CHAPTER XI
PREPARATIONS
With the instincts of a true hostess, Patty had slipped from the roomunobserved, and had held a short Confab with her two trusty servitors inthe kitchen.
"But, Miss Patty," expostulated Mancy, "dey ain't nuffin' fit to setbefo' dem fren's ob yo's. Dey ain't nuffin' skacely in de house, ceptin'some bits ob candies an' cakaroons le' from yo' las' night's supper."
"Well, that's all right," said Patty; "let Pansy arrange those nicely onthe dining-room table. Use the silver dishes, Pansy, and fix them just asI told you."
"Yes, Miss Patty," said Pansy, "but there aren't very many left."
"Well, then, Mancy, I'll tell you what: you make us a nice pot ofchocolate, and fix us some thin bread and butter, and cut up some of thefruit cake to put with those little fancy cakes; won't that do?"
"Yas'm, I spec' so; but it's a mighty slim layout, 'specially for demhearty young chaps. But you go 'long, honey, I'll fix it somehow."
And, sure enough, she did fix it somehow; for when, a little later, Pattyinvited her young friends out into the dining-room, the thin bread andbutter had doubled itself up into most attractive and satisfyingchicken-sandwiches, and there was also a plate of delicious toastedcrackers and cheese.
Mr. Fairfield added a box of candy which he had brought home from NewYork, and the unpretentious little feast proved most enjoyable to allconcerned.
"I should think you would feel all the time as if you were acting a playyourself, Patty," said Elsie Morris, taking her seat at the prettilylaid table.
"I do," said Patty as she took her own place at the head; "it's awfullyhard to realise that I am monarch of all I survey."
"But you have someone to dispute your right," said her father.
"And I'm glad of it," said Patty. "Whatever should I do living here allalone just with my rights?"
"By her rights, she means her cousins," put in Frank.
"Yes," said Patty; "they're about as right as anything I know."
And so the evening passed in merry chaff and good-natured fun; and at itsclose the young guests all went away except Marian, who was going tospend the night at Boxley Hall.
After her cousin had gone upstairs to her pretty blue bedroom, Pattylingered a moment in the library for a word with her father.
"How am I getting along, papa?" she said. "How about the proportionto-night?"
"The market seems pretty strong on proportion to-day, Patty, dear; yourhousekeeping is beginning wonderfully well. That little dinner you gaveus was first-class in every respect, and the simple refreshments you hadthis evening were very pretty and graceful."
"Don't praise me too much, papa, or I'll grow conceited."
"You'll get praise from me, my lady, just when you deserve it, and at noother time. Now, skip along to bed, or you'll have too great a proportionof late hours."
With a good-night kiss Patty went singing upstairs, feeling sure that shewas the happiest and most fortunate little girl in the world.
So impressed was she with her realisation of this fact that she announcedit to Marian.
Marian looked at her curiously.
"You _are_ fortunate in some ways," she said; "but the real reasonyou're always so happy, I think, is because of your happy disposition. Agreat many girls with no mother or brother or sister, who had all thecare and responsibility of a big house, and whose father was away allday, would think they had a pretty miserable life. But that never seemsto occur to you."
"No," said Patty contentedly; "and I don't believe it ever will."
The next morning Patty devoted all her energy to getting ready for theTea Club. She declined Marian's offers of help, saying:
"No, I really don't need any help. If I can keep Pansy out of theconservatory, we three can accomplish all there is to be done; so you goand sit by the library fire, and toast your toes and read, or play withthe cat, or do whatever you please. Remember, whenever you come here,you're one of the family."
So Marian went off by herself and played on the piano, and read, and hadvarious kinds of good times, scrupulously keeping out of the way of herbusy and preoccupied cousin.
"Now, Pansy," said Patty, as she captured that culprit in theconservatory, and led her off to the kitchen, "I want you to tryespecially hard to-day to do just as I want you to, and to help me inevery possible way."
"Can I fix the flowers, Miss Patty?" said Pansy Potts, her eyes sparklingwith delight.
"Where are there any flowers to fix? You've fussed over those in theconservatory until you've nearly worn them all out."
"Oh, Miss Patty, they're thriving beautifully. But I mean that big boxof flowers that just came up from the flower man's. He said Mr.Fairfield sent it."
"Oh!" exclaimed Patty, "did papa really send me up flowers for the TeaClub? How perfectly lovely! I meant to order some myself, but I know hiswill be nicer."
By this time Patty was diving into the big box and scattering tissuepaper all about.
"They're beautiful," she exclaimed, "and what lots of them! Yes, Pansy,you may arrange them; you really do it better than I do. Keep all thepink ones for the dining-room, and put the others wherever you like. Now,Mancy," she went on, "we'll discuss what to eat."
