OH, Patty! Did you bring us some wedding cake?"
"Did you have any adventures?"
Conny and Priscilla, with the dexterity1 of practice, sprang upon the rear step of the hearse as it turned in at the school gate, and rolled up the curving drive to the porte-cochère. The "hearse" was the popular name for the black varnished2 wagonette which conveyed the pupils of St. Ursula's from church and station. It was planned to accommodate twenty. Patty and her suit-case, alone in the capacious interior, were jolting3 about like two tiny peas in a very big pod.[100]
"Adventures!" she called back excitedly. "Wait till you hear!"
As they came to a stop, they were besieged4 by a crowd of blue-coated girls. It was afternoon recreation, and the whole school was abroad. The welcome that she received, would have led an onlooker5 to infer that Patty had been gone three months instead of three days. She and her two postilions descended6, and Martin gathered up his reins7.
"Come on, youse! All who wants a ride to the stables," was his hospitable8 invitation.
It inundated9 him with passengers. They crowded inside—twice as many as the hearse would hold—they swarmed10 over the driver's seat and the steps; and two equestriennes even perched themselves on the horses' backs.
Patty waved her hand toward the suit-case.
"There it is. Take it upstairs. I'll be with you as soon as I've reported."
"But that isn't your suit-case."[101]
Patty shook her head mysteriously.
"If you tried a thousand years you'd never guess who owns it."
"Who?"
Patty laughed.
"Looks like a man's," said Conny.
"It is."
"Oh, Patty! Don't be so exasperating13. Where'd you get it?"
"Just a little souvenir that I picked up. I'll tell you as soon as I've interviewed the Dowager. Hurry, and slip in while Jelly isn't looking."
They cast a quick glance over their shoulders toward the gymnasium instructor14, who was arguing fat Irene McCullough into faster movements on the tennis court. Miss Jellings was insistent15 that "recreation" should be actively16 pursued out of doors. The two could easily have obtained permission to greet Patty's return inside; but it was the policy of the trio never to ask permission in minor17 matters. It wasted one's credit unnecessarily.
Priscilla and Conny turned upstairs lug[102]ging the suit-case between them, while Patty approached the principal's study. Ten minutes later she joined her companions in Seven, Paradise Alley18. They were sitting on the bed, their chins in their hands, studying the suit-case propped19 on a chair before them.
"Well?" they inquired in a breath.
"She says she's glad to see me back, and hopes I didn't eat too much wedding cake. If my lessons show any falling off—"
"Who owns it?"
"The man with the black eyebrows20 and the dimple in his chin who sang the funny songs third from the end on the right hand side."
"Jermyn Hilliard, Junior?" Priscilla asked breathlessly.
"Not really?" Conny laid her hand on her heart with an exaggerated sigh.
"It is his!" cried Priscilla.
"Where on earth did you get it, Patty?"
"Is it locked?"[103]
"Yes," Patty nodded, "but my key will open it."
"What's in it?"
"Oh, a dress suit, and collars, and—and things."
"Where'd you get it?"
"Well," said Patty languidly, "it's a long story. I don't know that I have time before study hour—"
"Oh, tell us, please. I think you're beastly!"
"Well—the glee club was last Thursday night."
They nodded impatiently at this useless piece of information.
"And it was Friday morning that I left. As I was listening to the Dowager's parting remarks about being inconspicuous and reflecting credit on the school by my nice manners, Martin sent in word that Princess was lame22 and couldn't be driven. So instead of going to the station in the hearse, I went with Mam'selle in the trolley23 car. When we got in, it was cram24 full of men. The entire Yale Glee Club was going to the station! There[104] were so many of them that they were sitting in each other's laps. The whole top layer rose, and said perfectly25 gravely and politely: 'Madame, take my seat.'
"Mam'selle was outraged26. She said in French, which of course they all understood, that she thought American college boys had disgraceful manners; but I smiled a little—I couldn't help it, they were so funny. And then two of the bottom ones offered their seats, and we sat down. And you'll never believe it, but the third man from the end was sitting right next to me!"
"Not really?"
"Oh, Patty!"
"Is he as good-looking near to, as he was on the stage?"
"Better."
"Are those his real eyebrows or were they blacked?"
"They looked real but I couldn't examine them closely."
"Of course they're real!" said Conny indignantly.
