"Rubbish! most debutantes are wild Indians at times. But, Nan, I"ve discovered their secret! Hah! the vilyuns! but they shall be foiled!
foiled!! FOILED!!!"
Patty raged up and down the room, melodramatically clutching at her hair and staring at Nan with her blue eyes. "It is a deep-laid plot, but it shall be foiled by Patricia Sherlock,--the only lady detective in captivity!"
"Patty, do behave yourself! What is the matter with you? You act like a lunatic!"
"I"ll tell you, Nan, honey," and Patty suddenly sat down on the couch, among a pile of pillows. "But first read that invitation and see if you see anything unusual or suspicious about it."
"I can hardly read it; for this writing looks like that on the obelisk,--or at least it"s nearly as unintelligible. But it seems to say that Mrs. Robert Homer requests the pleasure of your company at luncheon on Tuesday, April the eighth, at half-past one o"clock.
Nothing criminal about that, is there?"
"Is there! There is, indeed! Nan, you"re the dearest, sweetest, loveliest lady in the whole world, but you can"t see a hole through a ladder. So I"ll tell you. The date of that party is really April the FIRST. I mean, Marie wrote April the first! And if you"ll observe, somebody else has put a twisty line around that ONE and made it into an EIGHT! Why, it"s as plain as day!"
"It certainly is, Patty," and Nan looked at the girl in astonishment and admiration. "How did you ever happen to notice it?"
"Why, it just jumped out at me. See, a different pen was used. The line is thicker. And n.o.body would make an EIGHT that way. They"d make it all with one pen mark. And this is a straight up-and-down ONE, and that rest of it was put on later. And, anyway, Nan, if there were any doubt, don"t you see it isn"t TH after it as it ought to be for the eight, it"s ST?"
"You can"t tell which it is in this crazy handwriting," and Nan scrutinised the page.
"Yes, you can," and Patty stared at it. "You wouldn"t notice the difference, if you weren"t looking for it, but it IS ST. I see it all, Nan! You know Bee didn"t want this luncheon, and to get out of it, she changed that date before the invitations were sent! And you see, by the eighth, she"ll be back in school!"
"Are both dates Tuesday?" said Nan, thinking.
"Yes, of course, they are. Isn"t it clever? Oh, Bee never got this up all by herself,--that Kit helped her."
"But, Patty, then n.o.body will go on the first, and the Homers will be all prepared--"
"That"s just what Bee wants! One of her practical jokes! Oh, Nan, I do detest practical jokes."
"So do I! I think they"re ill-bred."
"But the Homers don"t think that, and Kit Cameron doesn"t, either.
We"ve discussed that matter lots of times, and we never agree. And, besides, Nan," and Patty had a new inspiration, "don"t you see, this party was planned for the first of April, and Bee and Kit will call this thing an April Fool joke, and therefore entirely permissible.
April Fool"s Day is their Happy Hunting Ground. But I"m going to foil this thing, and don"t you forget it! Seems to me it would be a pretty good joke if I"d turn the tables on those two smarties."
"How can you, Patty?"
"I haven"t quite thought it out yet, but I have an idea."
"But, Patty, wait a minute. Perhaps they only changed the date on yours,--just to fool you, you know."
"Good gracious, Nan! perhaps that"s so! How did you come to think of it? But I"ll soon find out."
Patty flew to the telephone, and in a short time learned that both Mona and Elise were invited for the eighth, and she concluded that the plotters had changed the date on all the invitations.
Next she called up Marie, and without letting her know why, asked for a list of the luncheon guests.
Marie told her at once, without asking why she wanted to know.
There were nine beside the Homers, and Patty was acquainted with them all.
She called them up each in turn on the telephone, and explained carefully that a mistake had been made in the invitations, and she hoped they would come on the first instead of the eighth.
Fortunately, all of them were able to do this, and Patty enjoined each one to say nothing about this change of date, until they should arrive at the party.
To a few of her more intimate friends,--Mona, Elise, and Christine,--she told the whole story, and they fell in with her plans.
And so it came about, that on the first of April preparations were going blithely forward in the Homer apartment, for Bee"s elaborate luncheon.
It was all true, exactly as Patty had figured it out; and Kit and Beatrice had planned what they considered a first-cla.s.s and entirely permissible practical joke.
They knew that Mrs. Homer would make elaborate preparations for the luncheon, but they agreed that there would be no other harm done. And to them, the fun of seeing the perplexity of Marie and her mother at the non-appearance of their guests, was sufficient reason for their scheme. Moreover, they fell back on the time-honoured tradition that any joke was justifiable on April Fools" Day.
In addition to all this, Beatrice did not want to attend the luncheon party, and as by chance it had been left to her to seal up and address the invitations that Marie had written, and as Kit came in while she was doing it, their fertile brains had discovered that, as the dates fell on the same day of the week, the first could easily be changed to the eighth! And the two sinners chuckled with glee over the fact that another luncheon would have to be prepared the week following.
As it neared one o"clock on the first of April, Kit strolled into the Homers" apartment.
"Run away, little boy," said his aunt, gaily; "we"re having a young ladies" party here to-day, and you"re not invited."
"Please let me stay a little while, auntie; I"ll run away before your guests arrive. Mayn"t I help you fix flowers or something?"
"No, you"re more bother than help; now be good, Kit boy, and run away."
"Auntie," and Kit put on his most wheedlesome smile, which was always compelling, "if you"ll just let me stay till the first guest comes, I"ll scoot out at once."
Bee nearly choked at this, for did she not know that the guests wouldn"t arrive for a week yet!
Mrs. Homer was called away to the dining-room then, and the two conspirators indulged in a silent dance of triumph over the success of their scheme. Not for a moment did it strike them as unkind or mean, because they had been used to practical jokes all their life, and this seemed to them the biggest and best they had ever carried off.
At half-past one Patty appeared.
She had laid her plans most carefully, and everything was going smoothly.
Mrs. Homer and Marie greeted her warmly, and Beatrice and Kit were not much surprised to see her, because she was liable to come any day.
Beatrice looked a little surprised at Patty"s dressed-up appearance, but as no one else appeared, she had no suspicion of what Patty had done.
They all sat in the drawing-room, and the clock ticked away until twenty-five minutes of two, but n.o.body else arrived.
Mrs. Homer grew restless. She looked at the clock, and turning to Kit, asked him if the time was right by his watch.
"Yes, auntie," replied that scapegrace. "It"s almost twenty minutes of two. I thought you invited your friends for one-thirty."
"I did," and Mrs. Homer looked anxious. "How strange that no one is here, except Patty!"
Patty said nothing, but the enigmatic smile which she cast on Kit made him feel that perhaps she knew more than she was telling.
"Do run away, Kit," urged his aunt. "I should think you"d be ashamed to come to a party where you"re not invited."