A SHOWER
"If you ask me," Patty said to Nan, "I think these 'shower' affairs are
ridiculous. All the girls who are coming today will give Mona a
wedding present, so why add a shower gift?"
"I didn't ask you," returned Nan, "but since you raise the question,
I'll just remark, in passing, that it's part of the performance, and
it's no more ridiculous than lots of the other flummery that goes along
with a this year's model wedding. _I_ didn't have any showers,--but
that was then."
"Right you are, Lady Gay, and as Mona most especially desired this mark
of esteem from her friends, I'm glad she's going to have it."
"But I thought showers were usually surprises,--I didn't know the
bride-elect requested one, or even knew of it beforehand."
"Your think is correct. It's most unusual, but Mona is unusual, and
any surprise in connection with her wedding would be impossible. She
knows it all, and the arrangements are all under her direct
supervision. It's going to be a pretty stunning affair, Nansome."
"So I gather from what I hear. While you were at Lakewood, I didn't
get much of the news about it, but since your return I've heard of
nothing else."
"And you won't until after the fifteenth. I declare, Nan, I've had no
time for a real heart to heart talk with you since I got back. I
haven't even told you about the Blaneys."
"Oh, the highbrow people? No; were they interesting?"
"Yes, indeed. You'll meet them at the wedding. Now, see here, I've
asked half a dozen of the crowd to stay to dinner tonight after the
shower, so look after the commissariat, won't you?"
"With pleasure. Who's staying?"
"Oh, Mona and Roger and Elise and Kit Cameron and Phil,--that's all."
"Elise and Kit are pretty good friends, aren't they?"
"Yes, there may be another wedding in the dim future."
"Be careful, Patty. They say 'Three times a bridesmaid, never a
bride,' you know."
"Goodness! I must beware. I was bridesmaid for Christine,--and now
for Mona,--then, if I'm bridesmaid for Elise, my last hope vanishes! I
might be her maid of honor, though. Does that count?"
"Yes, counts just the same. But perhaps you'll be married before
Elise. She isn't engaged yet."
"Neither am I."
"Same as."
"Indeed it _isn't_ same as! Philip made me pretty mad down at
Lakewood. He scorned my new friends, the Blaneys, and he was most
disagreeable about it, too."
"All right. Far be it from me to hasten your matrimonial alliance.
I'm only too glad to keep you here. It's lonesome enough, days when
you're away."
"Nice old Nan!" and Patty gave her a whirlwind hug that nearly took her
off her feet.
Twenty girls were invited to the shower, and Mona arrived first of all.
She came bustling in enveloped in furs, which she unfastened and threw
off as she talked.
"Everything's going fine!" she announced. "I've attended to the very
smallest details myself, so there'll be no mistakes. There always are
mistakes and oversights at a wedding and mine is going to be the great
exception. My, but I'm tired! I've been chasing about since early
this morning. Spent hours with the floral artist, and had a long
interview with the caterer. But I confab with him every day. I've
changed the menu four times already."
"You're a goose, Mona," observed Patty, smiling at her enthusiastic
friend, "what do you care what people eat at your wedding, as long as
it's good and proper?"
"My dear child, I only expect to get married once in my checkered
career, and so I want everything connected with the occasion to be
perfect. I don't want to look back and regret that I didn't have as
much of a symphony in the supper as I did in the orchestra. You don't
know the responsibility of a girl who has to get married and look after
the wedding both. You'll have Mrs. Nan to run the arrangements, but I
haven't anybody but little Mona."
The bride-elect looked so radiant and capable and generally happy, that
Patty knew better than to waste any sympathy on her.
"You love it all, Mona," she said, "you're just in your element
ordering decorations and deciding menus; and I suppose you've
superintended the hat-check people and the elevator service."
"Of course I have. I practically run the whole hotel just at present.
The management have to take a back seat where anything connected with
the fifteenth is concerned."
"It doesn't seem like a wedding at all," laughed Patty. "It is more
like a pageant."
"It's a wedding, all right. You'll realise it when you see me go off
with Roger. Oh, Patty, don't think I don't realise and appreciate the
importance and solemnity of the marriage tie, but I do want the
appointments to be perfect and beautiful just _because_ it is my
wedding to Roger. We're very much in love, you know----"
"I do know it, Mona, and it's all beautiful, and I'm glad you're having
everything just as you want it. You're an old dear, and nobody wishes
you more happiness than I do."
"Don't talk in that strain, or I'll weep on your shoulder. I'm all
keyed up, you know--honest, Patty, it's pretty awful to have no mother
or aunt or anything. Only just a father, who's heavenly kind and
generous, but no good for advice or consulting talks."
