CHAPTER II
THE HOTEL
“This is a little like a real eloping, isn’t it?” and Bill gavePatty’s suitcase to a porter, whom they followed across the bigPennsylvania station in New York.
“A _very_ little,” said Patty, shaking her head. “You see it lacks thethrill of a real out-and-out elopement, because people know about it. Anelopement, to be any good, must be a secret. If ever I get married, I’mgoing to elope, that’s one thing certain!”
“Why, Patty, how unlike you! I thought you’d want a flubdub wedding withforty-’leven bridesmaids and all the rest of it.”
“Oh, I s’pect I shall when the time comes. I often change my mind, youknow.”
“You bet you do! You change it oftener than you make it up!”
“Why, I couldn’t——” began Patty, and just then they reached thetaxicab rank, and Bill put Patty into a car.
They went to the Waldorf, where they were to meet the Kenerleys, andfound that Jim and Adele had just arrived.
“What a perfect scheme!” exclaimed Adele, as soon as greetings had beenexchanged. “Who all are going?”
“Let us go to luncheon,” said Bill, “and then we can thrash out things.I reserved a table—ah, here we are,” as the head waiter recognised thebig Westerner.
“I love to go round with Bill,” said Patty, “he always has everythingready, and no fuss about it.”
“He sure does,” said Jim Kenerley, in hearty appreciation. “But the wayhe scoots across the country and back, every other day or two, keeps himin trim. He lives on the jump.”
“I do,” agreed Farnsworth. “But some day I hope to arrange matters so Ican stay in the same place twice running.”
Laughing at this sally, they took their places at the table, whichBill’s foresight had caused to be decorated with a low mound of whiteasters and maidenhair fern.
“How pretty!” cried Patty. “I hate a tall decoration,—this is justright to talk over. Now, let’s talk.”
And talk they did.
“I just flew off,” Patty declared, as she told Adele about it. “Nan’sgoing to pack a trunk and send it, when she knows we’re truly there. Ithink she feared the plan would fizzle out.”
“Indeed it won’t,” Bill assured them. “We’ve got the nucleus of ourparty here, and if we can’t get any more, we can go it alone.”
But it was by no means difficult to get the others. Some few whom theyasked were out of town, but they responded to long distance calls, andmost of them accepted the unusual invitation.
Farnsworth had a table telephone brought, and as fast as they could ringthem up, they asked their guests.
The two Farringtons were glad to go; Marie Homer and Kit Cameron jumpedat the chance. Mona and Daisy, with Chick Channing, would come up fromthe shore the next day, and that made eleven.
“Van Reypen?” asked Kenerley, as they sought for some one to fill outthe dozen.
“Up to Patty,” said Bill, glancing at her.
“No,” and Patty shook her golden head, slowly; “no, don’t let’s ask Philthis time.”
“Why not?” said Adele in astonishment. “I thought you liked him.”
“I do; Phil’s a dear. But I just don’t want him on this picnic. Besides,he’s probably out of town. And likely he wouldn’t care to go.”
“Reasons enough,” said Farnsworth, briefly. “Cross off Van Reypen. Now,who for our last man?”
“Peyton,” said Jim. “Bob Peyton would love to go, and he’s a goodall-’round chap. How’s that, Bill?”
“All right, Patty?” and Bill looked inquiringly at her.
“Yes, indeed. Mr. Peyton’s a jolly man. Do you think he’d go, Adele?”
“Like a shot!” Kenerley replied, for his wife. “Bob’s rather gone onPatty, if you know what I mean.”
“Who _isn’t_ gone on Patty?” returned Farnsworth. “Well, that’s a rounddozen. Enough!”
“Plenty,” Patty decreed. And then the talk turned to matters of trainsand meetings and luggage.
“I’ll arrange everything for the picnic,” said Bill. “You girls seeabout your clothes and that’s all you need bother about. You’ll wantwarmish togs, it gets cool up there after sundown. Remember, it’sMaine!”
Patty and Adele at once began to discuss what to take, and Patty made alist to send to Nan for immediate shipment.
“What an enormous piece of humanity that Chicky is!” said Patty,suddenly remembering the stranger. “Do you know him, Jim?”
“Yes; known him for years. He’s true blue, every inch of him. Don’t youlike him, Patty?”
