"Yes, Aunt Adelaide," said Patricia, sinking into a chair with a sigh of resignation.
"Somewhere private," said Miss Brent.
"There is no privacy at Galvin House," murmured Patricia, "except in the bathroom."
"Patricia, don"t be indelicate," snapped Miss Brent.
"I"m not indelicate, Aunt Adelaide, I"m merely being accurate," said Patricia wearily.
"Cannot we go to your room?" enquired Miss Brent.
"Impossible!" announced Patricia. "It"s like an oven by now. The sun is on it all the afternoon. Besides," continued Patricia, "my affairs are public property here. We are quite a commune. We have everything in common--except our toothbrushes," she added as an afterthought.
"Well! Let us get over there."
Miss Brent rose and made for the corner farthest from Miss w.a.n.gle and Mrs. Mosscrop-Smythe. Patricia followed her wearily.
"I"ve just snubbed those two women," announced Miss Brent, as she seated herself in a basket-chair that squeaked protestingly.
"There were indications of electricity in the air," remarked Patricia calmly.
"I want to have a serious talk with you, Patricia," said Miss Brent in her best it"s-my-duty-cost-it-what-it-may manner.
"How can anyone be serious in this heat?" protested Patricia.
"I owe it to your poor dear father to----"
"This debtor and creditor business is killing romance," murmured Patricia.
"I have your welfare to consider," proceeded Miss Brent. "I----"
"Don"t you think you"ve done enough mischief already, Aunt Adelaide?"
enquired Patricia coolly.
"Mischief! I?" exclaimed Miss Brent in astonishment.
Patricia nodded.
"As your sole surviving relative it is my duty----"
"Don"t you think," interrupted Patricia, "that just for once you could neglect your duty? Sin is wonderfully exhilarating."
"Patricia!" almost shrieked Miss Brent, horror in her eyes. "Are you mad?"
"No," replied Patricia, "only a little weary."
"You must have a tonic," announced Miss Brent.
Patricia shuddered. She still remembered her childish sufferings resulting from Miss Brent"s interpretation and application of The Doctor at Home. She was convinced that she had swallowed every remedy the book contained, and been rubbed with every liniment its pages revealed.
"No, Aunt Adelaide," she said evenly. "All I require is that you should cease interfering in my affairs."
"How dare you! How----" Miss Brent paused wordless.
"I am prepared to accept you as an aunt," continued Patricia, outwardly calm; but almost stifled by the pounding of her heart. "It is G.o.d"s will; but if you persist in a.s.suming the mantle of Mrs. Grundy, combined with the Infallibility of the Pope, then I must protest."
"Protest!" repeated Miss Brent, repeating the word as if not fully comprehending its meaning.
"If I am able to earn my own living, then I am able to conduct my own love affairs."
"But----" began Miss Brent.
"I am sorry to appear rude, Aunt Adelaide, but it is much better to be frank. I am sure you mean well; but the fact of your being my sole surviving relative places me at a disadvantage. If there were two of you or three, you could quarrel about me, and thus preserve the balance. Now let us talk about something else."
For once in her life Miss Brent was nonplussed. She regarded her niece as if she had been a two-tailed giraffe, or a double-headed mastodon.
Had she been American she would have known it to be brain-storm; as it was she decided that Patricia was sickening for some serious illness that had produced a temperature.
In all her experience of "the Family" never once had Miss Brent been openly defied in this way, and she had no reserves upon which to fall back. She held personal opinion and inclination must always take secondary place to "the Family." The individual must be sacrificed to the group, provided the individual were not herself. Births, deaths, marriages, christenings, funerals, weddings, were solemn functions that must be regarded as involving not the princ.i.p.als themselves so much as their relatives. Her doctrine was, although she would not have expressed it so philosophically, that the individual is mortal; but the family is immortal.
That anyone lived for himself or herself never seemed to occur to Miss Brent. If their actions were acceptable to the family and at the same time pleased the princ.i.p.als, then so much the better for the princ.i.p.als; if, on the other hand, the family disapproved, then the duty of the princ.i.p.als was clear.
This open flouting of her prides and her prejudices was to Miss Brent a great blow. It seemed to stun her. She was at a loss how to proceed; all she realised was that she must save "the Family" at any cost.
"Now tell me what happened when you came in," said Patricia sweetly.
"I must be going," said Miss Brent solemnly.
"Must you?" enquired Patricia politely; but rising lest her aunt should change her mind.
"Now remember," said Patricia as they walked along the hall, "you"ve lost me one matrimonial fish. If I get another nibble you must keep out of----"
But Miss Brent had fled.
"Well, that"s that!" sighed Patricia as she walked slowly upstairs.
CHAPTER XVII
LADY PEGGY MAKES A FRIEND
One Sunday morning as Patricia was sitting in the Park watching the promenaders and feeling very lonely, she saw coming across the gra.s.s towards her G.o.dfrey Elton accompanied by a pretty dark girl in an amber costume and a black hat. She bowed her acknowledgment of Elton"s salute, and watched the pair as they pa.s.sed on in the direction of Marble Arch.
Suddenly the girl stopped and turned. For a moment Elton stood irresolute, then he also turned and they both walked in Patricia"s direction.
"Lady Peggy insisted that we should break in upon your solitude," said Elton, having introduced the two girls.