"All right, Mona girl, we won't indulge in real talk now, for the girls
will begin to come in a minute. Go and primp a little, and then come
down to the drawing-room."
Patty ran downstairs, Mona soon followed, and then the guests arrived.
In an effort to have a new sort of a shower, Patty had decreed a lace
shower, and many and varied were the gifts. As Patty had wisely
remarked, lace gave a wide scope. One could choose valuable specimens
of real lace or trifling affairs that were pretty and inexpensive.
And so, when the time for their exhibition came the score of merry
young people sat breathlessly awaiting the fun.
In the doorway appeared Elise, in the costume of a Brittany peasant.
She carried a huge white basket ornamented with orange blossoms and
fluttering white ribbons.
"Laces, lady?" she said, approaching Mona. "Nice, pretty laces.
Handiwork of the humble peasants for the grand lady. Accept,--please."
With bows and curtseys, Elise opened the basket and placed it at Mona's
feet.
Delightedly, Mona examined the contents, and at each gift a chorus of
exclamations went up from all the admiring throng.
Patty's offering was a tablecloth of Filet Antique and Venetian
embroidery, and was among the most beautiful in the lot.
Elise gave a berthe of rose point, and Nan a Duchesse lace fan. But
most of the gifts were of a simpler nature, and dainty boudoir pillows,
table scarfs, bags, caps, and handkerchiefs made up the filmy shower
and delighted the heart of the recipient.
Mona was radiant with joy. Although a pampered favourite of fortune,
she was especially fond of receiving gifts, and she loved every
individual lace confection and warmly thanked the donors.
"The things are heavenly, girls," she cried; "perfectly darling, every
one of them! I can't thank you enough, but my heart is just
overflowing with honest-to-goodness gratitude. Oh, I _do_ love 'em
so!" and gathering the whole lot in her arms, she rocked back and forth
in ecstasy. "How did you ever come to think of a lace shower, Patty?
I love lace more than anything on earth--except Roger,--and I shall
furnish my house with these beauty things. Oh, you are all so good to
me!"
Tea was served in the dining-room, and Mona graced the head of the
table, with her bridal attendants on either side of her. The place
cards and favours were all suggestive of the wedding occasion, and, for
a centrepiece, two white doves perched on a basket of white roses.
Mona was in highest spirits and her eyes glistened with pleasure as the
girls assured her of their friendship and love, and wished her all
sorts of future joy and happiness.
Patty looked at her a little curiously, and then she realised that the
girl had lived a loveless life, and that the sudden change to the
atmosphere of love and friendship had well-nigh turned her head.
The guests departed, all but Mona and Elise, who were to stay for
dinner, and the three chums went up to Patty's room to chat.
"I can't believe these things are really mine," said Mona, as she
collected and arranged her laces, preparatory to having them sent home.
"Why is everybody so good to me?"
"Oh, come now, Mona," said Elise, laughing, "it isn't such wonderful
goodness. People always give things to brides. Patty, if you don't
give me a shower like this, I won't get married at all."
"Didn't know you thought of it," returned Patty. "But I'll promise the
shower all right. When shall I invite the girls, Elise?"
"Oh, I haven't picked out the bridegroom yet, so there's no hurry.
I've got to get used to having my brother married, before I think of it
myself. Mona, we'll soon be sisters. Think of that!"
"I've often thought of it, Elise. I've never had a sister, and I
shan't know just how to act at first. But I hope----"
"There now, don't get sentimental! Not but what I feel that way, too,
but you'll get weepy in a minute,--and then it's all up with you!"
"You're so emotional, Mona," said Patty, smiling at her, "and so
capable, and so generally all-round efficient, you're just the one to
get married. Now, when it comes my turn, I don't want all this
hullabaloo,--I think I shall get a good old rope ladder and elope."
"What! and not have any showers and music and reception and everything?"
"Oh, well, I don't know. We'll see when the time comes. But just now,
we must put this affair of yours through. I'm glad there are only a
few more days. I couldn't stand this excitement very long. Come on,
girls, get ready for dinner. The boys will come soon. There's the
bell now. If it's Roger, let Mona go down and see him alone. I'm a
fine gooseberry, don't you think so?"
"It is Roger," Patty announced, a moment later, as she leaned over the
banister to see, "skip along, Mona, we'll be down in ten minutes."
"Isn't she funny?" said Elise, as Patty returned to her room. "I never
saw anybody so crazy."