“Can’t say yet. I only saw him half a jiffy. But, yes, I’m sure I shalllike him. Bill says he’s salt of the earth.”
“He’s all of that. And maybe a little pepper, as well. But you and oldChick will be chums, I promise you. Now we’ll pack you two girls off toFern Falls, and I’ll do a few man’s size errands, and Bill, here, willmake his will and dispose of his estate, before going off into thewilderness with a horde of wild Indians. Then tomorrow, he’ll pick us upat Fern Falls, and we’ll all go on our way rejoicing.”
“Not so fast,” said Adele, after Jim finished his speech. “You two mencan go where you like, Patty and I will take a taxi, and do some lastfond lingering bits of shopping, before we go home. Don’t you s’pose wewant some shoes and veils and——”
“Sealing-wax?” asked Farnsworth, laughing. “All right, you ladies go andbuy your millinery, and I’ll see you again tomorrow on the train.”
* * * * *
As might have been expected, with such capable management, everythingwent on smoothly, and it was a clear, bright afternoon when theycompleted the last stage of their journey, and the train from Portlandset them down at their destination.
Not quite at their destination, however, for motorbuses were in waitingto take them to the hotel itself.
For more than an hour they bumped or glided over the varying roads, nowthrough woods, and now through clearing.
At last, a vista suddenly opened before them, and they saw a mostpicturesque lake, its dark waters touched here and there by the settingsun. It was bordered by towering pines and spruces, and purple hillsrose in the distance.
“Stunning!” cried Patty, standing up in the car to see better. “I neversaw such a theatrical lake. It’s like grand opera! Or like the castledcrag of Drachenfels, whatever that is.”
“I used to recite that at school,” observed Chick Channing; “so it mustbe all right, whatever it is.”
And then, as they turned a corner, the hotel itself appeared in sight.An enormous structure, not far from the lake, and set in a mass ofbrilliant salvias and other autumn flowers and surrounded by well-keptvelvety greensward.
“What a peach of a hotel!” and Patty’s eyes danced with enthusiasm andadmiration. “All for us, Little Billee?”
“All for we! Room enough?”
“I should say so! I’m going to have a suite,—maybe two suites.”
“Everybody can have all the rooms he wants, and then some. I believethere are about five hundred——”
“What?” cried Daisy Dow, “five hundred! I shall have a dozen at least.What fun!”
The cars rolled up to the main entrance. Doormen, porters, and hallboysappeared, and the laughing crowd trooped merrily up the steps.
“I never had such a lark!” declared Mona. “Oh, I’ve seen hotels asbig,—even bigger,—but never had one all to myself, so to speak. Isn’tit just like Big Bill to get up this picnic!”
Marie Homer looked a little scared. The vastness of the place seemed toawe her.
“Chr’up, Marie,” laughed her cousin, Kit Cameron. “You don’t have to useany more rooms than you want. How shall we pick our quarters,Farnsworth?”
“Well, let me see. Mr. and Mrs. Kenerley must select their rooms first.Then the ladies of the party; and, if there are any rooms left a
fterthat, we fellows will bunk in ’em.”
So, followed by the whole laughing troop, Adele and Jim chose theirapartments. They selected two elaborate suites on the second floor, forBill told them that there were scores of servants, and they were betteroff if they had work to do.
“Isn’t it heavenly?” sighed Elise Farrington, dropping for a moment on acushioned window-seat, in Adele’s sitting-room, and gazing at thebeautiful view. “I want my rooms on this side of the house, too.”
“All the girls on this side,” decreed Adele, “and all the men on theother. Or, if the men want a lake view, they can go up on the nextfloor. If I have to comfort you girls, when you’re weeping withhomesickness, I want you near by. Marie, you’re most addicted tonostalgia, I recommend you take this suite next to mine.”
So Marie was installed in a lovely apartment, next Adele’s and withpractically the same view of the lake and hills.
Daisy’s came next, then Mona’s, and Patty’s last. This brought Patty atthe other end of the long house, and just suited her. “For,” she said,“there’s a balcony to this suite, and if I feel romantic, I can come outhere and bay the moon.”
“You’ll do nothing of the sort, young woman,” said Adele, severely. “Youdo that moon-baying act, and you’ll be kidnapped again.”
“No, thank you,” and Patty shuddered, “I’ve had quite enough of that!”