"And what do you think?" Patty de[105]manded. "They were going on my train. Did you ever hear of such a coincidence?"
"What did Mam'selle think of that?"
"She was as flustered27 as an old hen with one chicken. She put me in charge of the conductor with so many instructions, that I know he felt like a newly engaged nursemaid. The Glee Club men rode in the smoking-car, except Jermyn Hilliard, Junior, and he followed me right into the parlor28 car and sat down in the chair exactly opposite."
"Patty!" they cried in shocked chorus. "You surely didn't speak to him?"
"Of course not. I looked out of the window and pretended he wasn't there."
"Oh!" Conny murmured disappointedly.
"Then what happened?" Priscilla asked.
"Nothing at all. I got out at Coomsdale, and Uncle Tom met me with the automobile30. The chauffeur31 took my suit-case from the porter and I didn't see it near to at all. We reached the house just at tea time, and I went straight in to tea without going upstairs. The butler took up my suit-case and[106] the maid came and asked for the key so she could unpack32. That house is simply running over with servants; I'm always scared to death for fear I'll do something that they won't think is proper.
"All the ushers33 and bridesmaids were there, and everything was very jolly, only I couldn't make out what they were talking about half the time, because they all knew each other and had a lot of jokes I couldn't understand."
Conny nodded feelingly.
"I did feel sort of young," Patty acknowledged. "One of the men brought me some tea and asked what I was studying in school. He was trying to obey Louise and amuse little cousin, but he was thinking all the time, what an awful bore it was talking to a girl with her hair braided."
"I told you to put it up," said Priscilla.
"Just wait!" said Patty portentously35. "When I went upstairs to dress for dinner,[107] the maid met me in the hall with her eyes popping out of her head.
"'Beg pardon, Miss Patty,' she said. 'But is that your suit-case?'
"'Yes,' I said, 'of course it's my suit-case. What's the matter with it?'
"She just waved her hand toward the table and didn't say a word. And there it was, wide open!"
Patty took a key from her pocket, unlocked the suit-case, and threw back the lid. A man's dress suit was neatly36 folded on the top, with a pipe, a box of cigarettes, some collars, and various other masculine trifles filling in the interstices.
Patty nodded.
"And when I showed Uncle Tom that suit-case, he nearly died laughing. He telephoned to the station, but they didn't know anything about it, and I didn't know where the glee club was going to perform, so we couldn't telegraph Mr. Hilliard. Uncle[108] Tom lives five miles from town, and there simply wasn't anything we could do that night."
"And just imagine his feelings when he started to dress for the concert, and found Patty's new pink evening gown spread out on top!" suggested Priscilla.
"Oh, Patty! Do you s'pose he opened it?" asked Conny.
"I'm afraid he did. The cases are exact twins, and the keys both seem to fit."
"I hope it looked all right?"
"Oh, yes, it looked beautiful. Everything was trimmed with pink ribbon. I always pack with an eye to the maid, when I visit Uncle Tom."
"But the dinner and the wedding? What did you do without your clothes?" asked Priscilla, in rueful remembrance of many trips to the dressmaker's.
"That was the best part of it!" Patty affirmed. "Miss Lord simply wouldn't let me get a respectable evening gown. She went with me herself, and told Miss Pringle how to make it—just like all my dancing[109] dresses, nine inches off the floor, with elbow sleeves and a silly sash. I hated it anyway."
"You must remember you are a school girl," Conny quoted, "and until—"
"Just wait till I tell you!" Patty triumphed. "Louise brought me one of her dresses—one of her very best ball gowns, only she wasn't going to wear it any more, because she had all new clothes in her trousseau. It was white crêpe embroidered40 in gold spangles, and it had a train. It was long in front, too. I had to walk without lifting my feet. The maid came and dressed me; she did my hair up on top of my head with a gold fillet, and Aunt Emma loaned me a pearl necklace and some long gloves and I looked perfectly beautiful—I did, honestly—you wouldn't have known me. I looked at least twenty!
"The man who took me in to dinner never dreamed that I hadn't been out for years. And you know, he tried to flirt41 with me, he did, really. And he was getting awfully42 old. He must have been almost forty. I felt as though I were flirting43 with my[110] grandfather. You know," Patty added, "it isn't so bad, being grown up. I believe you really do have sort of a good time—if you're pretty."
