CHRISTINE COMES
With her usual tact and cleverness, Nan managed the whole matter
successfully. She wrote to the friends of Mr. Hepworth in the South who
were interested in Miss Farley, and they persuaded the girl to go North
for a week and see if she could see her way clear to staying there.
As it turned out, Miss Farley had some acquaintances in New York, and
when their invitation was added to that of Mrs. Fairfield, she decided to
make the trip.
Patty and Nan made ready for her with great care and kindness. A guest
room was specially prepared for her use, and Patty adorned it with some
of her own pet pictures, a few good casts, and certain bits of
bric-a-brac that she thought would appeal to an "art student."
"If Mr. Hepworth hadn't said the girl had real talent I'd be hopeless of
the whole thing," said Nan, "for I do think the most futile sort of young
woman is the one who dabbles in Art, with a big A."
"Oh, Christine Farley isn't that sort," declared Patty. "I don't believe
she wears her hair tumbling down and a Byron collar with a big, black
ribbon bow at her throat. I used to see that sort copying in the art
galleries in Paris, and they _are_ hopeless. But I imagine Miss Farley is
a tidy little thing and her genius is too real for those near-art
effects."
"Well, then, I'll put this photograph of the Hermes in here in place of
this fiddle-de-dee Art Calendar. She'll like it better."
"Of course she will. And I'm going to put a pretty kimono and slippers in
the wardrobe. Probably she won't have pretty ones, and I know she'll love
'em."
"If you owned a white elephant, Patty, you'd get a kimono for it,
wouldn't you?"
"'Course I would. I love kimonos--pretty ones. And besides, it would fit
an elephant better than a Directoire gown would."
"Patty! What a goose you are! There, now the room looks lovely! The
flowers are just right--not too many and just in the right places."
"Yes," agreed Patty; "if she doesn't like this room I wash my hands of
her. But she will."
And she did. When the small, shy Southern girl arrived that afternoon,
and Patty herself showed her up to her room, she seemed to respond at
once to the warm cosiness of the place.
"It's just such a room as I've often imagined, but I've never seen," she
said, smiling round upon the dainty, attractive appointments.
"You dear!" cried Patty, throwing her arms round her guest and kissing
her.
When she had first met Christine downstairs she was embarrassed herself
at the Southern girl's painful shyness.
When Miss Farley had tried to speak words of greeting a lump came into
her throat and she couldn't speak at all.
To put her more at her ease Patty had led her at once upstairs, and now
the presence of only warm-hearted Patty and the view of the welcoming
room made her forget her embarrassment and seem more like her natural
self.
"I cannot thank you," she began. "I am a bit bewildered by it all."
"Of course you are," said Patty, cheerily. "Don't bother about thanks.
And don't feel shy. Let's pretend we've known each other for years--long
enough to use first names. May I take your hat off, Christine?"
Tears sprang to Christine Farley's eyes at this whole-souled welcome, and
she said:
"You make me ashamed of my stupid shyness. Really I'll try to overcome
it--Patty."
And soon the two girls were chatting cosily and veritably as if they had
been acquainted a long time.
Presently Nan came in. "If you prefer, Miss Farley," she said, "you
needn't come down to dinner to-night. I'll have a tray sent up here. I
know you're tired with your journey."
"No, thank you, Mrs. Fairfield; I'm not tired--and I think I'll go down."
The girl would have greatly preferred to accept the offer of dining in
her own room, but she felt it her duty to conquer the absurd timidity
which made her dread facing strangers at dinner.
"I'll be glad if you will," said Nan, simply. "Mr. Fairfield will like to
welcome you, and Mr. Hepworth will be the only other guest. You are not
afraid of him?"
"Oh, no," said Christine, her face lighting up at thought of her kind
friend. "He has been so good to me. His criticisms of my work helped me
more than any of my teachers'."
"Yes, he is an able artist and a man of true kindness and worth," agreed
Nan. "Very well, Miss Farley, we dine at seven."
"Now, Nan," began Patty, smiling, "that's the wrong tone. We're going to
make this girlie feel homelike and comfortable and omit all formality.
We're going to call her by her first name, and we're going to treat her
as one of ourselves. Now you just revise that little speech of 'We dine
at seven, Miss Farley.'"
