this is the strange part,” he went on; “you all think I’m fooling, but I’m not! I do want to carry Patty off with me, on this very next train.”
“This is so sudden!” said Patty, still taking it as a joke.
“You keep still a minute, Milady, and let me explain to your elders and betters.” Patty pouted at this, but Bill went on. “You see, Mr. Fairfield, I’m involved in some big business transactions, which, not to go into details, have made it necessary for me to become the owner of a large hotel up in Maine, – in the lake region.”
“I thought all Maine was lakey,” put in Patty.
“Well, this is a smallish lake, not far from Poland Spring. And it’s a big hotel, and it’s to close tomorrow, and all the guests will leave then. And I’ve got to go up there and look after it.”
“How did you happen to acquire this white elephant?” asked Fred Fairfield, greatly interested.
“Had to take it for a debt. Man couldn’t pay, – lost his money in war stocks. – I’ll tell you all about it while Patty’s getting her bag packed.”
“What do you mean?” cried Nan, seeing Farnsworth’s apparent sincerity.
“Oh, Lord, I forgot I haven’t told you yet! Well, as I have to go up there for a week or two, and as the hotel is all in running order, and as all the guests are going off in a hurry, and the servants are still there, I thought it would be fun to have a sort of a house party up there – ”
“Gorgeous!” cried Patty, clapping her hands, “Who’s going, Bill?”
“That’s the rub! I haven’t asked anybody yet, and I doubt if I can get many at this time of year.”
“Haven’t asked anybody! I thought you had planned this house party!”
“Well, you see, I just got the telegram last night, and it was on the train coming up here this morning that I planned it – so the plans aren’t – aren’t entirely completed as yet.”
“Oh, you fraud! You made it all up on the spur of the moment – ”
“Yes’m, I did. But what a spur the moment is! Now, see here, it’s clear sailing. We can get the Kenerleys and they’ll be the chaperons. Now, all we have to do, is to corral a few guests. You and I are two. How about Mona Galbraith?”
“She’d go if she could,” said Patty, “but she’s having a party this afternoon. Chick Channing is over there.”
“Chick Channing! Is he really? Well! Well! I haven’t seen that boy for years. We must make them come. And Daisy? Is she there?”
“Yet, but don’t get too many girls – ”
“Don’t be alarmed, you little man-eater, you! The Farringtons will go, maybe; and Kit Cameron and his pretty cousin. Oh, I’ve a list of possibles, and we’ll get enough for a jolly little crowd. You’ve no objections, have you?” and Farnsworth looked anxiously at the elder Fairfields.
“N-no,” began Nan, “but it isn’t all clear to me yet. Suppose the Kenerleys can’t go?”
“That puts the whole plant out of commission. Unless, – oh, by Jove! wouldn’t you two go? That would be fine!”
But Mr. Fairfield and Nan refused to be drawn into any such crazy scheme. It was all right for young people, they said, but not for a comfort-loving, middle-aged pair.
“Well, I’ll tell you,” said Farnsworth, after a moment’s thought. “I’ll get the Kens on the long distance, and find out for sure. Meantime, Butterfly, you be packing a few feathers, for sumpum tells me Adele will go, anyway, whether old Jim does or not.”
“Might as well throw some things in a suitcase I s’pose,” said Patty; “it’s better to be ready and not go than to go and not be ready.”
After a long session at the telephone, Bill announced a triumphant success. The Kenerleys would be glad to go. Moreover, Adele would meet Patty and Bill in New York that very day in time for a late luncheon. Then they would get the Farringtons and the others by telephone. Then Patty would go home with Adele for the night, and they would all go to Maine the next day.
“You see it’s very simple,” said Bill, with such an ingenuous smile that Nan went over to his side at once.
“Of course it is,” she agreed. “It’s simply lovely! And Patty wanted to get away from the giddy whirl down here. She’ll have the time of her life!”
But Mr. Fairfield was not so sure. “I think it’s a wild goose chase,” he said. “What sort of a place are you going to? You don’t know! What sort of service and creature comforts? You don’t know! What will you get to eat? You don’t know! That’s a nice sort of outlook, I must say!”
“Oh, easy now, sir. It isn’t as bad as all that. I’ve had rather definite and detailed reports, and if it weren’t all comfy and certain, I wouldn’t take Patty up there. It’s a Lark, you see, a Lark, – and I’m sure we’ll get a lot of fun out of it. And, incidentally, I know it’s a fine section of country, – healthful, invigourating, and all that. And the house is a modern up-to-date hotel. They always close soon after Labour Day, but this year, owing to circumstances, it’s the very day after. That’s where the fun comes in, having a whole hotel all to ourselves. But we must be getting on. The train leaves in twenty minutes.”
“I’m all ready,” said Patty, as she re-appeared, miraculously transformed into a lady garbed for travelling. A silk pongee coat protected her gown and a small hat and veil completed a smart costume.
“I don’t altogether like it – ” began Mr. Fairfield, as they got into the motor to go to the train.
“Run along, Patty,” said Nan. “I’ll see to it that he does like it, before you leave the station. Going to Mona’s?”
“Yes, just for a minute. You see her as soon as we’re gone, and tell her all about it. We can only say the barest facts.”
They flew off, Patty’s veil streaming behind, until she drew it in and tied it round her neck.
At Red Chimneys, several young people were playing tennis, but Patty called Mona to her and told her briefly of the plan.
“Glorious!” cried Mona. “If it were not for that old Tea, we could go right along now. But we’ll come tomorrow. Where shall we meet you?”
Quickly Farnsworth told her, and then turned to see his old friend, Channing.
“Chick, old boy!” he cried. “My, but it’s good to see you again!”
Channing was presented to Patty, who looked at him in amazement. He was the biggest man she had ever seen, even taller than Bill Farnsworth. He looked enormously strong, and when he smiled, his large mouth parted to show two rows of big, white, even teeth, that somehow made Patty feel like Red Ridinghood before the wolf. But there was little time for getting acquainted, for it was almost train time.
A few words between the two men as to meeting next day, and then the motor flew to the station.
And only just in time, for though Bill handed Patty on to the steps with care, he had to scramble up himself as the
