A MERRY QUARTETTE
"Ready for dinner, girls?" sounded a cheery voice, and Mrs. Berry came
bustling in. "Almost, aren't you? Try to remember that Mr. Forbes
doesn't like to be kept waiting."
"I'm scared to death," said Bernice, frankly. "I never know what to say
to Uncle Jeff, anyway, and being a guest makes it all the harder."
"Pooh! I'm not afraid," exclaimed Alicia. "Leave it to me. I'll
engineer the conversation and all you girls need to do is to chip in
now and then."
Alicia was a tall, fair girl, larger than any of the others. She was
plump and jolly-looking, and had a breezy manner that was attractive
because of her smiling good-natured face. She laughed a great deal, and
seemed to have no lack of self-confidence and self-assurance. Her dress
had many fluttering ribbons of vivid pink, and frills of lace of an
inexpensive variety.
She led the way downstairs, calling out, "March on, march on to
victory!" and the others followed.
The four entered the drawing-room, and found there a tall, dignified
gentleman, in full evening dress. He had a handsome face, though a
trifle stern and forbidding of expression, and his closely trimmed
white beard was short and pointed. He had large, dark eyes, which
darted from one girl to the other as the quartette appeared.
"H'm," he said, "this is Bernice; how do you do, my dear? How do you
do?"
"I'm Alicia," announced that spry damsel, gaily, and she caught him by
the hand.
"Yes, and very like your mother, my dear sister. Well, Alicia, if you
possess half her fine traits, you'll make a splendid woman. But I doubt
if you are very much like her except in appearance. You look to me like
a flibbertigibbet,--if you know what that is."
"Yes, and I am one, thank you, Uncle Jeff," and Alicia laughed gaily,
not at all abashed at her uncle's remark.
"These are my two friends from Berwick, uncle," said Bernice,
introducing them. "Dolly Fayre and Dotty Rose."
"You are welcome, my dears," and the courteous old gentleman bowed to
them with great dignity. "I trust you can find amusement and enjoy your
visit here. Now, let us dine."
Dolly looked curiously at her host, as he stood back, and bowed the
girls out of the room, before he followed them, but Dotty was so
interested in the surroundings that she gave no second thought to Mr.
Forbes, as she passed him.
The dining-room was a marvel of old time grandeur. Nothing was modern,
but the heavy black walnut sideboard and chairs spoke of long usage and
old time ways.
Mrs. Berry did not appear at the table, and evidently was not expected,
as no place was set for her.
Mr. Forbes sat at the head, and two girls at either side. A
grave-faced, important looking butler directed the service, and two
footmen assisted. Everything was of the best, and wonderfully cooked
and served, but Dolly and Dotty could scarcely eat for the novelty and
interest of the scene.
"Come, come, Miss Fayre, eat your terrapin," counselled Mr. Forbes, "it
is not so good cold."
"Oh, gracious, Uncle Jeff," exclaimed the volatile Alicia, "don't call
those kids Miss! Call 'em Dotty and Dolly, do."
"Can't remember which is which," declared her uncle, looking at the two
D's. "I can remember the last names, because the Fayre girl is fair,
and the Rose girl is rosy. I shall call them Rosy and Fairy, I think."
"All right, Mr. Forbes," and Dolly smiled and dimpled at the pretty
conceit.
"And you two must call me something less formal," he said. "Suppose you
call me Uncle Forbes, as you are not really my nieces."
This seemed a fine plan and was readily adopted.
"And now," Mr. Forbes went on, "I don't mind confessing that I've no
idea what to do with you girls. By way of entertainment, I mean."
"Oh, Uncle Jeff," said Bernice, "it's enough entertainment just to be
here in New York for a week. Why, we will have all we can do to see the
shops and the sights--I suppose we can go around sight-seeing?"
"Bless my soul, yes. Of course you can. Go where you like. Order the
motors whenever you choose. Mrs. Berry will do all you want her to;
just tell her your plans. All I ask is that I shan't be troubled with
you during the day."
"Why, uncle," cried Alicia, "won't we see you at all in the daytime?"
"No. I am a very busy man. I cannot have my work interrupted by a pack
of foolish chatterers."
"Whatever did you ask us for?" Alicia's round face wore a look of
surprised inquiry.
"Never you mind, miss. I had a very good reason for asking you, but one
doesn't always tell his reasons. However, I expect to see you every
night at the dinner table, and for an hour or so afterward in the
drawing room. The rest of the time you must amuse yourselves. Have you
any friends in New York, any of you?"
"I have a few," said Dotty, as the inquiring glance turned in her
direction.
"Invite them to the house when you choose," said Mr. Forbes,
hospitably, if curtly.
