"Mercy, no! you"ll hardly catch your train now. A little faster, Jacques."
"Yes, Miss," and the chauffeur threw on a little more speed.
"Poppycheek, you rascal, I intended to miss that train."
"Well, you don"t do it! see? We"ve enough to do to-morrow, without you bothering around. You can come up Sat.u.r.day, but to-morrow we"re going to be awfully busy."
"Van Reypen coming?"
"Of course. A party isn"t a party without Phil."
"Huh! I"m not afraid of him. I can cut Van Reypen out any day in the week!"
"Not Sat.u.r.days. That"s his great day." And Patty laughed tantalisingly.
"Just you wait and see! I"m not afraid! Bye-bye, Poppycheek."
They had reached the station just as the train was drawing out. Kit sprang from the car, slammed the door after him, and striding across the platform, swung on to the moving steps. He waved his hand at Patty and was gone.
"Home, Jacques," she said.
CHAPTER XVII
MAY-DAY
May-Day, contrary to its custom, was a perfectly beautiful, balmy, sunshiny day.
Adele drew a long sigh of relief when she opened her eyes to this fact, for as the hostess of a large and elaborate garden party she had no care so great as the question of weather. And as all outdoors was a ma.s.s of warm sunshine, she felt sure of the success of her fete.
After luncheon she ordained that Patty should go to her room for a nap, as she had worked hard all the morning, and must not look f.a.gged at her coronation.
"Make Daisy go too, then," said Patty, pouting, as she started upstairs.
"No, Daisy can do as she likes. She isn"t tired and you are."
"But then Daisy will be here when the boys come, and I won"t."
"You insatiable little coquette! You go right straight to your room and go to bed! You hear me?"
"Yes, ma"am, but I can"t sleep. I"m too "cited!"
"Well, you can rest. Get yourself into a kimono,--and I"ll come up in a minute and tuck you up."
Adele went up in a few moments and found Patty leaning far out of her window.
"What ARE you doing, child? Don"t lean out so far; you"ll fall!"
Patty proceeded to draw herself back into the room. "Of course I won"t fall, Adele! I was only trying to breathe all this whole May-day into my lungs at once. It"s so beautiful."
"It is, I know; but, Patty, darling, you MUST behave yourself. Lie down and take a little sleepy-by till three o"clock. Then you can get dressed for the party."
""I will be good, dear mother, I heard a sweet child say,"" trilled Patty, as she took down her hair and put on a kimono.
Then Adele tucked her up on the couch, in a nest of pillows and under a soft down quilt.
"Of course I trust you," she said, as she patted her shoulder, "oh, OF COURSE I trust you! but all the same, my lady, I"m going to lock you in!"
"What!" cried Patty.
But even as she spoke, Adele had scurried across the room, drawn out the key, and was already locking the door from the other side.
"Well!" thought Patty, "that"s a high-handed performance! I don"t really care, though. Now that I"m here, so comfy, I realise that I am tired." And in about two minutes Patty was sound asleep.
It was nearly an hour before she opened her eyes, and then with a little yawn she lazily wondered if it were time to get up. She glanced at the clock on her dressing-table, and as it was only half-past two, she felt sure that Adele would not come to her release until three o"clock. She lay there, her eyes wandering idly about the room, when she saw a startling sight. The floor, near her couch, was fairly strewn with sprays of apple blossoms. At first she thought she must be dreaming, and rubbed her eyes to be sure she was awake. Putting her hand down outside the silken coverlet, she touched a spray of blossoms, and picking it up looked at it wonderingly. There could be no doubt.
They were real apple blossoms, and they were really there! What could it mean?
"Of course," she said to herself, "either Adele or Daisy came in while I was asleep and brought me these flowers, and sprinkled them on the floor for fun. It must have been Daisy, for Adele is too busy. How much nicer Daisy is than she used to be. And maybe that"s not fair. Probably she always was just as nice, only I wasn"t nice to her. Or I didn"t know how to take her. Oh, my gracious!"
The last words were spoken aloud, and in a very surprised voice, the reason for which was, that a lot of apple blossoms had come flying through the open window and landed on the floor beside her. "It must be Daisy," she thought, "Adele won"t let her in here, and she"s trying to get my attention this way!"
Patty scrambled off the couch, her long golden hair a tangled ma.s.s around her shoulders, and her blue silk negligee edged with swansdown draped about her.
She went to the window, which was a long French one, opening like doors onto a tiny balcony. She stepped out on the balcony and looked down.
[Ill.u.s.tration: "BILL!" she cried, "Little Billee!"]
And then, in her surprise, she almost fell over the railing, for down below on the lawn, with his smiling face looking up into hers, stood,--Bill Farnsworth.
Patty gave a squeal of delight. "BILL!" she cried, "Little Billee"
"Look out, Apple Blossom!" he called back, in his big, cheery voice, "don"t fall out of that balcony, and break your blessed neck! But if you want to jump, I"ll catch you," and he held out his arms.
"No! I don"t want to jump! Oh, Little Billee, I didn"t know you were coming! Did you throw in the apple blossoms?"
"No, no, oh, NO! A pa.s.sing highwayman threw those in! Why, what made you think _I_"d do such a thing?"
"Only because you still have a few left in your pockets," said Patty, laughing, for, sure enough, Bill had ends of blossom sprays sticking out of all his pockets.
"You see I didn"t know how many it would take to wake you up," he said.
"How did you know I was up here?"
"Daisy told me. Adele wouldn"t tell me,--said you must sleep, or some such foolishness. Get into your togs and come down, won"t you?"