CHAPTER VIII
AN UNATTAINED AMBITION
To say that Boxley Hall was in readiness for the party would be statingit very mildly. It was overflowing,--yes, fairly bursting with readiness.
New Year's day was on Thursday, and Patty had decreed that on that daynone of the Elliotts should go to Boxley Hall until they came as guests.
Dinner was to be at two o'clock, and in the morning Patty and her fatherwent over to their new home together.
"Just think, papa," said Patty, squeezing his hand as they went along,"how many times we have walked--and run, too, for that matter--from AuntAlice's over to our house; but this time it's different. We're going tostay, to live, really to _reside_ in our own home; and whenever we go toAunt Alice's again, it will be to visit or to call. Oh, isn't itperfectly lovely! If I can only live up to it, and do things just as youwant me to."
"Don't take it too seriously, Pattikins; I don't expect you to become anold and experienced housewife all at once. And I don't want you to wearyourself out trying to become such a personage. Indeed, I shall beterribly disappointed if you don't make ridiculous mistakes, and give mesome opportunity to laugh at you."
"You are the dearest thing, papa; that's just the way I want you to feelabout it; and I think I can safely promise to make enough blunders tokeep you giggling a good portion of the time."
"Oh, don't go out of your way to furnish me with amusement. And now, howabout your party to-day? Is everything in tip-top order?"
"Yes, except a few thousand things that I have to do this morning, and afew hundred that I want you to do."
"I shall see to it, first, that the carving-knife is well sharpened. It'sthe first time that I have carved at my own table for a great many years,and I want the performance to be marked by grace and skill."
"It will be, if you do it, papa; I'm sure of that," and by this time theyhad reached the gate, and Patty was skipping along the path and up thesteps, and into the door of her own home.
Mancy and Pansy Potts were already there, and, to a casual observer, itlooked as if there was nothing more to do except to admit the guests.
Patty had set the table the day before, and, to the awestruck admirationof Pansy Potts, had arranged the beautiful new glass and china with mostsatisfactory effects. Pansy had watched the proceedings with intelligentscrutiny and, when it was finished, had told Patty that the next time shewould be able to do it herself.
"You'll have a chance to try," Patty had answered, "for in the eveningwe'll have supper, and you may set the table all by yourself; and I'llcome out and look it over to make sure it's all right."
But, as Patty had said, there was yet much to be done on Thursdaymorning, even though there were eight hands to make the work light.
Boxes of flowers had arrived from the florist's, and these had to bearranged in the various rooms; also, a few potted plants in full bloomhad come for the conservatory, and these so delighted the soul of PansyPotts that Patty feared the girl would spend the whole day nursing them.
"Come, Pansy," she called; "let them grow by themselves for a while; Iwant your help in the kitchen."
"But, oh, Miss Patty, they're daisies! Real white daisies, withyellow centres!"
"Well, they'll still be daisies to-morrow, and you'll have more time toadmire them then."
Patty's ambitions in the culinary line ran to the fanciful and elaborateconfections which were pictured in the cook-books and in the householdperiodicals; especially did she incline toward marvellous desserts whichcalled for spun sugar, and syllabubs, and rare sweetmeats, and patentfreezing processes.
For her New Year's dinner party she had decided to try the mostcomplicated recipe of all, and, moreover, intended to surpriseeverybody with it.
Warning her father to keep out of the kitchen on pain of excommunication,she rolled up her sleeves and tied on a white apron; and with her openbook on the table before her, began her proceedings.
Pansy Potts was set to whipping cream with a new-fangled syllabub-churn,and Mancy was requested to blanch some almonds and pound them to a pastein a very new and very large mortar.
Though the good-natured Mancy was more than willing to help her youngmistress through what threatened to be somewhat troubled waters, yet shehad the more substantial portions of the dinner to prepare, and there wasnone too much time.
As Patty went on with her work, difficulties of all sorts presentedthemselves. The cream wouldn't whip, but remained exasperatingly fluid;the sugar refused to "spin a thread," and obstinately crystalliseditself into a hard crust; the almonds persisted in becoming a lumpy mass,instead of a smooth paste; and the gelatine, as Patty despairinglyremarked, "acted like all possessed!"
But, having attempted the thing, she was bound to carry it through,though it was with some misgivings that she finally poured a queer andsticky-looking substance into the patent freezer.
Pansy Potts had declared herself quite able to accomplish the freezingprocess; but, as she was about to begin, she announced in tragic tonesthat the extra ice hadn't come.
"Oh!" exclaimed Patty, in desperation, "everything seems to go wrongabout that dessert! Well, Pansy, you use what ice there is, and I'lltelephone for some more, right away."
But when Patty called up the ice company she found that their office wasclosed for the day, and, hanging up the receiver with an angry littlejerk, she turned to find her father smiling at her.
"I see you have begun to amuse me," he said; "but never mind about myentertainment now, Puss; run away and get dressed, or you won't be readyto receive your guests. It's half-past one now."
"Oh, papa, is it so late? And I have to get into that new frock!"
"Well, scuttle along, then, and make all the haste you can."