Six eyes sought the mirror for a reflective moment, before Patty resumed her chronicle.
"And Uncle Tom made me tell about the suit-case at the dinner table. Everybody laughed. It made a very exciting story. I told them about the whole school going to the Glee Club, and falling in love in a body with the third man from the end, and how we all cut his picture out of the program and pasted it in our watches. And then about my sitting across from him in the train and changing suit-cases. Mr. Harper—the man next to me—said it was the most romantic thing he'd ever heard in his life; that Louise's marriage was nothing to it."
"But about the suit-case," they prompted. "Didn't you do anything more?"
"Uncle Tom telephoned again in the morning, and the station agent said he'd got the party on the wire as had the young lady's case. And he was coming back here in two[111] days, and I was to leave his suit-case with the baggage man at the station, and he would leave mine."
"But you didn't leave it."
"I came on the other road. I'm going to send it down."
"And what did you wear at the wedding?"
"Louise's clothes. It didn't matter a bit, my not matching the other bridesmaids, because I was maid of honor, and ought to dress differently anyway. I've been grown up for three days—and I just wish Miss Lord could have seen me with my hair on the top of my head talking to men!"
"Did you tell the Dowager?"
"Yes, I told her about getting the wrong suit-case; I didn't mention the fact that it belonged to the third man from the end."
"What did she say?"
"She said it was very careless of me to run off with a strange man's luggage; and she hoped he was a gentleman and would take it nicely. She telephoned to the baggage man that it was here, but she couldn't[112] send Martin with it this afternoon because he had to go to the farm for some eggs."
Recreation was over, and the girls came trooping in to gather books and pads and pencils for the approaching study hour. Everyone who passed number Seven dropped in to hear the news. Each in turn received the story of the suit-case, and each in turn gasped anew at sight of the contents.
"Oh, there's a button loose!" cried Florence Hissop, the careful housewife. "Where's some black silk, Patty?"
She threaded a needle and secured the button. Then she daringly tried on the coat. Eight others followed her example and thrilled at the touch. It was calculated to fit a far larger person than any present. Even Irene McCullough found it baggy45.
They peered daintily at the other garments.[113]
"And to think of such a thing happening to Patty!" sighed Mae Mertelle.
"You're so young and so—er—"
"Young!—Wait till you see me with my hair done up."
"I wonder what the end will be?" asked Rosalie.
"The end," said Mae unkindly, "will be that the baggage man will deliver the suit-case, and Jermyn Hilliard, Junior, will never know—"
A maid appeared at the door.
"If you please," she murmured, her amazed eyes on Irene who was still wearing the coat, "Mrs. Trent would like to have Miss Patty Wyatt come to the drawing-room, and I am to take the suit-case down. The gentleman is waiting."[114]
"Do your hair up—quick!"
Priscilla caught Patty's twin braids and wound them around her head, while the others in a flutter of excitement, thrust in the coat and relocked the suit-case.
They crowded after her in a body and hung over the banisters at a perilous51 angle, straining their ears in the direction of the drawing-room. Nothing but a murmur29 of voices floated up, punctuated52 by an occasional deep bass53 laugh. When they heard the front door close, with one accord they invaded Harriet Gladden's room, which commanded the walk, and pressed their noses against the pane54. A short, thick-set man of German build was waddling55 toward the gate and the trolley car. They gazed with wide, horrified56 eyes, and turned without a word to meet Patty as she trudged57 upstairs lugging58 her errant suit-case. A glance told her that they had seen, and dropping on the top step, she leaned her head against the railing and laughed.[115]
"His name," she choked, "is John Hochstetter, Jr. He's a wholesale59 grocer, and was on his way to a grocers' convention, where he was to make a speech comparing American cheese with imported cheese. He didn't mind at all not having his dress-suit—never feels comfortable in it anyway, he says. He explained to the convention why he didn't have it on, and it made the funniest speech of the evening. There's the study bell."
Patty rose and turned toward Paradise Alley, but paused to throw back a further detail:
"He has a dear little daughter of his own just my age!"