"All right," said Nan, quickly catching Patty's idea. "I'm glad to revise
it. How's this? Dinner's at seven, Christine, but you hop into your
clothes and come on down earlier."
"That's a lot better," said Patty, approvingly patting her stepmother's
shoulder, while Christine Farley, who was all unaccustomed to this sort
of raillery, looked on in admiration.
"You see," she said, "I've only very plain clothes. I'm not at all
familiar with the ways of society, or even of well-to-do people."
"Oh, pooh!" said Patty, emphatically, if not very elegantly. "Don't you
bother about that in this house. Trot out your frocks and I'll tell you
what to put on."
After some consideration she selected a frock of that peculiar shade
known as "ashes of roses." It was of soft merino and made very simply,
with long, straight lines.
"Do you like that?" said Christine, looking pleased. "That's my newest
one, and I designed it myself. See, I wear this with it."
She took from her box a dull silver girdle and chatelaine of antique,
carved silver, and a comb for her hair of similar style.
"Lovely!" cried Patty. "Oh, you're an artist, all right! Dress your hair
low--in a soft coil; but of course you know how to do that. I'll send
Louise to hook you up, and I'll come back for you when I'm dressed.
Good-by for now."
Waving her hand gaily, laughing Patty ran away to her own room, and
Christine sank down in a big chair to collect her senses.
It was all so new and strange to her. Brought up in the plainest
circumstances, the warmth and light and fragrance of this home seemed to
her like fairyland.
And Nan and Patty, in their gay moods and their happy self-assuredness,
seemed as if of a different race of beings from herself.
"But I'll learn it," she thought, with a determination which she had
rarely felt and scarce knew she possessed. Her nature was one that needed
a spur or help from another, and then she was ready to do her part, too.
But she could not take the initiative. And now, realising the
disinterested kindness of these good people, her sense of gratitude made
her resolve to meet their kindness with appreciation.
"Yes," she said to herself, as she deftly dressed her hair in front of
the mirror, "I'll conquer this silly timidity if it kills me! I'll take
Patty Fairfield for a model, and I'll acquire that very same ease and
grace that she has."
Christine was imitative by nature, and it seemed to her now that she
could never feel stupidly embarrassed again.
But after Patty came to take her downstairs, and as they neared the
drawing-room door, the foolish shyness all returned, and she was white
and trembling as she crossed the hall.
"Brace up," whispered Patty, understanding, "you're looking lovely,
Christine. Now be gay and chattery."
"Chattery," indeed! Her tongue seemed paralysed, her very neck felt
strained and stiff, and she stumbled over the rug in her effort to stop
trembling. In her own room, alone with Patty and Nan, she had overcome
this, but now, in the brilliantly lighted drawing-room and the presence
of other people, the terrible timidity returned, and Christine made a
most unsuccessful entrance.
But Mr. Fairfield ignored the girl's embarrassment, and said, cordially
but quietly: "How do you do, Miss Farley? I am very glad to welcome you
here."
His kind handclasp reassured her even more than his pleasant words, and
then Mr. Hepworth greeted her.
"You did well to come," he said. "I am glad to see you in New York at
last."
But Christine couldn't recover herself, and so, as the kindest thing to
do, the rest rather let her alone and chatted on other subjects.
Gradually she grew less agitated, and as their merry chit-chat waxed gay
and frivolous, her determination returned, that she, too, would acquire
this accomplishment.
Then dinner was announced, and, though outwardly calm, the Southern girl
was inwardly in great trepidation lest she commit some ignorant error in
etiquette.
But she was of gentle birth and breeding, and innately refined, so she
knew intuitively regarding all points, save perhaps some modern trifles
of conventional usage.
Nan, who was watching her, though unobserved, led the conversation around
to subjects in which Christine might be likely to be interested, and was
rewarded at last by seeing the girl's face light up with an enjoyment
unmarred by self-consciousness.
Gradually she was induced to take some part in their talk, and once she
told an anecdote of her own experience without seeming aware of her
unusual surroundings.
"She'll do," thought Patty. "It isn't ignorance or inexperience that's
the greatest trouble; it's just ingrowing shyness, and she's got to get
over it; I'll see that she does, too!"