"Oh, no, sir," said Dotty, quickly. "They wouldn't fit in."
Mr. Forbes chuckled. "You have a sense of the fitness of things, Miss
Rosy. Why wouldn't they fit in?"
"Why, they're plain people. Not grand and elegant like you."
"Oho! So I'm grand and elegant, am I? And are you grand and elegant,
too?"
Dotty considered. "Yes," she said, finally, "I am, while I'm here. I'm
very adaptable, and while I'm in New York, I mean to be just as grand
and elegant as the house itself."
Mr. Forbes burst into hearty laughter. "Good for you!" he cried. "When
you're in Rome do as the Romans do. And you, Fairy of the golden curls.
Are you going to be grand, also?"
"I can't," returned Dolly, simply. "I can only be myself, wherever I
am. But I shall enjoy all the beautiful things as much as Dotty."
Again Mr. Forbes laughed. "You're a great pair," he said. "I'm glad I
discovered you. And now, Bernice and Alicia, haven't you any young
friends in town you'd like to invite to see you here? Remember the
house is yours."
"Oh, Uncle Jeff," cried Alicia, "you are too good! Do you mean it? Can
we do just as we like? Invite parties, and all that?"
"Yes, indeed. Why not? Have the best time possible, and see to it that
those two little friends of yours have a good time, too."
"But won't you go with us anywhere?" asked Bernice; "I thought you'd
take us to see places where we can't go alone."
"Bless my soul! Take a lot of chattering magpies sightseeing! No, not
if I know it! Mrs. Berry will take you; and on a pinch, I might let my
secretary accompany you, say to see the downtown big buildings or the
bright lights at night."
"Oh, do you have a secretary?" asked Alicia. "What's he like?"
"Fenn? Oh, he's a good sort. Very dependable and really accommodating.
He'll be of great help to you, I'm sure."
"What is your business, Mr. Forbes?" asked Dolly, who was much
interested in this strange type of man. She had never seen any one like
him, and he seemed to her a sort of fairy godfather, who waved his wand
and gave them all sorts of wonderful gifts.
"I haven't any business, my dear. My occupation and amusement is
collecting specimens for my collection. I am an entomologist and
ornithologist, if you know what those big words mean."
"Yes, sir, I do." And Dolly smiled back at him. "Mayn't we see your
collection?"
"I'm not sure about that, I don't show it to everybody. It is up on the
fourth floor of this house, and no one is allowed up there unless
accompanied by myself or Mr. Fenn. By the way, remember that, all of
you. On no account go up to the fourth floor. Not that you'd be likely
to, for you have no call above the second floor, where your rooms are.
But this is a special command. The house is yours, as I said, but that
means only this first floor and the one above it."
"Goodness me, Uncle Jeff!" said Alicia, "you needn't lay down the law
so hard! We're not absolute babes, to be so strictly cautioned and
forbidden! If you desire us not to go up the second flight of stairs,
of course we won't."
"That's right, my dear, don't. But I do lay it down as a law, and it is
the only law I shall impose on you. Except for that you can follow out
your own sweet wills."
"But," said Dotty, her dark eyes brilliant with the excitement of the
occasion, "I'm not always sure as to what is proper. I want to do just
what is right. Is it correct for us to go about alone, in your big
motor, with your chauffeur? Can we go to the art galleries and the
shops alone?"
"Bless my soul! I don't know." The big man looked absolutely helpless.
"Surely you must know such things yourselves. What do your mothers let
you do at home? Oh, well, if you're uncertain, ask Mrs. Berry, she'll
know. She's an all-round capable person, and she'll know all the
unwritten laws about chaperonage and such things. Do as she bids you."
This was satisfactory, and Dotty began at once to make plans for the
next day.
"Let's go to the Metropolitan Museum first," she said.
"All right," chimed in Alicia, "we'll go there in the morning, then.
But to-morrow is Wednesday, and I want to go to a matinee in the
afternoon. Can't we, Uncle Jeff?"
"Of course you can. Tell Fenn, he'll see about tickets for you. Just
tell Mrs. Berry to see Fenn about it."
"Oh," sighed the outspoken Dotty, "it is just like Fairyland! Tell
Fenn! Just as if Fenn were a magician!"
"He is," said Mr. Forbes, smiling at her enthusiasm. "I couldn't keep
house without Fenn. He's my right hand man for everything. You girls
mustn't claim too much of his time and attention, for I keep him on the
jump most of the time myself."
"Does your collection keep you so busy?" asked Dolly, whose secret
longing was to see that same collection, which greatly interested her.
"Yes, indeed. There's always work to be done in connection with it.
I've a lot of new specimens just arrived to-day, awaiting
classification and tabulation."
