ROSAMOND INSISTS
"What is it, Norn?" asked Patricia rather anxiously.
She eyed the note with an unspoken fear that it might be a message from
her new instructor canceling her enrolment, though Elinor's face did not
show any consternation as she swiftly ran her eye over the brief sheet.
"Of all things!" she murmured with an amused smile, and then read more
carefully, breaking into a ripple of laughter as she finished.
"You certainly have charmed this Rosamond Merton, Miss Pat," she said
with a fond look at the amazed Patricia. "Listen to this."
Patricia's look of amazement grew as Elinor read. Rosamond Merton
invited them to tea with her in her rooms that afternoon, very prettily
insisting that the small sister whose name she thought was Julia, might
make one of the party, since it was to be merely a cosy cup of tea to
better acquaintance.
"I must say she writes very agreeably," commented Elinor, scanning the
lines critically.
"That's just what she is--agreeable," declared Patricia, nodding at the
word. "She seems as though she would never take the trouble to be cross
with anyone. And she's very pretty."
"That settles it," laughed Elinor. "No matter what must be set aside for
it, I see that we must take tea with Rosamond Merton. We must look her
over, Judy, and see if we can let our Miss Pat fall in love with her, as
I perceive she is on the brink of doing."
Judith's anxious look made Patricia laugh. "Don't be afraid I'll make a
silly of myself like I did over Miss Warner and Doris Leighton," she
said lightly. "I'm done with that sort of thing ages and ages ago."
Elinor was deeply interested in this new adventure, and after a late
luncheon and a hasty half hour of breathing practice for Patricia, they
got into their afternoon clothes and went to Artemis Lodge again.
"How familiar it looks today," said Patricia as they rang the shining
brass bell. "Isn't it queer how soon you get used to places? I feel
quite like an old inmate already."
"That's always the way with me, too," agreed Judith. "I felt as though
I'd always lived on that corner near the Dam, just because we spent an
half hour there on each of those two mornings we were in Amsterdam."
The opening of the door put an end to their chat and they followed the
respectable woman through the courtyard again, feeling quite at home
with its quaint quadrangle.
They did not wind their way through any intricate passages, however, for
Rosamond Merton's rooms were near the main entrance at the head of a
little flight of winding stairs, very easy of access from the courtyard
and quite remote from the various offices and salons.
She opened the door immediately on their knock, and there was such a
pretty warmth of welcome in her tranquil manner that Elinor was won at
once, though Judith, who prided herself on her discrimination, did not
completely thaw out until the visit was nearly over.
The rooms, three in number, were furnished with a simple elegance that
appealed strongly to them all, and the undemonstrative manner with which
Rosamond Merton pursued her purpose gave her persistence a charm that
robbed it of all crudity.
"You see, Mrs. Hayden," she said, after tea had been served and they
were chatting comfortably before a small fire in the pleasant sitting
room, "I am really quite selfish in wishing your sister to come with me
for a while--as long as she will, in fact. I am very much alone here,
being the only Tancredi pupil in the house, and I have more room than I
need. I can't possibly use more than two of this suite, one for my
bedroom and the other for a sitting-room. So the small room there is
practically going to waste."
"Do you have to keep it?" asked Elinor, "I should think Miss Ardsley
would be glad to have it----"
"But it belongs with this suite," urged Rosamond quietly. "It has no
door except into these other rooms."
This was so evident a reason for her being burdened with an unnecessary
room that Elinor fell silent for a little space while the others moved
to the other side of the room to look over some fine photographs of the
old French chateaux. Presently her face cleared and she went over to the
table where they were busy with the views.
"Why wouldn't you consent to Patricia having the little room until there
is a vacancy?" she inquired with a tinge of hesitation. "She could pay
you the rent----"
Rosamond Merton broke in with such a decided negation that Patricia gave
up hope, but Elinor persisted gently.
"Really, you know, Miss Pat couldn't possibly come under any other
conditions," she said with sweet finality. "We are very anxious for her
to be here, of course, since Madame Milano urged it; but if you feel
that you can't have her under such circumstances, there's nothing for
it but to wait till someone leaves and she can get a room from Miss
Ardsley."
