"Certainly, Miss Lord!" said Patty sweetly. "If you care to belong, we should _love_ to have you."
"Lordy wants to be a Siren!" she announced to her two fellow members when she met them shortly in the gymnasium. The account of the interview was received with hilarity. Miss Lord was anything but the accepted type of siren.
"I thought a few smiles might relieve the gloom of Latin cla.s.s," Patty explained. "It amuses Lordy to think she"s helping the children in their play; and it doesn"t hurt the children."
For a time the S. A. S. flourished with the natural health of youth, but as the novelty wore off, the business of becoming beautiful grew onerous. Mae and Rosalie continued to study the beauty book with dogged perseverance,--the subject lay along the line of their natural ambitions--but Patty felt other matters calling. Spring field sports had commenced, and the nearness of the annual match with Highland-Hall, crowded out her interest in cold cream and almond meal. She and Mae were not naturally _simpatica_, and in spite of Mae"s insistence, Patty became an apathetic siren.
One Sat.u.r.day just after the spring recess, Patty received permission to lunch in town with "Uncle Bobby." He was an uncle by courtesy only, but Patty had failed to inform the Dowager that the t.i.tle was not his by natural right. She knew well what the result would be. It is quite proper to have luncheon with an uncle; and quite improper with even the oldest and baldest of family friends.
When the "hea.r.s.e" returned from the station at dusk with Mademoiselle and the city contingent, Rosalie Patton was waiting the arrival on the porte-cochere. She separated Patty from the group and whispered in her ear.
"The most awful thing has happened!"
"What?" Patty demanded.
"The S. A. S. All is discovered!"
"Not really!" cried Patty, aghast.
"Yes! Come in here."
Rosalie drew her into the empty cloak-room and shut the door.
"You mean--they"ve found out the name--and everything?" Patty demanded breathlessly.
"Not quite everything, but they would have if it hadn"t been for Lordy.
She saved us for once."
"Lordy saved us!" There was incredulity mixed with Patty"s horror. "What do you mean?"
"Well, yesterday, Mae went shopping in the village with Miss Wadsworth--and you know what kind of a chaperone Waddy makes." Patty nodded impatiently. "_Anybody_ could fool her. And Mae, right under her very nose, commenced a flirtation with the _Soda-Water Clerk_."
"Oh!" said Patty hotly. "How perfectly horrid!"
"She didn"t care anything about it, really. She was just trying to put the principles of the S. A. S. into practice."
"She might at least have picked out somebody decent!"
"Well, he is quite decent. He"s engaged to the girl at the underwear counter in Bloodgood"s, and he didn"t want to be flirted with a bit. But you know how persistent Mae Mertelle is, when she makes up her mind. The poor young man just couldn"t help himself. He was so embarra.s.sed that he didn"t know what he was doing. He gave Hester Pringle half chocolate and half sarsaparilla, and she says it was a _perfectly awful_ combination.
It made her feel so sick that she couldn"t eat any dinner. And all this time Waddy just sat and smiled into s.p.a.ce and saw nothing; but all the girls saw,--and _so did the drugstore man_!"
"Oh!" said Patty breathlessly.
"And this morning Miss Sallie went to the drugstore to get some potash for Harriet Gladden"s sore throat, and he told her all about it."
"What did Miss Sallie do?" Patty asked faintly.
"Do! She came back with blood in her eye, and told the Dowager, and they called up Mae Mertelle and then--" Rosalie closed her eyes and shuddered.
"Well," said Patty impatiently. "What happened?"
"The Dowager was _perfectly outraged_! She told Mae that she had disgraced the school and that she would be expelled. And she wrote a telegram to Mae"s father to come and take her away. And she asked Mae if she had anything to say for herself, and Mae said it wasn"t her fault.
That you and I were to blame just as much as she, because we were all in a society together, but that she couldn"t tell about it because she"d sworn."
"Beast!" said Patty.
"So then they sent for me and commenced asking questions about the S. A.
S. I tried not to tell, but you know the way the Dowager looks when she"s angry. Even a sphinx would break down and tell everything it knew, and I never did pretend to be a sphinx."
"All right," said Patty, bracing herself for the shock. "What did they say when they heard?"
"They didn"t hear! I was just on the point of breaking my vows and telling all, when who should pop in but Lordy. And she was _perfectly splendid_! She said she knew all about the S. A. S. That it was a very admirable inst.i.tution, and that she was a member herself! She said it was a branch of the Sunshine Society, and that Mae had never meant to flirt with the young man. She had just meant to smile and be kind to everybody she came in contact with, and he had taken advantage. And Mae said, yes, that was the way of it, and she shoved off all the blame on that poor innocent soda-water clerk."
"Just like her," Patty nodded.
"And now Mae is _perfectly furious_ with him for getting her into trouble. She says that he"s a horrid little thing with a turn-up nose, and that she"ll never drink another gla.s.s of soda-water as long as she stays in St. Ursula"s."
"And they"re going to let her stay?"
"Yes. The Dowager tore up the telegram. But she gave Mae ten demerits, and made her go without dessert for a week, and learn Thanatopsis by heart. And she can"t _ever_ go shopping in the village any more. When she needs new hair ribbons or stockings or anything, she must send for them by some of the other girls."
"And what"s the Dowager going to do to us?"
"Nothing at all--and if it hadn"t been for Lordy, we"d all three have been expelled."
"And I"ve always detested Lordy," said Patty contritely. "Isn"t it dreadful? You simply can"t keep enemies. Just as you think people are perfectly horrid, and begin to enjoy hating them, they all of a sudden turn out nice."
"I hate Mae Mertelle," said Rosalie.
"So do I!" Patty agreed cordially.
"I"m going to leave her old society."
"I"m already out." Patty glanced toward the mirror. "And I"m not freckled and I"m not squint-eyed."
"What do you mean?" Rosalie stared; she had for the moment forgotten the dread nature of the oath.
"I"ve told Uncle Bobby."
"Oh, Patty! How could you?"
"I--I--that is--" Patty appeared momentarily confused. "You see," she confessed, "I thought myself that it would be sort of interesting to practice on somebody, so I--I--just tried--"
"And did he--"
Patty shook her head.
"It was awfully uphill work. He never helped a bit. And then he noticed my bracelet and wanted to know what S. A. S. meant. And before I knew it, I was telling him!"