"I shouldn"t be at all surprised, only you mustn"t count too much on it. We must be getting those photographs ready pretty soon."
"I would like one of Patty and me together, I mean Patty Robbins, this is Patty Otway," and she held out her doll.
"We"ll see if that can be arranged."
"How can it when we don"t live in the same place?"
"I have a little plan that I cannot tell you yet. If it works out all right I will let you know."
"Oh, Miss Dorothy, you are always making such lovely plans. What did I ever do without you? Has the plan anything to do with my going to visit Patty some time?"
"Maybe it has and maybe it hasn"t. But, dear me, we are slowing up for Greenville. We must not be carried on to the next station. Have we all the things? Where is the umbrella? Oh, you have it. All right. I hope Heppy will give us hot cakes for supper, don"t you?"
So saying she led the way from the train and in a few minutes they were making their way up the familiar street which, strange to say, had not altered in the least since morning, although Marian felt that she had been away so long something must surely have happened meanwhile.
_CHAPTER IX_
_A Visit to Patty_
After all it was not so very long before Marian and Patty met again, for a little cough which developed soon after the trip to town in course of time grew worse, and in course of time the family doctor announced that Marian had whooping-cough. Mrs. Otway was aghast. She had a horror of contagious diseases and kept Marian at a distance.
"She must not go to school," she said to Miss Dorothy, "for the other children might take it."
This was a great blow to Marian, for it meant not only staying away from school, but from her schoolmates upon whom she had begun to depend, so it was a very sorrowful face that she wore all that day, and time hung heavily upon her hands. She wandered up-stairs and down, wishing for the hour to come when Miss Dorothy would return.
Finally she went out to the garden, for her grandmother had told her to keep in the open air as much as possible, and it was still pleasant in the sunshine. "I don"t suppose Dippy and Tippy will get the whooping-cough if I play with them," she remarked to Heppy, feeling that if these playmates failed her she would be desolate indeed.
Heppy laughed. "They"re not likely to," she said, "though I have known plenty of cats to have coughs, and I have known of their having pneumony, but I guess you can risk it."
So Marian and the cats spent the morning in the garden and it was there Miss Dorothy found them when she came in to dinner. She had an open letter in her hand which she waved as she walked toward Marian.
"What do you think?" she said. "Patty has the whooping-cough, too, though not very badly. Your grandmother was right when she said you probably got it the day we all went shopping."
"Oh, poor Patty! I wish she were here with me."
"And she wishes you were there with her. She is going to have lessons at home for a little while each day, and I think it would be a good thing if you could have them together. In fact, it struck me as such a good plan that I have spoken to your grandmother about it.
Your grandfather has taken up some work this winter which will keep him very busy, and he could not give you any time. I would be glad to, but my work grows more and more absorbing and your grandparents will not listen to my teaching you out of school hours, so as it seems a pity for you to lose all these weeks, I proposed that you should go to our house to keep Patty company. You will not have to study so very hard, for the whooping-cough must have plenty of outdoor air, and it would not do for you to be cooped many hours a day. What do you think of it?"
For a moment Marian looked pleased, then her face fell. "I should miss you so," she said.
"You dear child," returned Miss Dorothy, drawing her close. "So should I miss you, but I think I can arrange to come home every week now. It will mean very early rising on Monday morning in order to get here in time for school, but I can manage it, and I shall be able to reach home by six on Friday afternoon, so you see----"
"Oh, I do see, and I think that would be fine."
"My little Patty misses me, too, and so does Father. Aunt Barbara is an excellent housekeeper and a good nurse when any one is ill, but she is not much of a companion for daddy nor for Patty. Then, too, I hate to be out of it all. I long to keep up with the college news and the home doings, so I shall try going home at the end of the week, for awhile, anyhow."
"And did grandma say I could go?"
"She actually did. I think she is a little afraid of taking whooping-cough herself, for she asked me yesterday if I had ever known of any grown person having it, and I do know of several cases. I had it myself when I was three years old, but your grandma cannot remember that she ever had."
