MRS. VAN REYPEN
It was about a week later. Nothing further had been said or done in the
matter of Patty's "occupation," and Mr. and Mrs. Fairfield wondered what
plan was slowly brewing under the mop of golden curls.
Mr. Hepworth began to hope his words had had an effect after all, and was
about to lay the case of Miss Farley before some other true and tried
friends.
But he had practically promised Patty to give her time for three more
attempts; so he waited.
One day Patty came into the house just in time for luncheon.
"Nan," she said, as they sat down at the table, "I've struck it right
this time!"
"_In_-deed!" said Nan, raising her eyebrows, quizzically.
"Yes, I have! You needn't laugh like that."
"I didn't laugh."
"Yes, you did,--behind your eyes, but I saw you! Now, as I tell you, this
time conquers!"
"Good for you, Patsy! Let me congratulate you. Let me do it now, lest I
shouldn't be able to do it later."
"Huh! I thought you had faith in me."
"And so I have, Patty girl," said Nan, growing serious all at once. "I
truly have. Also, I'll help you, if I can."
"That's just it, Nan. You can help me this time, and I'm going to tell
you all about it, before I start in."
"Going to tell me now?"
"Yes, because I go this afternoon."
"Go where?"
"That's just it. I go to take a position as a companion to an elderly
lady. And I shall stay a week. I'll take some clothes in a suitcase, or
small trunk, and after I'm gone, you must tell father, and make it all
right with him."
"But, Patty, he said at the outset, you must be home by five o'clock
every day, whatever you were doing."
"Yes; but that referred to occupations by the day. Now, that I've decided
to take this sort of a position, which is really more appropriate to a
lady of my 'social standing,' you must explain to him that I can't come
home at five o'clock, because I have to stay all the time, nights and
all."
"Patty, you're crazy!"
"No, I'm not. I'm determined; I'm even stubborn, if you like; but I'm
_going_! So, that's settled. Now, you said you'd help me. Are you going
to back out?"
"No; I'm not. But I can't approve of it."
"Oh, you can, if you try hard enough. Just think how much properer it is
for me to be companion to a lovely lady in her own house, than to be
racing around lower Broadway for patchwork!"
"That's so," said Nan, and then she realised that if she knew where Patty
was going, they could go and bring her home at any time, if Mr. Fairfield
wished.
"Well," she went on, "who's your lovely lady?"
"Mrs. Van Reypen."
"Patty Fairfield! Not _the_ Mrs. Van Reypen?"
"Yes, the very one! Isn't it gay? She's a bit eccentric, and she
advertised for a companion, saying the application must be a written one.
So I pranced up to her house this morning, and secured the position."
"But she said to apply by letter."
"Yes; that's why I went myself! I sent up my card, and a message that I
had come in answer to her advertisement. She sent back word that I could
go home and write to her. I said I'd write then and there. So I helped
myself to her library desk, and wrote out a regular application. In less
than five minutes, I was summoned to her august presence, and after
looking me over, she engaged me at once. How's that for quick action?"
"But does she know who you are?"
"Why, she knows my name, and that's all."
"But she's a,--why, she's sort of an institution."
"Yes; I know she's a public benefactor, and all that. But, really, she's
very interesting; though, I fancy she has a quick temper. However, we've
made the agreement for a week. Then if either of us wants to back out,
we're at liberty to do so."
"She was willing to arrange it that way?"
"She insisted on it. She never takes anybody until after a week's trial."
"What are your duties?"
"Oh, almost nothing. I'm not a social secretary, or anything like that.
Merely a companion, to be with her, and read to her occasionally, or
perhaps sing to her, and go to drive with her,--and that's about all."
"No one else in the family?"
"I don't think so. She didn't speak of any one, except her secretary and
servants. She's rather old-fashioned, and the house is dear. All crystal
chandeliers, and old frescoed walls and ceilings, and elaborate
door-frames. Why, Nan, it'll be fun to be there a week, and it's
so,--well, so safe and pleasant, you know, and so correct and seemly.
Why, if I really had to earn my own living, I couldn't do better than to
be companion to Mrs. Van Reypen."
"No; I suppose not. What is the salary?"
"Ah, that's the beauty of it! It's just fifteen dollars a week. And as I
get 'board and lodging' beside, I'm really doing better than I agreed
to."
