“She’ll come soon. I told you she’d be late. Don’t fuss, Patty.”
“No; I won’t,” and Patty smiled at him.
But she was anxious, for Patty was conservative by nature, and a close observer of the conventions. She was unacquainted at this Club, and if Mona shouldn’t come, she felt a grave uncertainty as to what she could do. She and Helen couldn’t stay the day there without Mona, and the storm was gaining in force.
“I wish you’d telephone,” she said to Van Reypen, “and see if they’ve started.”
“All right, my liege lady, I will. Just wait a minute, till I get this numbness from my digits.”
“Do let him get warm, Patty,” Helen remonstrated; “the poor man is almost frozen, and you send him to telephone about nothing!”
“’Deed it isn’t nothing! If for any reason Mona doesn’t come, we must go right home, Helen.”
“But don’t cross the bridge before you come to it. At least, let me have a look around. I want to see that sun-parlour and that other palmy nook, over there! Oh, I think this the most fascinating place I ever saw!”
“It is charming. And I’m glad to be here, but I want things right.”
“Patty, you’re not unlike Friend Hamlet. You’re always setting the world right.”
“I know, Phil, but you don’t stop to think. You know we two girls can’t stay here without Mona or some married woman as a chaperon. It doesn’t matter what you think; that’s society’s law and must be obeyed.”
Patty’s pink cheeks took on an added flush and her blue eyes grew violet, as they did when she was very much in earnest.
“I know, Patty; I know, dear. Why, I’m as well acquainted with the conventions as you are. Do you suppose I want you to do anything not absolutely correct? But the Farringtons will come directly. They started later than we did, and the increasing depth of snow may make them longer on the road. But they’re sure to come.”
Phil’s air of conviction reassured Patty, and she turned to the great blazing fire again, with a sigh of contentment. There were two or three Club members about, but save for those and the liveried footmen here and there, the place was deserted.
Helen, thoroughly warm, jumped from her seat and went about looking at the various attractive rooms.
“A wonderful library!” she said, returning from her tour of investigation; “I could be happy there all day, just looking at the picture papers and books.”
“So could I,” said Patty, “if we had somebody with us. Why didn’t we bring Nan? That would have made everything all right!”
“Mona’s sure to come soon,” comforted Helen. “Let up, Patty, you make me tired with your fussing.”
Good-naturedly, Patty “let up” and said no more for the moment.
“Hello, people!” called a cheery voice, and a big figure in uniform came swinging in.
“Mr. Herron!” cried Helen, running forward to greet him. “I’m so glad you came! Did you come in your airship?”
“I wish I could have done so, for the going on the ground is something awful. This is sure one fierce storm!”
Patty went over and lifted a curtain to look out of the window.
“Oh-ee!” she cried out, “it’s coming down thicker’n ever! How can Mona get here? They’ll be snowbound, half way here! Phil, please go and telephone; I must know if they’ve started.”
“Better go quick,” laughed Herron, “before the telephone wires are down. It’s that wet, heavy snow that weighs the wires down fearfully.”
“All right,” and Phil started for the telephone booth.
“They’ll get here,” opined Bumble; “you worry over nothing, Patty Pink.”
“They can’t get here unless they started some time ago,” Herron said; “the roads are getting worse every minute.”
“Roger will manage somehow,” Helen went on. “I know him of old, – and he isn’t to be baulked by a few flakes of snow.”
But Phil returned looking serious.
“They’re not coming,” he announced, briefly, meeting Patty’s startled eyes squarely, but apologetically. “Not on account of the storm, but because Mona’s father arrived, and he isn’t well and Mona won’t leave him. She says to tell you she’s awfully sorry, but it seems her father is really pretty ill, and she can’t get away.”
“Then we must go right home,” said Patty, very decidedly. “You know yourself, Phil, we two girls can’t stay here without Mona – or somebody.”
“Of course, I know it, Patty. Give me a minute to think. I hate to go home and give up our nice day here. Maybe we can fix it. I’ll go and see the housekeeper.”
“Oh, that would be all right, Phil,” and Patty’s lovely face broke into a smile. “If she’s a nice motherly or auntly old lady, she’d do admirably! Go and see about it, do!”
“Let me go,” said Herron, “maybe I can fix it up.”
He was gone a long time, but he came back smiling.
“The housekeeper isn’t here,” he announced, “she’s gone off for a few days’ holiday. Her present substitute is her daughter, a girl younger than you girls are. Also there’s nobody who can play chaperon to a pair of lone, lorn damsels but one elderly specimen, who is by way of being a pastry-cook or something like that. However, – ”
“Oh, all right!” cried Helen; “I don’t care if she’s a pastry-cook or a laundress if she only satisfies Patty’s insane desire for a chaperon! Will she come? Will she stay by us till we go home?”
“She’ll come to luncheon with us,” said Herron, “and after that I think we’d better start for home. The snow is getting deeper, and though it looks as if the sun might break through the clouds any minute, – yet it may not, and the drifts are high, and – ”
“You’re a calamity howler!” cried Helen. “We’re here, and we’re safe and warm, and the pie lady will do quite well for a chaperon, and anybody who grumbles now, is a wet blanket and a pessimist and a catamaran! So, there, now!”
“All right,” Patty laughed; “let me see the elderly dame, and if she passes muster, I’ll stop growling like a bear and be so nice and amiable you won’t know me!”
“I don’t know you when you’re anything but amiable!” declared Philip; “where’s your friend, Herron? Trot her in.”
“She’s dressing,” Herron returned. “She said she must doll up to meet the young ladies – ”
“Did she use that expression?” asked Patty, severely.
“Oh, no! That’s mine. She said she’d put on her other gown, – or something like that.”
“I can’t decide till I see her,” Patty said; “if she’s really all right, we’ll stay. If not, you must take us right home, Phil.”
“Your word is my law. When Patty says go, we all goeth! Whew! how it snows!”
“Never mind the snow,” urged Herron; “no matter what the weather when we four get together! Now, what can we do in the way of high jinks? Anybody want to try the swimming pool?”
“No, thank you!” and Bumble shivered at the thought. “Can we dance anywhere?”
“Not till after lunch,” said Patty. “Dancing in the morning has gone out. Besides, it’s nearly lunch time now. Let’s knit for a while, – and not go jumping about.”