Patty's Motor Car

“Day?” repeated Nan, looking blank, – so exceedingly blank that it seemed an assumed expression.

“Yes, day! A day, —one day, – an especial day! Do try to think. It may occur next week!”

“Let me see,” said Nan, in a deeply thoughtful tone, “this is May, – so you can’t mean Washington’s Birthday or Lincoln’s Birthday.”

“No! nor Christmas Day, nor St. Patrick’s Day in the Morning! But, all the same, it’s one of the most important dates in the annals of Time, and I’ll give you one more chance to save your reputation by guessing what it is, before I tell you.”

“Well, of course I have no idea when it occurs, but, if I’m merely guessing, I’ll guess that you refer to Mona Galbraith’s birthday.”

“Oh, Nan! you are too exasperating! Another speech like that and I’ll put you out of this car and let you walk home! Now the occasion to which I refer, and which you know well enough, only you think it’s roguish to pretend you don’t, is the birthday of one Miss Patricia Fairfield! a clever and charming young girl, who will on that day achieve the dignity of being nineteen years old!”

“Why, sure enough, it will be your birthday soon, won’t it?” exclaimed Nan, in affected surprise, which by no means deceived Patty.

“Yes, and what are you going to do about it?”

“Well, you ask me so suddenly, I scarce know what to say! What do you want done?”

“Well, you ask me suddenly, too, but I know exactly what to say! I want a celebration of the event.”

“Oh, you do! brass band, and torch-light parade?”

“Not exactly that, but something just as good. I want a house-party, – quite a large one, – to come the day before the birthday, and stay several days after, and celebrate all the time.”

“You’re so modest in your demands, Patty! Why don’t you have something really worth while?”

“Don’t be sarcastic, Nan; you’re too pretty to say such things! Now take a deep interest in my plans, won’t you, and help me decide things?”

“All right, Patty, I will, indeed. But I thought you didn’t want company down here, especially the boys, because you wanted to enjoy your scouring the plain, all alone.”

“Well, I did feel that way for a time, but I’m getting over it. Anyway, I want to try having company, and, if I don’t like it, I’ll try solitude again. Now you see, Nan, my birthday is next week, Thursday. I’d like to ask the people to come Wednesday, and then stay over the weekend.”

“All right, Patty, I’ll do all I can to make it pleasant for you. But, you know, we have only four guest rooms. How big did you mean your house party to be?”

“Well, of course the two Farringtons and Christine and Kenneth would be about all we could accommodate. Then I thought, if Mr. Hepworth and Mr. Van Reypen cared to come, they could stay at the hotel.”

“It doesn’t seem very hospitable to invite them that way,” said Nan, demurring.

“Then they’ll have to stay home,” said Patty, cheerfully, “for, as you say, we have only the four rooms to give them. I thought our house was large, but it doesn’t seem so when you begin to invite guests.”

“Well, we’ll see about it,” said Nan.

CHAPTER X

THE COURTESY OF THE ROAD

That evening they discussed the project with Mr. Fairfield.

“I heartily approve of the plan,” he said. “It’s time we had some young life down here to stir Patty up. She’s getting too sentimental from gazing at the sea and sky. And I think it will be quite all right to invite two of the men to lodge at the hotel. They can come over here for all their meals, and so they will practically be part of the house party. But, Patty, are you sure you want this house party for several days? You may find it more of a burden than you think, to entertain guests so long.”

“Oh, they’re not formal guests; it’s just a young people’s frolic. We’ll go motoring and swimming and picnicking just as we like. But, of course, on my birthday I shall have a party, – a real party.”

“You don’t know enough people down here to make an evening party,” said Nan.

“Oh, well, I know several,” said Patty; “and if we have eight or ten in the house, and get eight or ten more from among the Spring Beach cottagers, that will be enough for a small dance.”

“And there’s Mona,” put in her father, mischievously.

“Oh, Mona! I’m not going to ask her!”

“Why, Patty,” said Nan, “you’ll have to ask her, – your very next neighbour!”

“No, I won’t have to, either! I’m not going to spoil my whole birthday just because she happens to live next-door to me!”

“Patty,” said her father, “I think you must be a little more generous in your attitude toward that girl. You may not like her altogether, but you must be kind and polite to her, because, in a country place like this, we do owe a certain duty to our neighbours such as is never recognised in New York. And I want you to grow up an unselfish, generous woman, who would sacrifice her own feelings to those of her neighbour.”

“Of course you’re right, father, and I will try to conquer my dislike for that girl. But you know what she is.”

“Yes, I know what she is; she is uncongenial, and her manner irritates you. But there must be some good in her, Patty, and suppose you set yourself to work to find it.”

“All right, daddy, I’ll go you; but won’t you please let me wait until after my birthday is over?”

“No, child; I quite agree with Nan that you must invite Miss Mona to your party: that is, if you invite other cottagers. If you have only your own house party, of course you needn’t ask her.”

“Well, then, I won’t ever ask her over here while the house party is on, except the night of my birthday, when I have the dance.”

“It may not be necessary to invite her,” said Nan, smiling; “she’ll very likely invite herself.”

“Well, we’ll hope she won’t,” said Patty, with a little sigh. “Now I’ll write to the others to-night, and I hope they can all come. I think they all will, unless maybe Christine will think she cannot leave her work. But I’ll urge her to come for a few days, anyway.”

Patty went off to the library to write her notes, and so interested did she become in her party, and her plans for her birthday celebration, that she quite forgot her unpleasant and unwelcome neighbour. Nor did she think of her again until the next afternoon, when, as she swung in a hammock on the front veranda, she saw Mona Galbraith come walking up the drive.

“Here you are, Patty,” called out the hearty and irrepressible voice of her neighbour; “I hoped I’d find you at home. I felt sort of lonely, and I said to myself I’ll just run over to Patty’s, and perhaps, if I ask her very prettily, she’ll give me a ride in that little gem of a motor car that she runs so well.”

Patty arose from the hammock, politely hiding her annoyance at Mona’s arrival, and said: “How do you do, Miss Galbraith? Sit down, won’t you? I’m not sure that I’m going to have the car out this afternoon.”

“Oh, that’s all right; never mind. Don’t get it out purposely for me. I’ll sit here and chat this afternoon, and we can take the ride to-morrow.”

So Patty saw at once that she must either take her visitor motoring that afternoon, or merely defer the occasion, in which case she would have her on her hands for the rest of the afternoon, anyway. Of the two evils she concluded to choose the less. And she also concluded that, as her father had requested, she would be pleasant to this girl, and try to find some likable qualities in her.

So it was with a shade more cordiality that she said: “Oh, yes, we can just as well go this afternoon as any other! It’s a good day, except that there’s a pretty stiff breeze blowing. Are you dressed to go?”

“Oh, yes, this gown is all right, and you can lend me a hood and cloak or something. Haven’t you extra ones?”

“Yes, of course,” said Patty, wondering if this girl had no idea of social formalities. “But perhaps she never had anybody to teach her things,” thought Patty, who, now that she was trying to be generous-minded toward Mona, found it easier than she had thought.

Patty rang for Miller, and ordered the car; then she asked Mona to come into the house, that she might fit her out with proper wraps. It was a warm, pleasant day, so a dust cloak of Nan’s, and a silk hood belonging to that same amiable lady, were borrowed for Miss Galbraith’s use.

“Of course I have all these things at home,” she said, as she tied the ribbons under her chin; and Patty wanted to say, “Why don’t you go and get them, then?” but she well knew it was because of Mona’s unwarranted feeling of intimacy in the Fairfield household that she borrowed their wraps instead of going for her own.