a party, and you're the
belles, and leave all us wall-flowers green with envy!"
Mrs. Perry's eyes twinkled, and she looked so roguish that Patty
exclaimed, "You're exactly like Mr. Cameron! I can well believe you're
his sister."
"Who's he? Oh, you mean Kit! I don't think I ever heard him called Mr.
Cameron before, and it does sound so funny! Can't we persuade you to
say Kit?"
"I don't mind, if he doesn't," said Patty, carelessly. "What a darling
room this is!"
"Yes; this is one of my pet rooms. I always give it to my favourite
guests."
"I don't wonder," and Patty looked round admiringly at the dainty
draperies and pretty appointments of the chamber.
"Marie always has it when she's here; but, of course, she was glad to
give it up to you, and I put her in the blue room just across the hall.
Come now, powder your nose, we must run down to tea. Don't change your
frock."
Patty had worn a little silk house gown under her motor coat, so after
a brief adjustment of her tumbled curls she was ready to go down.
The Perrys' was a modern house of an elaborate type. There were many
rooms, on varying levels, so that one was continually going up or down
a few broad steps. Often the rooms were separated only by columns or by
railings, which made the whole interior diversified and picturesque.
"Such a gem of a house!" exclaimed Patty, as she entered the tea-room.
"So many cosy, snuggly places,--and so warm and balmy."
She dropped into a lot of silken cushions that were piled in the corner
of an inglenook, and placed her feet daintily on a footstool in front
of the blazing fire.
"Awful dinky!" said Kit, as he pushed aside some cushions and sat down
beside Patty, "but a jolly good house to visit in."
"Yes, it is," said Marie, who was nestled in an easy-chair the other
side of the great fireplace. "And it's so light and pleasant. We never
get any sunlight, home."
"Nonsense, Marie," said Kit, "our apartments are unusually light ones."
"Well, it's a different kind of light," protested Marie. "It only comes
from across the street, and here the light comes clear from the
horizon."
"It does," agreed Mrs. Perry, "but we're getting the very last rays
now. Ring for lights, Kit."
"No, sister, let's just have the firelight. It's more becoming, anyway."
So Mrs. Perry merely turned on one pink-shaded light near the tea table
and let her guests enjoy the twilight and firelight.
"Country life is 'way ahead of city existence," remarked Kenneth, as he
made himself useful in passing the teacups. "The whole atmosphere is
different. When I marry and settle down, I shall be a country
gentleman."
"How interesting!" cried Patty. "I should love to see you, Ken,
superintending your gardener and showing him how to plant cabbages!"
"Dead easy," retorted Kenneth; "I'd have a gardener show me first, and
when the next gardener came I could show him."
"Well, I don't want to live in the country," said Kit; "it's great to
visit here, that's what sisters' houses are for; but I couldn't live so
far away from the busy mart. Back to the stones for mine."
When their host, Dick Perry, arrived he came in with a genial, breezy
manner and warmly welcomed the guests.
"Well, well!" he exclaimed, "this IS a treat! To come home at night and
find a lot of gay and festive young people gathered around! Lora, why
don't we do this oftener? Nothing like a lot of young people to make a
home merry. How are you, Marie? Glad to see you again, Miss Fairfield."
Mr. Perry bustled around, flung off his coat, accepted a cup of tea
from his wife, and then, coming over toward Patty, he ordered Kit
Cameron to vacate, and he took his place.
"You're not to be monopolised by that brother-in-law of mine, Miss
Fairfield," he said, as he sat down beside her. "He's a clever young
chap, I admit, but he can't always get ahead of me."
Patty responded laughingly to this gay banter, and the tea hour passed
all too quickly, and it was time to dress for dinner.
"We'll put on our party frocks before dinner," said Mrs. Perry, as she
went upstairs with the girls; "and then we won't have to dress twice.
I'll send you a maid, Miss Fairfield."
"Thank you," said Patty, "but I can look after myself fairly
well,--until it comes to hooking up. I always do my own hair."
"It can't be much trouble," said Mrs. Perry, looking admiringly at the
golden curls, "for it looks lovely whatever way you do it."
Patty slipped on a kimono and brushed out her shining mass of curls. As
Mrs. Perry had rightly said, Patty's coiffure was not troublesome, for
however she bunched up the gleaming mass it looked exactly right. She
twisted it up with care, however, and added a marvellous ornament of a
bandeau, which circled halfway round her head, and above which a gilt
butterfly was tremblingly poised. It was too early to get into her
frock, so Patty flung herself into a big chair before the crackling
fire, and gave herself up to daydreams. She dearly loved to idle this
way and she fell to thinking, naturally, of the home she was visiting
and the people who lived there.
Patty still sat dreaming these idle fancies, when there was a tap at
the door and, in response to her permission, a maid entered.
"I'm Babette," she said, "and I have come to help you with your gown."
"Thank you," said Patty, jumping up; "it's later than I thought. We
must make haste."
With experienced deftness, the French maid arrayed Patty in the
beautiful evening gown of yellow satin, veiled with a shimmering yellow
gauze.
Although unusual for a blonde, yellow was exceedingly becoming to
Patty, and she looked like an exquisite spring blossom in the soft,
sheath-like jonquil-coloured gown.
Her dainty satin slippers and silk stockings were of the same pale
yellow, as was also the filmy scarf, which she knew how to wear so
gracefully.
Her only ornament was a string of pearls, which had been her mother's.
When she was all ready she went slowly down the winding staircase,
looking about her at the interesting house. A broad landing halfway
down showed an attractive window-seat, and Patty sat down there for a
moment.