"I don't like it, Patty," said Nan, after a few moments' thought. "But
it's better, in some ways, than the other things you've done. Go on, and
I'll truly do all I can to talk your father into letting you stay there a
week; but if he won't consent, I can't help it."
"Why, of course he'll consent, Nan, if you put it to him right. You can
make him see anything as you see it, if you try. You know you can."
"Well, go ahead. I suppose a week will pass; and anyway, you'll probably
come flying home after a couple of days."
"No; I'm going to stay the week, if it finishes me. I'm tired of defeats;
this time I conquer. You may help me pack, if you like."
"You won't need many frocks, will you?" said Nan, as they went up to
Patty's room.
"No; just some light, dressy things for evening,--she's rather
formal,--and some plain morning gowns."
Nan helped Patty with her selection, and a small trunk was filled with
what they considered an appropriate wardrobe for a companion.
At about four o'clock Patty started, in the motor-car.
Mrs. Van Reypen received her pleasantly, and as they sat chatting over a
cup of tea, Patty felt more like an honoured guest than a subordinate.
Then Mrs. Van Reypen dismissed her, saying:
"Go to your room now, my dear, and occupy yourself as you choose until
dinner-time. Dinner is at seven. There will be no guests, but you will
wear a light, pretty gown, if you please. I am punctilious in such
matters."
Patty went to her room, greatly pleased with the turn events had taken.
She wished she could telephone home how pleasantly she was getting along;
but she thought wiser not to do that so soon.
As it neared dinner-time, she put on one of her prettiest dresses, a
light blue chiffon, with a touch of silver embroidery round the half-low
throat and short sleeves.
A few minutes before seven, she went slowly down the dark, old staircase,
with its massive newels and balusters.
As she reached the middle steps, she observed an attractive, but
bored-looking young man in the hall.
He had not noticed her light steps, and Patty paused a moment to look at
him. As she stood, wondering who he might be, he chanced to turn, and saw
her.
The young man ran his eyes swiftly, from the cloud of blue chiffon, up to
the smiling face, with its crown of massed golden hair, which a saucy bow
of blue ribbon did its best to hold in place.
His face promptly lost its bored expression, and with his hands still in
his pockets, he involuntarily breathed a long, low whistle.
The sound seemed to bring back his lost wits, and quickly drawing his
hands into view, he stepped forward, saying:
"I beg your pardon for that unconventional note of admiration, but I
trust you will accept it as the tribute for which it was meant."
This was an easy opening, and Patty was quite ready to respond gaily,
when she suddenly remembered her position in the house and wondered if a
companion ought to speak to a strange young man in the same language a
young person in society might use.
"Thank you," she said, uncertainly, and her shy hesitation completely
captured the heart of Philip Van Reypen.
"Come on down; I won't eat you," he said, reassuringly. "You are, I
assume, a guest of my aunt's."
"I am Mrs. Van Reypen's companion," said Patty, but though she made the
announcement demurely enough, the funny side of it all struck her so
forcibly that she had difficulty to keep the corners of her mouth from
showing her amusement.
"By Jove!" exclaimed the young man, "Aunty Van always is lucky! Now, I'm
her nephew."
"Does that prove her good luck?" said Patty, unable to be prim in the
face of this light gaiety.
"Yes, indeed! Come on down, and get acquainted, and you'll agree with
me."
"I don't believe I ought to," said Patty, hesitatingly placing one little
satin-slippered foot on the next step below, and then pausing again. "You
see, I've never been a companion before, but I don't think it's right for
me to precede Mrs. Van Reypen into the drawing-room."
"Ah, well, perhaps not. Stay on the stairs, then, if you think that's the
proper place. I daresay it is,--I never was a companion, either; so I'm
not sure. But sit down, won't you? I'll sit here, if I may."
Young Van Reypen dropped onto a stair a few steps below Patty, who sat
down, too, feeling decidedly at her ease, for, upon occasion, a staircase
was one of her favourite haunts.
"It's like a party," she said, smiling. "I love to sit on a staircase at
a party, don't you?"
And so provocative of sociability did the staircase prove, that when Mrs.
Van Reypen came down, in all the glory of her black velvet and old lace,
she nearly tumbled over two chatting young people, who seemed to be very
good friends.
"Philip! You here?" she exclaimed, and a casual observer would have said
she was not too well pleased.
