CHAPTER VI
AUNT ADELAIDE
The next morning Patty was making one of her "peregrinating toilettes."She could dress as quickly as any one, if occasion required; but, ifnot, she loved to walk slowly about as she dressed, pausing now andthen to look out of a window or into a book. So she dawdled through herpretty rooms, brushing her curly golden mop, and singing softly toherself.
"Come in," she said, in answer to a tap at her door, and Mona burst in,in a wild state of excitement.
"Aunt Adelaide has arrived!" she exclaimed.
"Well, that isn't a national calamity, is it?" returned Patty. "Whythis look of dismay?"
"Wait till you see her! SHE'S a National Calamity!"
"Well, then, we must get Susan back again! But what's wrong with yournoble aunt?"
"Oh, Patty, she's so queer! I haven't seen her for some years, butshe's not a bit as I remembered her."
"Oh, don't take it too seriously. Perhaps we can make her over to suitourselves. Did you expect her so early?"
"No; but she said she came early to avoid the midday heat. It's almosteleven. Do finish dressing, Patty, and come down to see her."
"Hasten me not, my child. Aunt Adelaide will keep, and I'm not in rapidmood this morning."
"Oh, bother; come on down as you are, then. That negligee thing is allright."
"No; Aunt Adelaide might think me a careless young person. I shall getinto a tidy frock, and appear before her properly."
"Well, go on and do it, then. I'll wait for you." Mona sat down towait, and Patty dropped into a chair before her dressing-table, andsoon twisted up her curls into presentable shape.
"I declare, Patty," Mona said, "the quicker you twist up that yellowmop of yours, the more it looks like a coiffure in a fashion paper."
"And, as a rule, THEY look like the dickens. But describe the visitorto me, Mona."
"No; I'll let you get an unbiased first impression. Here's Janet, nowDO get dressed."
Except on occasions of haste, or elaborate toilette, Patty preferred todress herself, but she submitted to Janet's ministrations, and in a fewminutes was hooked into a fresh morning dress of blue and white mull.
"On, Stanley, on!" she cried, catching Mona's hand, and dancing outinto the hall. "Where is the Calamity?"
"Hush, she'll hear you! Her rooms are just over here. She told me tobring you."
As Patty afterward confided to Mona, she felt, when introduced to Mrs.Parsons, as if she were making the acquaintance of a ghost.
The little lady was so thin, so pale, and so generally ethereallooking, that it seemed as if a strong puff of wind would blow her away.
Her face was very white, her large eyes a pale blue, and her hair thatashen tint which comes when light hair turns grey. The hand shelanguidly held out to Patty was transparent, and so thin and limp thatit felt like a glove full of small bones. Her voice was quite inkeeping with her general air of fragility. It was high, thin andpiping, and she spoke as if every word were a tax on her strength.
"How do you do, my dear?" she said, with a wan little smile at Patty."How pretty you are! I used to be pretty, too; at least, so they toldme." She gave a trilling little laugh, and Patty said, heartily, "I'msure they were right; I approve their opinion."
This pleased Mrs. Parsons mightily, and she leaned back among her chaircushions with a satisfied air.
Patty felt a distinct liking for the little lady, but she wondered howshe expected to perform a chaperon's duties for two vigorous, healthyyoung girls, much inclined to gaieties.
"I am not ill," Mrs. Parsons said, almost, it seemed, in answer toPatty's unspoken thought. "I am not very strong, and I can't stand hotweather. But I am really well,--though of a delicate constitution."
"Perhaps the sea air will make you stronger after a time," suggestedPatty.
"Oh, I hope so; I hope so. But I fear not. However, I am trying a newtreatment, combined with certain medicines, which I am sure will helpmy failing health. They tell me I am always trying new remedies. But,you see, the advertisements recommend them so highly that I feel surethey will cure me. And, then, they usually make me worse."
The little lady said this so pathetically that Patty felt sorry for her.
"But you have a doctor's advice, don't you?" she asked.
"No; I've no faith in doctors. One never knows what they put in theirold prescriptions. Now when I buy one of these advertised medicines,they send me a lot of little books or circulars telling me all aboutit. This last treatment of mine sends more reading matter, I think,than any of the others, and their pamphlets are SO encouraging."
"But, Aunt Adelaide," broke in Mona, "if you're somewhat of an invalid,how did you come to promise father that you'd look after us girls thissummer?"
"I'm not an invalid, my dear. I'm sure a few more weeks, or perhapsless, of this cure I am trying now will make me a strong, hearty woman."
Patty looked at the weak little creature, and concluded that if anymedicine could make her strong and hearty, it must indeed be a cure-all.
"May I call you Aunt Adelaide, too?" she said, gently, for she wantedto be on the pleasantest possible terms with Mrs. Parsons, and hoped tobe able to help her in some way.
"Yes, yes, my dear. I seem to take to you at once. I look upon you andMona both as my nieces and my loved charges. I had a little daughteronce, but she died in infancy. Had she lived, I think she would havelooked like you. You are very pretty, my dear."