"She's so excited, she doesn't know whether she's on her head or her
heels," agreed Patty. "Her nature is volatile, and she has no sense of
moderation. She wants everything and all there is of it. That's all."
"She's a good one for Roger. He's inclined to take things lazily.
Mona will be a sort of spur to him."
"They're all right," agreed Patty. "It's an ideal match. Come on,
Elise, we've given them enough time alone."
The girls went down, and then Van Reypen and Kit Cameron appeared.
Dinner was a gay feast, and the elder Fairfields were as much
interested in the chatter as the young people.
"Assert yourself, Roger," said Mr. Fairfield. "Don't let these girls
monopolize the conversation, with their feminine fripperies and
millinery muddles."
"Models, Dad, not muddles," laughed Patty. "But we don't talk about
those much now, they're all finished. Oh, Mona, Genevieve's skirt had
to be all made over----"
"Oh, no," said her father, "you don't talk about them much! Only all
the time, that's all!"
"Let 'em," said Roger, magnanimously; "I've learned in the last few
days, that the hang of Genevieve's skirt is a matter of enormous
magnitude."
"Good!" cried Patty, "Mona has begun training you already. When is
your Bachelor dinner, Roger?"
"Not till Wednesday night. I put it off so Farnsworth could get here."
"Oh, is he coming? I didn't know he was East."
"He wasn't. He's coming on on purpose for the event. I wanted him
especially. At least, Mona did."
"All the same," said Mona. "Oh, yes, of course I wanted Big Bill here.
We've been friends for years, and he must dance at my wedding."
It was the first time Patty had seen Van Reypen since her return from
Lakewood, and, during the evening, he drew her away from the others and
leading her to the semi-privacy of a big davenport in the library, he
announced he was going to talk to her.
"Talk away," said Patty, "but I warn you, I've no time or attention for
anything not connected with wedding bells."
"But this is connected with wedding bells," and Philip's dark eyes
smiled into her own, "only, not Mona's chimes. Our own."
"Don't, Phil," said Patty, gently, noting his serious look and tone.
"I've got four days yet till the fifteenth, and,--oh, pshaw, I might as
well tell you now, that I'm not going to be engaged to you."
"Patty!" and Van Reypen's face went white. "You don't mean that."
"Yes, I do. I've had so much wedding doings for Mona, I'm sick and
tired of it. I don't want to be engaged myself, or hear of anybody
else being engaged, until I forget all about all this fuss and
feathers."
"There does seem to be an awful lot of fussy feathers, or whatever you
call it, about the affair, doesn't there?"
"Yes; and I'm glad to do all I can for Mona. I'm enjoying it, too, but
I don't want any wedding of my own for years and years and years."
"By that time you'll be a pretty old bird. You ticked off a goodly
number of years just then. But, seriously, Patty, I don't want to
bother you----"
"Well, you _do_ bother me. Why, Phil, every single chance you get, you
talk about----"
"About my love for you? I mean to, Patty, but you don't give me a
chance. When I try to tell you of my love and devotion, you break
loose about not wanting to be engaged----"
"Well, of course I do. A girl doesn't want to hear of love and
devotion from a man she isn't engaged to, does she?"
"I don't know. I hope so, in this case. That is, I hope I'm the man
you're going to be engaged to, and soon, so I can tell you of my love
and devotion. They're deep, Patty, deep and true, and----"
"Then why did you treat me so horridly down at Lakewood, just because I
enjoyed having to do with people who had some brains and weren't of the
silly, addle-pated type we meet mostly in our own class of society?"
"But, Patty, dearest, those Blaneys aren't the real things. They
haven't education and genius,--they only pretend they have."
"Phil, I think you're horrid. They have so. Why, Sam Blaney wrote a
poem that's the most beautiful thing I ever read!"
"Let me see it."
"I can't. I promised I wouldn't. It's--it's sort of sacred----"
"A sacred poem! Blaney?"
"No, I don't mean religious. But it's sacred to me,--it's--it's a real
poem, you see."
"Well, he isn't a real poet, by a long chalk! I did think, Patty, that
when you came home from Lakewood you'd forget all that rubbish bunch."
"How you do love to call them names! I don't think it's nice of you,
one bit. They're going to be at the wedding, and I hope you'll be
decent to them then, as they're my friends."
"Oh, I'll be decent to them, but I shan't have any time to waste on
them. I've a matter of my own on hand for that night. A girl I wot of
has promised to give me her answer to a question I asked, and, when the
time comes, I can't help thinking that that girl is going to be kind to
me."
"I dunno," said Patty.