There seemed to be no one in the hall below, and Patty concluded that
she was early after all, though she had feared she would be late.
In a moment Kit came down and spied her.
"Hello, Princess!" he cried. "You're a yellow poppy to-night,--and a
gay little blossom, too."
"Not yellow poppyCHEEK!" cried Patty, rubbing her pink cheeks in mock
dismay.
"Well, no; only one who is colour-blind could call those pink cheeks
yellow. May I pose beside you, here, and make a beautiful tableau?"
He sat beside Patty on the window-seat, and they wondered why the rest
were so late.
"Prinking, I suppose," said Kit. "How did you manage to get ready so
soon?"
"Why, just because I thought I was late, and so I hurried."
"Didn't know a girl COULD hurry,--accept my compliments." And Kit rose
and made an exaggerated bow.
"What's going on?" said Dick Perry, gaily, as he came downstairs and
paused on the landing.
"Only homage at the shrine of Beauty," returned Kit.
"Let me homage, too," said Mr. Perry, and they both bowed and scraped,
until Patty went off in a gale of laughter and said: "You ridiculous
boys, you look like popinjays! But here comes Marie; now more homage is
due."
Marie came down the steps slowly and gracefully, looking very pretty in
pale green, with tiny pink rosebuds for trimming.
"Good for you, Marie!" exclaimed her cousin. "Your dress gees with Miss
Fairfield's first-rate. You'll do!"
And then the others came, and the merry group went out to dinner.
After dinner they started at once for the country-club ball. It was to
be a very large affair, and, as Patty knew no one except their own
house party, she declared that she knew she'd be a wall-flower.
"Wall-flower, indeed!" said Kit. "Poppies don't grow on walls. They
grow right in the middle of the field, and sway and dance in the
breeze."
"I always said you were a poet," returned Patty, "and you do have the
prettiest fancies."
"I fancy YOU, if that's what you mean," Kit replied, and Patty gave him
a haughty glance for his impertinence.
Then Babette put on Patty's coat, which was a really gorgeous affair.
It was what is known as a Mandarin coat, of white silk, heavily
embroidered with gold, and very quaint she looked in it.
"That thing must weigh a ton," commented Kit. "Why do you girls want to
wear Chinese togs?"
"It's a beautiful coat," said Mrs. Perry, admiringly. "Have you been to
China, Miss Fairfield?"
"No; I never have. This was a Christmas present, and I'm awfully fond
of it. I'm afraid I'm barbaric in my love of bright, glittering things."
"A very civilised little barbarian," said Mr. Perry, and then they all
went off to the ball.
"How many may I have?" said Kit, as he took Patty's programme from her
hand after they were in the ballroom.
"As I don't know any one else, I shall have to dance them all with you
and Ken," returned Patty, demurely.
"Never mind Harper; give them all to me."
Patty looked at him calmly. "I'll tell you what," she said: "you put
down your initials for every dance; then, if I do find any partners I
like better, I'll give them dances; and, if not, you see I'll have you
to depend on."
Cameron stared at her, but Patty looked at him with an innocent smile,
as if she were not asking anything extraordinary.
"Well, you've got a nerve!" the young man exclaimed.
"Why, it was your own proposition that you have all the dances;" and
Patty looked almost offended.
"Poppycheek, you shall have it your own way! You shall have anything
you want, that _I_ can give you." And Cameron scribbled his initials
against every one of the twenty dances on the programme.
"You might have put K. C. to the first and then ditto after that," said
Patty, as she watched him.
"Nay, nay, Pauline!" and Kit gave her a shrewd glance. "Think what
would happen then. You'd give a dance to some other man, maybe, and
he'd set down his initials, and all the rest of the dittos would refer
to him!"
"Poor man! I never thought of that! But it isn't likely there'll be any
others except Ken."
"Oh, don't you worry! Everybody will want an introduction to you, after
they see you dance."
"I don't think much of that for a compliment! I'd rather be loved for
my sweet self alone."
"Have you never been?"
"Many, many times!" and Patty sighed in mock despair. "But my love
affairs always end tragically."
"Your suitors drown themselves, I suppose?"
"Do you mean if I encourage them?"
"Do you know what a silly you are?"
"Do you know what a goose YOU are?"
"Children, stop quarrelling," and Mrs. Perry smiled at the chattering
pair. "Miss Fairfield, several amiable young men of my acquaintance
desire to be presented to you. May I?"
Patty smilingly acquiesced, and in a moment half a dozen would-be
partners were asking for dances.
They looked rather taken aback at sight of Patty's card, but she calmly
explained to them the true condition of things, and they accepted the
situation with smiles of admiration for a girl who could command such
an arrangement. Patty would not give more than one dance to each, as
she wanted to find out which ones she liked best.
Mr. Perry brought up some of his acquaintances, too, and shortly
Patty's programme showed an astonishing lot of hieroglyphics scribbled
over Kit's initials.
"Here are twelve dances you may have for your other friends," said
Patty, to Mr. Cameron. "Take the numbers as I call them off: one, two,
three----"
"Oh, wait a minute! Have you given them all away?"
"No; only the first twelve, so far. But cheer up! I may be able to
dispose of the others."
"You're a naughty, bad, mean little princess; and I don't love you any
more."
Kit looked reproachfully at Patty, with his eyes so full of
disappointment that she relented.
"I didn't give away the first one, really," she said, softly. "I saved
that for you."
"You blessed, dear, sweet little Princess you! Now, don't give away any
more, will you? I know you'll have thousands of requests."
"I'll see about it," was all Patty would promise, and then the music
began and they stepped out on to the dancing floor.