Mr. Hepworth read Patty's unspoken thoughts in her eyes and nodded
approval.
Patty nodded back with a dimpling smile, and Christine, seeing it, vowed
afresh to gain the ability to do that sort of thing herself.
For all Southern girls have a touch of the coquette in their natures, but
poor Christine's was nearly choked out by the weeds of timidity and
self-consciousness.
After dinner it was easier. They went to the cosy library, and the
atmosphere seemed more informal.
Mr. Hepworth brought up the subject of Miss Farley's work, and she was
persuaded to fetch some sketches to show them.
Though not able to appreciate the fine points of promise as Mr. Hepworth
did, they were all greatly pleased with them, and Mr. Fairfield declared
them wonderful.
In her own field Christine was fearless and quite sure of herself.
She talked intelligently about pictures, and many pleasant plans were
made for taking her to see several collections then on exhibition, as
well as to the Metropolitan and other art galleries.
Nan and Patty exchanged pleased glances as Christine talked eagerly, and
with shining eyes and pink cheeks, about her own aims and ambitions.
Mr. Hepworth was responsive, and advised her on some minor points, but
the great question of her art education in New York was not touched upon
that first evening.
Christine had grown almost gay in her chatter, when Kenneth was
announced. Like a sensitive plant at a human touch, she lost all her
poise, her face turned white, and her lips quivered as she braced herself
for the ordeal of meeting a stranger.
"Oh!" thought Patty, almost disgusted at this foolishness, "she is the
limit!"
But Nan appreciated more truly the real state of the case, and knew that
Christine had borne just about all she could, and that owing to physical
fatigue and mental strain her nerves were just about ready to give way.
"How do you do, Kenneth?" said Nan, airily. "Too bad you didn't come
earlier. I am just taking our little guest away from this admiring crowd,
who are tiring her all out with their admiration. She may just say
'howdy' to you, and then I'm going to carry her off. Miss Farley, this is
our Kenneth--Mr. Harper."
Stimulated by Nan's support and by the sudden chance for release,
Christine managed to acknowledge the introduction prettily enough, and
then gladly let Nan take her upstairs to bed.
"I'm sorry I'm so horrid," said the girl, as Nan helped her take off her
gown.
"Nonsense!" replied Nan, cheerily. "You weren't horrid a bit. You looked
lovely and behaved like a little lady. Your nerves are overwrought, and I
don't wonder. Just tumble into bed, dearie, and forget everything in all
the world, except that you're among warm friends."
Nan had most comforting ways, and soon Christine forgot her troubles in a
happy sleep.
Meantime, Kenneth was admiring her sketches. "Whew!" he said, "she's a
genius all right. But such a shy little mouse never can succeed as an
artist."
"Yes, she will!" declared Patty. "Her shyness will wear off in New York.
I'm going to eradicate it from her make-up somehow, and then we're going
to make a famous artist of her."
"You can be a great help to her, Patty," said Mr. Hepworth. "If any one
makes Christine think she can do things, she can do them."
"Yes, I see that already," agreed Patty, "and I'm going to be the one to
make her think she can do them."
"Huh!" teased Kenneth. "You think you can make anybody think they think
anything!"
"Sure!" said Patty, complacently.
"Well, don't teach Miss Farley to talk slang," said Mr. Fairfield,
laughing, "for it would be too incongruous with that Madonna face of
hers."
"She is like a Madonna, isn't she?" said Patty, thoughtfully. "I've been
trying to think what her face reminded me of."
"Yes, she is," said Mr. Hepworth, "and as I feel pretty sure you can't
teach her to use slang, why don't you take this occasion to discontinue
the use of it yourself?"
"Can't do it," returned Patty. "There are times in my mad career when
nothing expresses what I want to say so well as a mild bit of slang. I
never say anything very dreadful."
"Of course you don't," declared Kenneth, who loved to take Patty's part
against Mr. Hepworth. "Why, you wouldn't be 'Our Patty' if you used only
dictionary English. All the slang Miss Farley gets from you will do her
good rather than harm. She needs it in her make-up."
"I agree with the spirit of that, if not the letter," said Mr. Hepworth,
kindly; and Patty said:
"Yes, she needs to be jollied; and, you take it from me, she's going to
get jollied!"