Part 6 (1/2)

”For Miss Merton to walk in upon as often as she liked,” retorted Judith with calm finality. ”She's a very encroaching sort of person, Miss Pat.

I can see that. And you want to be sure you are going to be real friends with her before you let her get too chummy with you.”

Patricia burst into a merry peal and even Elinor rippled with amus.e.m.e.nt at this way of looking at the matter.

”'Chummy' isn't exactly the word that fits Miss Merton, Ju,” she said gayly. ”It sounds suspiciously like unimposing me, rather than the elegant young lady of the three-room apartment. The only thing I'm afraid of is that she'll get tired of her bargain before the week is out. I may be an awful nuisance with my scales and strummings.”

Then Judith was scandalized in earnest. The idea of anyone finding Miss Pat a nuisance was beyond her powers of thought, and she could not even find words to express her scorn of such an impossible state of things.

Patricia rippled again at the sniff of disgust which Judith made so prodigious. ”Never mind, Judy-pudy, you shall come and look me over every once in a while and see that I am being well treated. Miss Merton may be a perfect monster, after all.”

Judith was not to be won to speech by any such bald nonsense, and stalked homeward in thoughtful silence, hardly seeming to hear the gay chat of the other two in regard to what Miss Pat should or should not take with her to Artemis Lodge.

At the door of their own apartment Patricia stood quite still with a rather blank expression.

”We forgot all about asking Doris Leighton,” she said. ”How perfectly stupid of us.”

Elinor had her key in the door and she flung it open on an unlighted interior as she spoke.

”Very stupid indeed, my dear,” she admitted cheerfully, ”but it's too late to remedy it now. Besides, I don't see how you'd have got a room in Artemis Lodge in any other way.”

”And that was the most important thing, after all,” agreed Patricia, stumbling over a stool in the dimness. ”Mercy! What's that?”

The small figure which rose at their approach gave a familiar chuckling laugh and before it could speak, Judith exclaimed, ”Marty Sneath, all by herself, too!”

And Marty Sneath it proved to be, ahead of her schedule by nearly twenty-four hours and very much pleased with the chance to be installed in her new quarters that much sooner than had been planned.

After the lights were turned on and they had all commented encouragingly on the improvement in Marty's dress and appearance, she gave them an enlivening account of all that had happened in the village since their departure, particularly dwelling on the changes in the modest home of the Sneath family since Danny's removal to the far-away school where Mr.

Long had sent him.

”I tell you it ain't like it used to be,” she said with a shake of her elfish head and a twinkle in her brilliant eyes. ”Clara's got real well and Pop's swore off, and there ain't no lively times like there used to be. Of course,” she prophesied cheerfully, ”Pop'll fall off in about a week--he ain't one to stick to water long, you know. Then I bet there'll be some scrimmages. He's dead set on Clara goin' for service and she wants to be a typewriter. And they're both awful set. But it won't be nothin' without Danny. It's awful flat at home now.”

It was rather hard to sympathize with this peculiar point of view, so they kept to the safer side by asking about Danny, whether he liked the school, how he was getting on, and what Mr. Long said about him now.

Marty's reports were very satisfactory. Danny was doing finely and Mr.

Long was delighted with his experiment. ”He's as braggity about him as if he'd made our Danny up out of his head,” she said with a tinge of ruffled family pride. ”He better look out, though, 'fore he crows too loud. Our Danny is mighty cute and maybe he's only fooling them teachers. He ain't no lamb, you know,” she ended with an earnestness that made Patricia uncomfortable for her former favorite.

”He's never had half a chance to want to be good,” defended Patricia warmly. ”I've always believed he was better than he behaved.”

This seemed to be too deep for Marty, and she turned the subject by producing a letter from the pocket of her neat blue dress.

”Mrs. Spicer sent this,” she said, handing it to Patricia. ”She gave me a whole dollar, too, to spend just as I liked. My, but I felt grand comin' down on that train with a whole dollar in my purse. I kept holt on it all the way. I've read about pickpockets, and I ain't forgot Danny's ways this soon, neither.”

Patricia could not deny that Danny must have been a liberal education in that sort of sleight of hand, but the letter saved her the painful confession. While Elinor took Marty to her room and Judith explained the uses of the various conveniences, push b.u.t.tons and the like, Patricia devoured the scribbled note.

”Oh, Norn, listen to this,” she cried, following the others into Elinor's room. ”Mrs. Nat met a house-party who were going down to Mr.

Long's on the train last night and she was telling them about taking tea at Artemis Lodge, and Miss Chapin, the senator's daughter Mr. Long is so devoted to, told her she had a cousin there, who was studying with Tancredi, and she hoped we'd meet and be friends. Her name--think of it--her name is Rosamond Merton!”