Rosamond Merton was silent for a long minute, and then she suddenly
smiled her slow smile.
"Since you speak so very positively," she said with a graceful gesture
of resignation, "there is nothing more for me to do than to give in. I
will rent the room----"
"At the rate which they charge you," Elinor gently insisted.
"At the regular Artemis Lodge rates," agreed Rosamond Merton with a
little helpless laugh. "She shall have it entirely to herself as long as
she wants it, and I promise never to intrude unless I'm asked."
This considerate speech so moved Patricia that she burst out with a
grateful offer to obliterate herself part of the time so that her
generous hostess might not feel the loss of the room; but a nudge from
Judith's rather angular elbow curtailed her gratitude, and she allowed
Elinor to voice her thanks, while she tried to catch Judith's eye and
understand the meaning of the prod. Judith turned to the photographs
again and was not to be understood so quickly.
It was decided that the furniture should remain in the little room,
Patricia merely adding her own desk, and that she should retain it until
another room might be secured from Miss Ardsley. Patricia was to move in
the next day and, most alluring of all, Rosamond Merton told her that
she should have regular hours of use of the fine grand piano which stood
in the sitting-room, thereby taking a great load off Patricia's excited
mind.
"I've been wondering how I was to get a piano in that little scrap of a
place," she confessed, "and I didn't see how it could be done, unless I
slept on it at nights and practiced by day. A bed and a piano both
simply couldn't be crammed in."
They parted in great good humor and Patricia felt that she was treading
on air as she went down the winding stair to the courtyard.
"This certainly is my lucky day," she said exultantly, as the gate
closed behind them. "Here I am, a pupil of Tancredi and a member of the
illustrious band of inmates of Artemis Lodge--all at one fell swoop.
Elinor, you've made me tremendously happy by sticking to the point like
you did. I'd never have got the room if it hadn't been for your hanging
on so."
"I tell you what it is, Miss Pat," said Judith with sudden decision in
her tone. "You need somebody to take care of you. If Elinor hadn't
insisted on paying, you'd have lost that room, and if I hadn't stopped
you after you did get it, you'd have thrown away most of the good of it
by making yourself a perfect door-mat."
Patricia gazed with astonishment at this amazing young sister of hers.
"A door-mat?" she repeated blankly. "A door mat?"
"For Miss Merton to walk in upon as often as she liked," retorted Judith
with calm finality. "She's a very encroaching sort of person, Miss Pat.
I can see that. And you want to be sure you are going to be real friends
with her before you let her get too chummy with you."
Patricia burst into a merry peal and even Elinor rippled with amusement
at this way of looking at the matter.
"'Chummy' isn't exactly the word that fits Miss Merton, Ju," she said
gayly. "It sounds suspiciously like unimposing me, rather than the
elegant young lady of the three-room apartment. The only thing I'm
afraid of is that she'll get tired of her bargain before the week is
out. I may be an awful nuisance with my scales and strummings."
Then Judith was scandalized in earnest. The idea of anyone finding Miss
Pat a nuisance was beyond her powers of thought, and she could not even
find words to express her scorn of such an impossible state of things.
Patricia rippled again at the sniff of disgust which Judith made so
prodigious. "Never mind, Judy-pudy, you shall come and look me over
every once in a while and see that I am being well treated. Miss Merton
may be a perfect monster, after all."
Judith was not to be won to speech by any such bald nonsense, and
stalked homeward in thoughtful silence, hardly seeming to hear the gay
chat of the other two in regard to what Miss Pat should or should not
take with her to Artemis Lodge.
At the door of their own apartment Patricia stood quite still with a
rather blank expression.
"We forgot all about asking Doris Leighton," she said. "How perfectly
stupid of us."
Elinor had her key in the door and she flung it open on an unlighted
interior as she spoke.
"Very stupid indeed, my dear," she admitted cheerfully, "but it's too
late to remedy it now. Besides, I don't see how you'd have got a room in
Artemis Lodge in any other way."
"And that was the most important thing, after all," agreed Patricia,
stumbling over a stool in the dimness. "Mercy! What's that?"