"You mustn't tell me so, Aunt Adelaide," said Patty, smiling at her."It isn't good chaperonage to make your girls vain."
"Mona is pretty, too," went on Mrs. Parsons, unheeding Patty's words."But of a different type. She hasn't your air of refinement,--of class."
"Oh, don't discuss us before each other," laughed Mona, good-naturedly."And I'm jealous and envious enough of Patty already, without havingthose traits fostered."
"Yes," went on Aunt Adelaide, reminiscently, "my little girl had blueeyes and golden hair,--they said she looked like me. She was verypretty. Her father was a plain-looking man. Good as gold, Henry was,but plain looking. Not to say homely,--but just plain."
A faraway look came in the speaker's eyes, and she rambled on and onabout her lost husband and daughter, until Patty looked at Monaquestioningly.
"Yes, yes, Aunt Adelaide," Mona said, speaking briskly; "but now, don'tyou want to change your travelling gown for something lighter? And thenwill you lie down for a while, or come with us down to the westveranda? It is always cool there in the morning."
"No, I don't want to lie down. I'll join you girls very shortly. Isuppose you have a maid for me, Mona? I shall need one for my exclusiveservice."
"Oh, yes, Auntie; you may have Lisette."
"Not if she's French. I can't abide a French maid."
"Well, she is,--partly. Then I'll give you Mary. She's a good American."
"Americans have no taste. Is there a Norwegian girl on the place? I hada Norwegian maid once, and she--"
"No, there isn't," said Mona, deeming it wise to cut short anotherstring of reminiscences. "You try Mary, and if you don't like her,we'll see what we can do."
"Well--send her to me--and we'll see."
Mona rang for Mary, and then the two girls went down to the pleasantand cool veranda.
"It's lucky you have such shoals of servants," said Patty. "At ourhouse, we couldn't give a guest a choice of nationalities."
"Oh, Patty, isn't she a terror?"
"Who, Mary?"
"No! Aunt Adelaide! It gives me the creeps to look at her. She's soslight and fragile, I expect to see her go to pieces like a soapbubble."
"She IS like a soap bubble, isn't she! But, Mona, you mustn't talkabout her like that. I feel sorry for her, she looks so ill and weak. Ithink we ought to do all we can to cheer her up, and to restore herhealth and strength. I'm sure she's refined and dainty in her way."
"Yes, she's all of that. But I don't see how she can do the chaperonact."
"Oh, well, there isn't m
uch to do. It's only the idea of having amatronly lady here to observe the proprieties."
"But I don't believe she can do that. I think she'll take to her bedsoon. She ought to go to a good sanitarium."
"Nonsense, Mona, she isn't as ill as all that! Can't you see throughher? She's the sort of lady who likes to fancy she's ill, and likes totry all sorts of quack medicines."
"Well, you can look after her, Patty; you seem to understand her sowell."
"All right, I will. Hush, here she comes."
Mrs. Parsons came slowly out to the veranda. She was followed by Mary,carrying a fan, a light wrap, a book, a thermometer, and a glass oflemonade.
"Sit here, won't you, Aunt Adelaide?" said Mona, politely offering acomfortable wicker chair.
"I'll try this, my dear, but I fear it's too low for me. Can you getanother cushion or two?"
Mona went for more cushions, and then Aunt Adelaide had to have thechair moved, for fear of a possible draught,--though there wasn't abreath of wind stirring. Then a table must be moved nearer for the bookand the lemonade, and the thermometer placed where it would get neithersun nor wind.
"I ALWAYS keep a thermometer near me," she explained, "and I alwaysbring my own, for otherwise I can't feel sure they are accurate."
Mrs. Parsons wore a dress of light grey lawn. Though cool looking, itwas unbecoming, for it had no touch of black or white to relieve itsmonotony, and on the colourless lady it had a very dull effect. But,though languid, Aunt Adelaide was quite able to give orders for whatshe wanted. She sent Mary for another book, and for more sugar for herlemonade. Then she fidgeted because a stray sunbeam came too near her.
"Mary," she said, petulantly. "Oh, I sent Mary away, didn't I? How longshe's gone! Mona, can't you find a screen somewhere to shade that sun alittle?"
"There are screens to roll down from the veranda roof, Aunt Adelaide;but it is so shady here, and they cut off the breeze so. However, ifyou want them down---"
"I certainly do," said the lady, and as Mary returned then, she loweredthe rattan blinds.
But they were no sooner down than Aunt Adelaide wanted them up again,and when at last she became settled in comfort, she asked Mona to readaloud to her.
"Please excuse me," said Mona, who was thoroughly annoyed at thefussing and fidgeting ways of her aunt, "I am a very poor reader."
"I can read fairly well," said Patty, good-naturedly. "Let me try."
She picked up Mrs. Parson's book, secretly amused to find that itstitle was "The Higher Health," and she began to read as well as shecould, and Patty really read very well.
