VIII
The Society of a.s.sociated Sirens
Conny had gone home to recuperate from a severe attack of pink-eye.
Priscilla had gone to Porto Rico to spend two weeks with her father and the Atlantic Fleet. Patty, lonely and abandoned, was thrown upon the school for society; and Patty at large, was very likely to get into trouble.
On the Sat.u.r.day following the double departure, she, with Rosalie Patton and Mae Van Arsdale, made a trip into the city in charge of Miss Wadsworth, to accomplish some spring shopping. Patty and Rosalie each needed new hats--besides such minor matters as gloves and shoes and petticoats--and Mae was to have a fitting for her new tailor suit.
These duties performed, the afternoon was to be given over to relaxation; at least to such relaxation as a Shakespearean tragedy affords.
But when they presented themselves at the theater, they were faced by the announcement that the star had met with an automobile accident on his way to the performance, and that he was too damaged to appear; money would be refunded at the box office. The girls still clamored for their matinee, and Miss Wadsworth hurriedly cast about for a fitting subst.i.tute for Hamlet.
Miss Wadsworth was middle-aged and vacillating and easily-led and ladylike and shockable. She herself knew that she had no strength of character; and she conscientiously strove to overcome this cardinal defect in a chaperon, by stubbornly opposing whatever her charges elected to do.
To-day they voted for a French farce with John Drew as hero. Miss Wadsworth said "no" with all the firmness she could a.s.sume, and herself picked out a drama ent.i.tled "The Wizard of the Nile," under the impression that it would a.s.sist their knowledge of ancient Egypt.
But the Wizard turned out to be a recent and spurious imitation of the original historical wizard. She was ultra-modern English, with a French flavor. The time was to-morrow, and the scene the terrace of Shepherd"s Hotel. She wore long, clinging robes of chiffon and gold cut in the style of Cleopatra along Parisian lines. Her rose-tinted ears were enhanced by drooping earrings, and her eyes were cunningly lengthened at the corners, in a fetching Egyptian slant. She was very beautiful and very merciless; she broke every masculine heart in Cairo. As a climax to her shocking career of wickedness, she _smoked cigarettes_!
Poor bewildered Miss Wadsworth sat through the four acts, worried, breathless, horrified--fascinated; but the three girls were simply fascinated. They thrilled over the scenery and music and costumes all the way back in the train. Cairo, to their dazzled eyes, opened up realms of adventure, undreamed of in the proper bounds of St. Ursula"s.
The Mecca of all travel had become Shepherd"s Hotel.
That night, long after "Lights-out" had rung, when Patty"s mind was becoming an agreeable jumble of sphinxes and pyramids and English officers, she was suddenly startled wide awake by feeling two hands rise from the darkness and clutch her shoulders on the right and left. She sat upright with a very audible gasp, and demanded in unguardedly loud tones, "Who"s that?"
The two hands instantly covered her mouth.
"Sh-h! Keep quiet! Haven"t you any sense?"
"Mademoiselle"s door is wide open, and Lordy"s visiting her."
Rosalie perched on the right of the bed, and Mae Mertelle on the left.
"What do you want?" asked Patty, crossly.
"We"ve got a perfectly splendid idea," whispered Rosalie.
"A secret society," echoed Mae Mertelle.
"Let me alone!" growled Patty. "I want to go to sleep."
She laid down again in the narrow s.p.a.ce left by her visitors. They paid no attention to her inhospitality, but drawing their bath robes closer about them, settled down to talk. Patty, being comfortably inside and warm, while they shivered outside, was finally induced to lend a drowsy ear.
"I"ve thought of a new society," said Mae Mertelle. She did not propose to share the honor of creation with Rosalie. "And it"s going to be _really_ secret this time. I"m not going to let in the whole school.
Only us three. And this society hasn"t just a few silly secrets; it has an _aim_."
"We"re going to call it the Society of a.s.sociated Sirens," Rosalie eagerly broke in.
"That _what_?" demanded Patty.
Rosalie rolled off the sonorous syllables a second time.
"The Sho-shiety of Ash-sho-she-ated Shi-rens," Patty mumbled sleepily.
"It"s too hard to say."
"Oh, but we won"t call it that in public. The name"s a secret. We"ll call it the S. A. S."
"What"s it for?"
"You"ll promise not to tell?" Mae asked guardedly.
"No, of course I won"t tell."
"Not even Pris and Conny when they get back?"
"We"ll make them members," said Patty.
"Well--perhaps--but this is the kind of society that"s better small. And we three are the only ones who really ought to be members, because we saw the play. But anyhow; you must promise not to tell unless Rosalie and I give you permission. Do you promise that?"
"Oh, yes! I promise. What"s it for?"
"We"re going to become sirens," Mae whispered impressively. "We"re going to be beautiful and fascinating and ruthless--"
"Like Cleopatra," said Rosalie.
"And avenge ourselves on Man," added Mae.
"Avenge ourselves--what for?" inquired Patty, somewhat dazed.
"Why--for--for breaking our hearts and destroying our faith in--"
"My heart hasn"t been broken."
"Not yet," said Mae with a touch of impatience, "because you don"t know any men, but you will know them some day, and then your heart will be broken. You ought to have your weapons ready."
"In time of peace prepare for war," quoted Rosalie.
"Do--you think it"s quite ladylike to be a siren?" asked Patty dubiously.
"It"s _perfectly_ ladylike!" said Mae. "n.o.body but a lady could possibly be one. Did you ever hear of a washerwoman who was a siren?"
"N-no," Patty confessed. "I don"t believe I have."
"And look at Cleopatra," put in Rosalie. "I"m sure she was a lady."
"All right!" Patty agreed. "What are we going to do?"
"We"re going to become beautiful and fascinating, with a fatal charm that ensnares every man who approaches."
"Do you think we can?" There was some doubt in Patty"s tone.