The small figure which rose at their approach gave a familiar chuckling
laugh and before it could speak, Judith exclaimed, "Marty Sneath, all by
herself, too!"
And Marty Sneath it proved to be, ahead of her schedule by nearly
twenty-four hours and very much pleased with the chance to be installed
in her new quarters that much sooner than had been planned.
After the lights were turned on and they had all commented encouragingly
on the improvement in Marty's dress and appearance, she gave them an
enlivening account of all that had happened in the village since their
departure, particularly dwelling on the changes in the modest home of
the Sneath family since Danny's removal to the far-away school where Mr.
Long had sent him.
"I tell you it ain't like it used to be," she said with a shake of her
elfish head and a twinkle in her brilliant eyes. "Clara's got real well
and Pop's swore off, and there ain't no lively times like there used to
be. Of course," she prophesied cheerfully, "Pop'll fall off in about a
week--he ain't one to stick to water long, you know. Then I bet there'll
be some scrimmages. He's dead set on Clara goin' for service and she
wants to be a typewriter. And they're both awful set. But it won't be
nothin' without Danny. It's awful flat at home now."
It was rather hard to sympathize with this peculiar point of view, so
they kept to the safer side by asking about Danny, whether he liked the
school, how he was getting on, and what Mr. Long said about him now.
Marty's reports were very satisfactory. Danny was doing finely and Mr.
Long was delighted with his experiment. "He's as braggity about him as
if he'd made our Danny up out of his head," she said with a tinge of
ruffled family pride. "He better look out, though, 'fore he crows too
loud. Our Danny is mighty cute and maybe he's only fooling them
teachers. He ain't no lamb, you know," she ended with an earnestness
that made Patricia uncomfortable for her former favorite.
"He's never had half a chance to want to be good," defended Patricia
warmly. "I've always believed he was better than he behaved."
This seemed to be too deep for Marty, and she turned the subject by
producing a letter from the pocket of her neat blue dress.
"Mrs. Spicer sent this," she said, handing it to Patricia. "She gave me
a whole dollar, too, to spend just as I liked. My, but I felt grand
comin' down on that train with a whole dollar in my purse. I kept holt
on it all the way. I've read about pickpockets, and I ain't forgot
Danny's ways this soon, neither."
Patricia could not deny that Danny must have been a liberal education in
that sort of sleight of hand, but the letter saved her the painful
confession. While Elinor took Marty to her room and Judith explained the
uses of the various conveniences, push buttons and the like, Patricia
devoured the scribbled note.
"Oh, Norn, listen to this," she cried, following the others into
Elinor's room. "Mrs. Nat met a house-party who were going down to Mr.
Long's on the train last night and she was telling them about taking tea
at Artemis Lodge, and Miss Chapin, the senator's daughter Mr. Long is so
devoted to, told her she had a cousin there, who was studying with
Tancredi, and she hoped we'd meet and be friends. Her name--think of
it--her name is Rosamond Merton!"
Elinor looked pleased. "It doesn't really enlighten us much as to her,"
she said. "But it's rather nice to locate her even in that remote way."
Judith tossed her pale mane in quite her old superior manner. "How
childish you are, Elinor," she commented. "Cousins aren't much alike.
Miss Warner wasn't a scrap like Mr. Bingham. Patricia will have to find
out everything for herself--everything that Doris Leighton can't tell
her."
"Pooh, I shan't bother Doris now," said Patricia easily. "I'm in for a
while at least, and it would seem like spying to ask questions. I'm too
thankful to be in Artemis Lodge to be so awfully finicky."
Judith tossed her head again.
"Oh, well, you never are very sensible, Miss Pat," she returned loftily.
"You never see beyond a pretty face. It takes others to watch over you."
The ripples which greeted this somber speech did not seem to be wholly
distasteful to her, though she hid her exact state of mind by taking
Marty off to exhibit the studio to her and to explain the mysteries of
oil cups and brush pots.
Patricia looked lovingly after her. "Judy's up to some of her old
tricks, Norn," she hazarded. "I shouldn't be surprised if she set up a
regular detective agency around my new friend and made a whole set of
new thrilling tales about her."