"I"m glad she can"t remember," returned Marian with a laugh. "Who is going to hear our lessons, Miss Dorothy?"
"My sister Emily. She is two years younger than I, and is still studying. She is taking special courses at college, but thinks she can spare an hour or so a day to you chicks, especially as she expects to teach after a while, and she will begin to practise on you."
"I will take little Patty with me," declared Marian, picking up that person from where she was seated on a large grape leaf under a dahlia bush.
"So I would. I am sure she will like to visit Patty"s dolls."
"Oh, Miss Dorothy, you are so nice," exclaimed Marian giving her a little squeeze. "Grandma never says such things. She doesn"t ever like to make believe. She says the facts of life are so hard that there is no time to waste in pretending." Marian"s manner as she said this was so like her grandmother"s that Miss Dorothy could but smile. "I am glad you took some of the photographs for papa before I got the whoops," Marian went on; "the one at school and the one at Mrs. Hunt"s. Oh, dear Mrs. Hunt will be sorry to have me go."
"She will, I know. She told me this morning that she was going to ask you to stay with her a while during the time you must be away from school. Should you like that better than going to Revell?"
"I"d like both," answered Marian truthfully.
"That is often the way in this world," returned Miss Dorothy. "It is frequently hard to choose between two equally good things. I will bring you all the home news every week, and can tell you whether Ruth knew her lessons, whether Marjorie was late, how Mrs. Hunt"s fall chickens are thriving, and what Tippy and Dippy do in your absence. I shall be quite a newsmonger."
"What is a monger?"
"One who deals or sells. You can look it up in the dictionary when you go back to the house."
The preparations for her departure went forward quickly, and by Friday morning, Marian"s trunk was packed, and all was in readiness. Her grandfather actually kissed her good-bye and gave her five cents. As her grandmother did not happen to be on hand at that moment to require that Marian should deposit the nickel in her missionary box, the child pocketed it in glee, and, at Miss Dorothy"s suggestion, bought a picture postal card to send her father, giving her new address. Miss Dorothy wrote it for her, addressed and mailed the card, so Marian was satisfied that her father would know where she was.
"I don"t like to have him not know," she told Miss Dorothy.
Mrs. Otway gave her granddaughter many charges to be a good girl and give no trouble, to take care of her clothes properly and not to forget to be obedient.
"As if I could forget," thought Marian.
Heppy had no remarks to make, but only grunted when Marian went to say good-bye to her. However as the child left the kitchen Heppy snapped out: "You"d better take along what belongs to you as long as you"re bound to go."
"Take what?" asked Marian wonderingly, not knowing that she had left anything behind.
Heppy jerked her head in the direction of the table on which a package was lying.
"What is it?" asked Marian curiously.
"Something that belongs to you," said Heppy turning her back and taking her dish-towels out to hang in the sun.
Marian carried the package with her and later on found it contained some of Heppy"s most toothsome little cakes. "It is just like her,"
Marian told Miss Dorothy. "She acts so cross outside and all the time she is feeling real kind inside."
Miss Dorothy laughed. "I am beginning to find that out, but I shall never forget how grim she seemed to me when I first came."
Mr. Robbins" house was very near the college, and Marian thought it the prettiest place she had ever seen. As they walked up the elm-bordered street, the college grounds stretched away beyond them.
The gray buildings were draped in vines bright with autumn tints, and the many trees showed the same brilliant colors. In front of the Robbins" door was a pretty garden where chrysanthemums were all a-bloom, and one or two late roses had ventured to put forth. A wide porch ran along the front and one side the house, and on this Patty stood watching for them. She was not long in spying them and hurried down to meet them. "I am so glad you have whooping-cough," she called out before they came up. Then as they met and embraced she went on: "Isn"t it fine, Marian, that we both have whooping-cough and winter coats alike? We"re most like twins, aren"t we? Come right in. There is a fire in the library, Dolly, and Emily has tea there for you."
"Good!" cried her sister, "that will go to the spot this chilly evening. Where are Aunt Barbara and dad?"
"Oh, puttering around somewhere."