"Don't go so fast," commanded her hearer; "valuable information likethis must be read slowly, with intervals for thought." But when Pattyprovided pauses for thought, Aunt Adelaide said, petulantly, "Go on,do; what are you waiting for?"
At last, Patty purposely let her voice grow monotonous and low, andthen, as she had hoped, Aunt Adelaide dropped into a doze.
Seeing that she was really asleep, Patty beckoned to Mona, and the twogirls slipped away, leaving Mary in charge.
"Oh, Patty!" cried Mona, as soon as they were out of hearing. "Isn't itawful! How CAN we stand having such a horrid old fusser around?"
"Whoopee! Mona! moderate your language! Mrs. Parsons isn't so very old,and she isn't horrid. If she's a fusser, that's just her way, and wemust politely submit to it."
"Submit, nothing! If you think, Patty Fairfield, that I'm going to betaken care of by that worry-cat, you're greatly mistaken!"
"Stop, Mona! I won't let you call her such names; it isn't nice!"
"She isn't nice, either!"
"She's your aunt, and your guest; and you must treat her with properrespect. She isn't an old lady; I don't believe she's fifty. And she ISill, and that makes her querulous." "Well, do you want to wait on her,and read to her, and put up with her fussiness all summer?"
"It doesn't matter whether we want to or not. We have to do it. Yourfather sent for her, and she's here. You can't send her away."
"I suppose that's so. But, oh, Patty, how I do dislike her! She'schanged so. When I saw her some years ago, she was sweet and gentle,but not so fidgety and self-centred."
"You were so young then, Mona. You probably thought little about hercharacter. And, too, her ill health has come, and that has undoubtedlyruffled her disposition."
"Well, she'll ruffle mine, if she stays here long."
"Of course she'll stay here, and we must make the best of it. Perhapswe can train her to be a little less exacting. And then, too, you canarrange to have the servants wait on her. You needn't do it yourself,always."
"Patty, you're a great comfort. If anybody can train that woman, youcan. So please try, for as you say, she'll have to stay, I suppose,until father comes home. Just think, she's father's own sister! But sheisn't a bit like him. Dad isn't fussy at all."
"No, your father is of a lovely disposition. And so kind and indulgentto you, Mona."
"Yes; Dad is a darling. But we don't seem to get into the best society,as he expected, when he built this big house. I wonder why."
"Don't bother about that now," said Patty, who was going to talk toMona some time on that very subject, but was not ready yet. "Now, as toAunt Adelaide, for I may as well call her that since she wishes it. Ithink, Mona, the only way to manage her is to be always kind and sweetto her, but not to let her impose upon us. I can see she is ratherexacting, and if we always give in to her whims, she will always expectit. So let's start out, as we mean to continue. I'll read to heroccasionally, but I can't always be at her beck and call. Perhaps Janetcan do it."
"Yes, Janet is a good reader. But, of course, Aunt Adelaide would findfault with her reading, as she did with yours."
"Yes, I expect that's her nature. But she'll be easy enough to getalong with, if we all play fair. We'll have to give and take. And don'tjudge her by this morning. She was tired and worn, and, as yet, unusedto her new surroundings. She'll feel more at home to-morrow."
"She can't ACT more at home! Well, I'll give her a trial, Patty, but Iwarn you, if she DOESN'T get placider, I'll suit myself with anotherchaperon, that's what I'll do!"
The girls did not see their visitor again until luncheon time, and thenit was the same situation repeated. But few of the viands served attable were acceptable to Aunt Adelaide. She provided the butler withcertain "health foods" of her own, and gave him elaborate instructionsfor preparing them, and then found much fault with the results of hislabours. Patty had to laugh when Mrs. Parsons tasted, critically, adish the butler anxiously offered.
"You've cooked it too much!" she exclaimed; "or, no,--you've not cookedit enough! I can scarcely tell WHICH it is,--but it isn't RIGHT!"
"I'm sorry, ma'am," said the surprised James. "Shall I cook anotherportion?"
"No," said Mrs. Parsons, resignedly. "I'll make out with this, thoughit is very distasteful."
As she had really eaten a hearty luncheon, Mona said only, "I am sorry,Aunt Adelaide; but perhaps you will enjoy the ice cream." At which shebrightened perceptibly, saying:
"Yes, ice cream is my favourite dessert, and I hope, Mona, you willhave it often."
After luncheon the visitor departed for her own rooms, saying, "I hope,my dears, you will excuse me now. I always take a nap at this hour, andas it is so warm I will not reappear until about dinner time."
"Very well, Aunt Adelaide," said Mona, greatly pleased at the plan."Ring for Mary when you want her. Patty and I are going out thisafternoon, so we'll all meet at dinner time."
"Yes, my dear. And will you please order iced tea sent to me at fouro'clock, and have the house kept as quiet as possible during my naphour?"
Patty's Butterfly Days Page 6