After dinner they all returned to the drawing-room. Mr. Forbes seemed
desirous of keeping up a general conversation, but it was hard to find
a subject to interest him. He would talk a few moments, and then lapse
into absent-mindedness and almost forget the girls' presence.
At times, he would get up from his chair, and stalk up and down the
room, perhaps suddenly pausing in front of one of them, and asking a
direct question.
"How old are you?" he asked abruptly of Alicia.
"Sixteen," she replied. "I was sixteen last October."
"You look like your mother at that age. She was my only sister. She has
now been dead--"
"Ten years," prompted Alicia. "I was a little child when she died."
"And who looks after you now? Your father's sister, isn't it?"
"Yes, Uncle Jeff. My Aunt Nellie. But I'm at school, you know. I shall
be there the next four years, I suppose."
"Yes, yes, to be sure. Yes, yes, of course. And you, Bernice? You have
no mother, either. But who looks after you?"
"I look after myself, Uncle. Father thinks there's no necessity for me
to have a chaperon in our little home town."
"Not a chaperon, child, but you ought to have some one to guide and
teach you."
"Dad doesn't think so. He says an American girl can take care of
herself."
"Maybe so, maybe so. It might be a good thing for you to go to school
with Alicia."
"It might be. But I like our High School at home, and we learn a lot
there."
"But not the same kind of learning. Do they teach you manners and
general society instruction?"
"No," said Bernice, smiling at thought of such things in connection
with the Berwick school. "But my father thinks those things come
naturally to girls of good families."
"Maybe so, maybe so." And then Mr. Forbes again walked up and down the
long room, seemingly lost in his own thoughts.
Dolly and Dotty felt a little uncomfortable. They wanted to make
themselves agreeable and entertaining, but their host seemed interested
exclusively in his young relatives, and they hesitated lest they
intrude.
As it neared ten o'clock, Mr. Forbes paused in his pacing of the room,
bowed to each of the four in turn, and then saying, courteously, "I bid
you goodnight," he vanished into the hall.
Immediately Mrs. Berry entered. It seemed a relief to see her kind,
smiling face after the uncertain phases of their eccentric host.
"Now you young people must go to bed," the housekeeper said; "you're
tired,--or ought to be. Come along."
Not at all unwillingly they followed her upstairs, and she looked after
their comfort in most solicitous fashion.
After she had shown them how to ring the various bells to call the
maids or to call her, in emergency, and had drawn their attention to
the ice water in thermos bottles, and told them how to adjust the
ventilators, she bade them good-night and went away.
The rooms had a communicating door, and this Alicia promptly threw open
and came through into the two D's room.
"Oh, isn't it all the greatest fun! And did you EVER see anything so
crazy as Uncle Jeff? What he wants us here for, _I_ don't know! But
it's something,--and something especial. He never asked us here to
amuse him! Of that I'm certain."
"Not much he didn't!" and Bernice followed Alicia, and perched on the
edge of Dolly's bed. "Isn't he queer? I didn't know he was so funny as
he is. Did you, Alicia?"
"No; I haven't seen him since I was a tiny mite. But he's all right. He
knows what he's about and I don't wonder he doesn't want us bothering
around if he's busy."
"I'd love to see his collection," said Dolly. "I'm awfully interested
in such things."
"Oh, well, you'll probably have a chance to see it while we're here,"
and Alicia began taking down her hair. "Now, girls, let's get to bed,
for I'm jolly well tired out. But I foresee these poky evenings right
along, don't you? We'll have to cram a lot of fun into our days, if the
evenings are to be spent watching an elderly gentleman stalking around
thus." And then Alicia gave a very good imitation of the way Mr. Forbes
walked around. She didn't ridicule him; she merely burlesqued his
manner as he paused to speak to them in his funny, abrupt way.
"What are you, my dear?" she said, looking at Dolly. "Are you a
specimen I can use in my collection? No? Are you a fashionable
butterfly? I say, Bernice," she suddenly broke off, "why was he so
curious about the way we live at home, and who brings us up?"
"I don't know; and anyway, he knew how long our mothers have been dead
and who takes care of us. Why did he ask those things over and over?"
"I think he's a bit absent-minded. Half the time he was thinking of
matters far removed from this charming quartette of bewitching
beauties. Well, it's up to us to make our own good time. I move we
corral the big limousine for to-morrow morning and go in search of
adventure."
"To the Metropolitan?" suggested Dolly.
"Yes, if you like, though I'd rather go to the shops," and Alicia
gathered up her hairpins to depart. Her long light hair hung round her
shoulders, and she pushed it back as she affectionately kissed Dolly
and Dotty good-night. "You are sure two darlings!" she said
emphatically.