Patty scuttled, but during the process of making all the haste she could,she very nearly lost her temper.
The new white frock was complicated; the broad white hair-ribbons weredifficult to tie; and, as it was the first time that she had made atoilette in her new home, it is not at all surprising that many useful orindispensable little articles were missing.
"Pansy," she called, as she heard the girl in the dining-room, "do, formercy's sake, come up and help me. I can't find my shoe-buttoner, and Ican't button the yoke of this crazy dress without it."
Pansy came to the rescue, and just as the Elliott family came in at thefront gate, Patty completely attired, but very flushed and breathlessfrom her rapid exertions--flew downstairs and tucked her arm through herfather's, as he stood in the hall.
"I'm here," she said demurely, and trying to speak calmly.
"Oh, so you are," he said. "I thought a white cashmere whirlwind hadstruck me. I _hope_ you didn't hurry yourself."
"Oh, no!" said Patty, meeting his merry smile with another. "I justdawdled through my dressing to kill time."
"Yes, you look so," said her father, and just then the doorbell rang.
"Oh, papa," cried Patty, her eyes dancing with excitement, "_isn't_ itjust grand! That's the first ring at our own doorbell, our _own_doorbell, you know; and hasn't it a musical ring? And now it will beanswered by our own Pansy."
Without a trace of the hurry and fluster that had so affected her youngmistress, Pansy Potts, in neat white cap and apron, opened the door tothe guests.
Patty nudged her father's arm in glee, as they noted the correctdemeanour of their own waitress, and then all such considerations weredrowned in the outburst of enthusiasm that accompanied the entrance ofthe Elliotts. The younger members of the family announced themselves withwild war-whoops of delight, and the older ones, though less noisy, wereno less enthusiastic.
"I like Cousin Patty's house," announced Gilbert, sitting down in themiddle of the floor. "I will stay here always. Where is the Pudgykitty-cat?"
"I'll get her for you, right away," said Patty. "She is fatter than ever;but, first, let me make grandma comfortable."
Taking Mrs. Elliott's bonnet and wraps, Patty led the old lady to a largeeasy-chair, and announced t
hat she must sit there for a few moments andrest, before she made a tour of inspection around the house.
Grandma Elliott had not been allowed in the new house while it was beingarranged, lest she should take cold, and so to-day it burst upon her inall its glory. By this time Frank and Marian were investigating theconservatory, and little Edith was announcing that Cousin Patty had a"Crimson Gambler."
"She means Crimson Rambler!" exclaimed Patty; "or, as Pansy calls it,'that bunchy rosebush.'"
Although the guests had been invited to a two-o'clock dinner, yet whenthe clock hands pointed to nearly three, the meal had not been announced.
There was so much to be talked about that the time did not drag, but AuntAlice looked at Patty a little curiously.
Patty caught the glance, and excusing herself, went out into the kitchen.
"Mancy!" she exclaimed; "it's almost three o'clock. Why don't youhave dinner?"
"Well, honey, yo' took so much of my time mashin' your old nuts dat mywork got put behind. Dinner'll come on after a while; it's mos' ready."
Patty went back to the parlour, laughing.
"If anybody can hurry up Mancy," she said, "they're welcome to try it. Ididn't realise it was so late, and I'm awfully sorry; but I guess we'llhave dinner pretty soon, now."
"Don't be sorry we're going to have it soon," said Frank; "none of therest of us are, I assure you."
Although served about an hour late, the dinner was a great success.It had been carefully planned; Mancy's cooking was beyond reproach,and Pansy Potts proved a neat-handed and quick-witted, ifinexperienced, Phyllis.
Encouraged by the general excellence of the courses, as they succeededone another, Patty began to hope that her gorgeous dessert would turn outall right after all.
Seated at the head of her own table, she made a charming little hostess,and many a glance of happy understanding passed between her and thegentleman who presided at the other end.
"I say, Patty, it's right down jolly, you having a house of your own,"said Frank.
"Except that we miss you awfully over home," added Uncle Charley.
"I don't see how you can," said Patty, smiling; "as I took breakfastthere this morning, you haven't yet gathered round your lonely boardwithout me."
"No, but we shall have to," said Uncle Charley, "and it is that which isbreaking my young heart."
"Well, _this_ is what's breaking _my_ young heart," said Patty, as shewatched Pansy Potts, who was just entering the room with a dishcontaining a most unattractive-looking failure.
"I may as well own up," she said bravely, as the dessert was placed infront of her. "My ambition was greater than my ability."
"Don't say another word," said Aunt Alice. "_I_ understand; thosespun-sugar things are monuments of total depravity."
Patty gave her aunt a grateful glance, and said, "They certainly are,Aunt Alice; and I'll never attempt one again until I've made myselfperfect by long practice."
"Good for you, my Irish Pat," said Frank; "but, do you know, I like thembetter this way. There's an attraction about that general conglomerationthat appeals to me more strongly than those over-neat concoctions thatlook as if they had sat in a caterer's window for weeks."
But, notwithstanding Frank's complimentary impulses, the dessert proveduneatable, and had to be replaced with crackers and cheese and fruitand bonbons.