"Yes, Aunty Van; aren't you as glad to see me as I am to see you? I've
been making Miss Fairfield's acquaintance. You may introduce us if you
like, but it isn't really necessary."
"So it seems," said the old lady, drily; "but as I have some regard for
the conventions, I will present to you, Miss Fairfield, my scape-grace
and ne'er-do-well nephew, Philip Van Reypen."
"What an awful reputation to live up to," said Patty, smiling at the
debonair Philip, who quite looked the part his aunt assigned to him.
"Awful, but not at all difficult," he responded, gaily, and Patty
followed as he escorted his aunt to the dining-room.
The little dinner-party was a gay one; Mrs. Van Reypen became mildly
amiable under the influence of the young people's merry chatter, and
Patty felt that so far, at least, a companion's lot was not such a very
unhappy one.
After dinner, however, the young man was sent peremptorily away. He
begged to stay, but his aunt ordered him off, declaring that she had seen
enough of him, and he was not to return for a week at least. Philip went
away, sulkily, declaring that he would call the very next morning to
inquire after his aunt's health.
"I trust you are not flirtatiously inclined, Miss Fairfield," said Mrs.
Van Reypen, as the two sat alone in the large and rather sombre
drawing-room.
"I am not," said Patty, honestly. "I like gay and merry conversation, but
as your companion, I consider myself entirely at your orders, and have no
mind to chatter if you do not wish me to do so."
"That is right," said Mrs. Van Reypen, approvingly. "You cannot have many
friends in your present position, of course. And you must not feel
flattered at Mr. Philip's apparent admiration of you. He is a most
impressionable youth, and is caught by every new face he sees."
Patty smiled at the idea of her being unduly impressed by Mr. Van
Reypen's glances. She had given him no thought, save as a good-natured,
well-bred young man.
But she pleasantly assured Mrs. Van Reypen that she would give her nephew
no further consideration, and though Mrs. Van Reypen looked sharply at
Patty's face, she saw only an honest desire to please her employer.
The evening was long and uninteresting.
At Mrs. Van Reypen's request, Patty read to her, and then sang for her.
But the lady was critical, and declared that the reading was too fast,
and the singing too loud, so that when at last it was bedtime, Patty
wondered whether she was giving satisfaction or not.
But she was engaged for a week, anyway, and whether satisfactory or not,
Mrs. Van Reypen must keep her for that length of time, and that was all
Patty wanted.
She woke next morning with a pang of homesickness. It was a bit forlorn,
to wake up as a hired companion, instead of as a beloved daughter in her
own father's house.
But resolutely putting aside such thoughts, she forced herself to think
of her good fortune in securing her present position.
"I'm glad I'm here!" she assured herself, as she dashed cold water into
her suspiciously reddened eyes. "I know I shall have all sorts of odd and
interesting adventures here; and I'm determined to be happy whatever
happens. And, anyway, it will be over soon. A week isn't long."
Putting on a trim morning dress, of soft old rose cashmere, with a fine
embroidered white yoke, she went sedately down to the breakfast room. She
had been told to come to breakfast at nine o'clock, and the clock struck
the hour just as she crossed the threshold.
Instead of her employer, she was astounded to see Philip Van Reypen
calmly seated at the table.
"Jolly to see you again!" he cried, as he jumped up to greet her. "Just
thought I'd run in for a bite of breakfast, and to inquire how Aunty
Van's cold is."
"I didn't know she had a cold," said Patty, primly, trying to act as she
thought a companion ought to act.
"Neither did I," said the irrepressible Philip. "But I didn't know but
she might have caught one in the night. A germ flying in at the window,
or something."
Mindful of Mrs. Van Reypen's admonitions, Patty tried not to appear
interested in the young man's remarks, but it was impossible to ignore
the fact that he was interested in her.
She responded to his gay banter in monosyllables, and kept her dancing
eyes veiled by their own long-fringed lids, but this only served to pique
Philip's curiosity.
"I've a notion to spend the day here, with Aunty Van," he said, and then
Patty glanced up at him in positive alarm.
"Don't!" she cried, and her face betokened a genuine distress.
"Why not?" said the surprised young man; "have you learned to dislike me
so cordially already?"
Amiable Patty couldn't stand for this misinterpretation of her attitude,
and her involuntary, smiling glance was a sufficient disclaimer.
But she was saved the necessity of a verbal reply, for just at that
moment Mrs. Van Reypen came into the room.