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1
dexterity
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| n.(手的)灵巧，灵活 | |
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varnished
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| 浸渍过的，涂漆的 | |
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jolting
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| adj.令人震惊的 | |
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besieged
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| 包围，围困，围攻( besiege的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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onlooker
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| n.旁观者，观众 | |
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6
descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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7
reins
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| 感情，激情； 缰( rein的名词复数 )； 控制手段； 掌管； （成人带着幼儿走路以防其走失时用的）保护带 | |
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8
hospitable
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| adj.好客的；宽容的；有利的，适宜的 | |
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9
inundated
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| v.淹没( inundate的过去式和过去分词 )；（洪水般地）涌来；充满；给予或交予（太多事物）使难以应付 | |
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10
swarmed
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| 密集( swarm的过去式和过去分词 )； 云集； 成群地移动； 蜜蜂或其他飞行昆虫成群地飞来飞去 | |
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11
cavalcade
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| n.车队等的行列 | |
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rattled
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| 慌乱的，恼火的 | |
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13
exasperating
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| adj. 激怒的 动词exasperate的现在分词形式 | |
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14
instructor
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| n.指导者，教员，教练 | |
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15
insistent
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| adj.迫切的，坚持的 | |
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16
actively
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| adv.积极地，勤奋地 | |
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17
minor
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| adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修 | |
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18
alley
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| n.小巷，胡同；小径，小路 | |
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19
propped
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| 支撑，支持，维持( prop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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eyebrows
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| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
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21
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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lame
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| adj.跛的，(辩解、论据等)无说服力的 | |
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trolley
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| n.手推车，台车；无轨电车；有轨电车 | |
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24
cram
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| v.填塞，塞满，临时抱佛脚，为考试而学习 | |
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25
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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26
outraged
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| a.震惊的，义愤填膺的 | |
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27
flustered
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| adj.慌张的；激动不安的v.使慌乱，使不安( fluster的过去式和过去分词) | |
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28
parlor
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| n.店铺，营业室；会客室，客厅 | |
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29
murmur
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| n.低语，低声的怨言；v.低语，低声而言 | |
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30
automobile
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| n.汽车，机动车 | |
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31
chauffeur
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| n.(受雇于私人或公司的)司机；v.为…开车 | |
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32
unpack
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| vt.打开包裹（或行李），卸货 | |
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33
ushers
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| n.引座员( usher的名词复数 )；招待员；门房；助理教员v.引，领，陪同( usher的第三人称单数 ) | |
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34
horrid
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| adj.可怕的；令人惊恐的；恐怖的；极讨厌的 | |
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portentously
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neatly
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| adv.整洁地，干净地，灵巧地，熟练地 | |
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37
gasped
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| v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要 | |
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38
gasp
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| n.喘息，气喘；v.喘息；气吁吁他说 | |
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39
fervently
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| adv.热烈地，热情地，强烈地 | |
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40
embroidered
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| adj．绣花的 | |
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41
flirt
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| v.调情，挑逗，调戏；n.调情者，卖俏者 | |
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42
awfully
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| adv.可怕地，非常地，极端地 | |
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43
flirting
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| v.调情，打情骂俏( flirt的现在分词 ) | |
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44
sniffing
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| n.探查法v.以鼻吸气，嗅，闻( sniff的现在分词 )；抽鼻子（尤指哭泣、患感冒等时出声地用鼻子吸气）；抱怨，不以为然地说 | |
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45
baggy
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| adj.膨胀如袋的，宽松下垂的 | |
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46
lining
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| n.衬里，衬料 | |
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47
squealed
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| v.长声尖叫，用长而尖锐的声音说( squeal的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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48
chirped
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| 鸟叫，虫鸣( chirp的过去式 ) | |
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49
pajamas
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| n.睡衣裤 | |
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50
bristled
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| adj. 直立的，多刺毛的 动词bristle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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51
perilous
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| adj.危险的，冒险的 | |
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52
punctuated
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| v.（在文字中）加标点符号，加标点( punctuate的过去式和过去分词 )；不时打断某事物 | |
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53
bass
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| n.男低音(歌手)；低音乐器；低音大提琴 | |
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54
pane
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| n.窗格玻璃，长方块 | |
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55
waddling
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| v.（像鸭子一样）摇摇摆摆地走( waddle的现在分词 ) | |
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56
horrified
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| a.(表现出)恐惧的 | |
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57
trudged
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| vt.& vi.跋涉，吃力地走（trudge的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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58
lugging
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| 超载运转能力 | |
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59
wholesale
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| n.批发；adv.以批发方式；vt.批发，成批出售 | |
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