"Yas'm, and I s'pose it'll be some ob dem highfalutin fandangoes ob yo's,what nobody can't eat."
"You guessed right the very first time," said Patty, smiling back atthe good-natured old cook, whose bark was so much worse than her bite."You see, Mancy, this is my own party, and so I can have just what Ilike at it. Not even papa can object to the things that I have for myown Tea Club."
"Dat's so, chile, but co'se yo' knows you'se mighty likely to spoil demgood t'ings befo' yo' get 'em made."
"Oh, I don't think I will this time," said Patty, with that assuredlittle toss of her head which always meant perfect confidence in herown ability.
Mancy said nothing, but grunted somewhat doubtfully as Patty went on todescribe the beautiful things she intended to have.
"I want rissoles," she said, as she turned over the cookery-book, andlooked in the index for R. "They're awfully good."
"What's dem, missy? I never heard tell of 'em."
"I forget what they are," said Patty, "but we had them at Delmonico's oneday, when papa and I were there at lunch, and I remember thinking thenthey'd be nice for the Tea Club. They were either some little kind of acake, or else a sort of croquette. Either would be nice, you know. Why,they're not here. What a silly book not to have them in! Oh, well, nevermind, here's 'Richmond Maids of Honour.' We used to have those at AuntIsabel's, and they're the loveliest things. I'll make those, Mancy; andwhile I'm doing it you make me some wine jelly and some Bavarian cream,and then I can put them together with _marrons_ and candied cherries andwhipped cream and things, and make a Royal Diplomatic Pudding."
"'Pears like yo's makin' things fine enough for a weddin',"growled Mancy.
"Well, now, look here, last night you thought the things I had for myevening company were too plain, and now you're grumbling because they'retoo fancy."
"Laws, honey, can't you see no diffunce 'tween plain bread and butter anda lot of pernicketty gimcracks that never turns out right nohow?"
A haunting doubt regarding the proportion between her elaborate plans andthe simple Tea Club hovered round Patty's mind, but she resolutely put itaside, thinking to herself, "I don't care, it's my first function, andI'm going to have it just as nice as I can."
Patty always felt particularly grand and grown up when she used the word_function_, and now that she had mentally applied it to the Tea Clubmeeting, that simple affair seemed to take on a gigantic amplitude andfairly seemed to cry out for elaborate devices of all sorts.
"Never you mind, Mancy," she said, "you just go ahead and do as I tellyou. Get the jelly and cream ready, and I'll do the rest."
"But ain't yo' gwine to have no solidstantial kind o' food?"
"Oh, yes, of course. I want a _croustade_ of chicken andclub-sandwiches."
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sp; "Humph," said Mancy, her patience giving out at this, "ef yo' does, yo'llhab to talk English."
Patty laughed. "You must get used to these names, Mancy, because theseare the kind of things I like. Well, you just boil a couple of chickens,and cut them up small, and see that there are two loaves of bread ready,those long round, crimply ones, you know, and then I'll put it alltogether and all you'll have to do is to brown it. And I'll show you howto make the club-sandwiches after lunch. You might as well learn once forall, you know. There's bacon in the house, isn't there?"
"No, dey ain't; is yo' fren's gwine stay ter breakfus'?"
"Oh, no, I'd want the bacon for the club-sandwiches. Don't worry, Mancy,they'll all come out right."
"Dey mought and den again dey moughtn't," grumbled the old woman, butundaunted Patty went on measuring and weighing with a surety of successthat is found only in the young and inexperienced.
At one o'clock Marian walked out into the kitchen.
"Good gracious, Patty Fairfield," she exclaimed, "what are you doing? Andwhat are all those things? Do you expect the Democratic Convention to beentertained here, or are you going to give the Sunday-school a picnic?And are we never to have lunch? I'm simply starving!"
Patty turned a flushed face to her cousin, and looked dazed andbewildered.
"Two and five-eighths ounces of sugar," she said, "spun to a thread; addchopped nuts and the well-beaten whites of six eggs; brown with asalamander. Marian, I haven't any salamander!"
The tragic tone of Patty's awful avowal was too much for Marian, and shedropped into a kitchen chair and went off into peals of laughter.
"Patty," she cried, "you goose! What are you doing? Just making up thewhole 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 ofthe kitchen range.
"Well," she said, "some of them aren't quite right, but I think theothers will be."
"And I think you're working too hard," said Marian kindly. "You comeaway with me now, and rest a little bit; and, Mancy, you put a littlelunch for us on the dining-room table, won't you? Just anything will do,you know."