Part 16 (1/2)
Patty turned a flushed face to her cousin, and looked dazed and bewildered.
”Two and five-eighths ounces of sugar,” she said, ”spun to a thread; add chopped nuts and the well-beaten whites of six eggs; brown with a salamander. Marian, I haven't any salamander!”
The tragic tone of Patty's awful avowal was too much for Marian, and she dropped into a kitchen chair and went off into peals of laughter.
”Patty,” she cried, ”you goose! What are you doing? Just making up the whole recipe-book, page by page? I believe you're crazy!”
”It's for the Tea Club,” exclaimed Patty, ”and I want things to be nice.”
”H'm,” said Marian, ”and _are_ they nice?”
She glanced at some of the completed delicacies on the table, and Patty, seeing the look, turned red again, but this time it was not the effect of the kitchen range.
”Well,” she said, ”some of them aren't quite right, but I think the others will be.”
”And I think you're working too hard,” said Marian kindly. ”You come away with me now, and rest a little bit; and, Mancy, you put a little lunch for us on the dining-room table, won't you? Just anything will do, you know.”
CHAPTER XII
A TEA CLUB TEA
Patty rebelled at being overruled in this manner, but Marian had some Fairfield firmness of her own, and taking her cousin's arm led her to the library and plumped her down upon the couch in a reclining position, while she vigorously jammed pillows under her head.
”There, miss,” she announced, ”you will please stay there until luncheon is announced.”
”But, Marian,” pleaded Patty, seeing that resistance was useless, ”I've such a lot of things to do, and the girls will be here before I get them all done.”
”Let them come,” said the hard-hearted Marian, ”it won't hurt them a bit, and you've got enough things done now to feed the Russian army.”
”But they're not finished,” said Patty, ”and they'll spoil standing.”
”You'll more likely spoil them by finis.h.i.+ng them. Now you stay right where you are.”
So Patty rested, until Pansy came and called them to a most appetising little lunch spread very simply on the dining-table.
The two hungry girls did full justice to it, and then Patty said:
”Now, Marian, you're a duck, and you mean well, I know; but this is my house and my tea-party, and now you must clear out and leave me to fix it up pretty in my own way.”
”All right,” said Marian, ”I rescued you once, now this time I'll leave you to your fate; but I'll give you fair warning that those Tea Club girls would rather have a few nice little things like we had at lunch, than all those ridiculous contraptions that you've got out there half baked.”
”Oh me, oh me!” sighed Patty, in mock despair. ”n.o.body appreciates me; n.o.body realises or cares for my one great talent. I believe I'll go and drown myself.”
”Do,” said Marian, ”drown yourself in that tub of wine-jelly, for it will never stiffen. I can tell that by looking at it.”
”Bye, bye,” said Patty, pus.h.i.+ng Marian out of the dining-room, ”run along now, and take a little nap like a good little girl. Cousin Patty must set the table all nice for the pretty ladies.”
”Goose!” was the only comment Marian vouchsafed as she walked away.
Then Patty, with the a.s.sistance of Pansy Potts, proceeded to lay the table. Elaborate decoration was her keynote and she kept well in tune.