The rooms were beautifully furnished, in good taste and harmoniouscolourings. The hotel had been planned on an elaborate scale, but forsome reason, probably connected with the management, had not beensuccessful in this, its first season; and in swinging a business deal ofsome big lumber tracts in that vicinity, it had fallen into Farnsworth’shands. He had no intention of keeping it, but intended to sell it toadvantage. But at present, it was his own property and he had conceivedthe whim of this large-sized picnic.
“Boom! Boom!” sounded Channing’s deep bass voice in the hall. “That’sthe dressing-gong, people. Dinner in half an hour. No full dresstonight. Just a fresh blouse and a flower in your hair, girls.”
“Isn’t he great?” said Patty to Mona, as they responded through theirclosed doors.
But the girls’ suites of rooms could all be made to communicate, andthey ran back and forth without using the main hall.
“He is,” agreed Mona, who was brushing her hair at Patty’sdressing-table. “And the more you see of him, the better you’ll likehim. He’s shy at first.”
“Shy! That great, big thing shy?”
“Yes; he tries to conceal it, but he is. Not with men, you know,—butafraid of girls. Don’t tease him, Patty.”
“Me tease him!” and Patty looked like an injured saint. “I’m going to bea Fairy Godmother to him. I’ll take care of him and shield him from youhoydens, with your wiles. Now, go to your own rooms, Mona. I shouldthink, with half a dozen perfectly good rooms of your own, you might letme have mine.”
“I can’t bear to leave you, Patty. You’re not much to look at,—Iknow,—but somehow I forget your plainness, when——”
Mona dodged a powder-puff that Patty threw at her, and ran away to herown rooms.
Half an hour later, Patty went slowly down the grand staircase.
Adele had decreed no evening dress that first night, so Patty wore alittle afternoon frock of flowered Dresden silk. It was simply made,with a full skirt and many little flounces, and yellowed lace rufflesfell away from her pretty throat and soft dimpled arms. Its palecolouring and crisp frilliness suited well her dainty type, and shelooked a picture as she stood for a moment halfway down the stairs.
“Well, if you aren’t a sight for gods and little fishes!” exclaimed adeep voice, and Patty saw Chickering Channing gazing at her from thehall below. “Come on down,—let me eat you.”
As Patty reached the last step, he grasped her lightly with his twohands and swung her to the floor beside him.
“Well!” exclaimed Patty, decidedly taken aback at this performance.“Will you wait a minute while I revise my estimate of you?”
“For better or worse?”
“That sounds like something—I can’t think what—Declaration ofIndependence, I guess.”
“Wrong! It’s from the Declaration of Dependence. But why revise?”
“Oh, I’ve ticketed you all wrong! Mona said you were shy! _Shy!_”
“Methinks the roguish Mona was guying you! Shyness is _not_ my strongpoint. But, if you prefer it should be, I’ll cultivate it till I can shywith the best of them. Would you like me better shy?”
“Indeed I should, if only to save me the trouble of that revision.”
“Shy it is, then.” Whereupon Mr. Channing began to fidget and stand onone foot, then the other, and even managed to blush, as he stammeredout, “I s-say, Miss F-Fairfield,——”
It was such a perfect, yet not overdone burlesque of an embarrassedyouth, that Patty broke into peals of laughter.
“Don’t!” she cried. “Be yourself, whatever it is. I can’t revise backand forth every two minutes! I say, Mr. Chickering Channing, you’regoing to be great fun, aren’t you?”
“Bid me to live and I will live, your Funnyman to be. Whatever youdesire, I’m it. So you see, I am a nice, handy man to have in thehouse.”
“Indeed you are. I foresee we shall be friends. But what can I call you?That whole title, as I just used it, is too long,—even for this bighouse.”
“You know what the rest call me.”
Patty pouted a little. “I never call people what other people callthem.”
“Oh, Lord, more trouble!” and Chick rolled his eyes as if in despair.“Well, choose a name for yourself——”
“No, I want one for you!”
“Oh, what a _funny_ young miss! Well, choose, but don’t be all nightabout it. And I warn you if I don’t like it, I won’t let you use it.”
“‘_Shy!_’ Oh, my!” murmured Patty. “Well, I shall call you Chickadee,whether you like it or not.”
“Oh, I like it,—I _love_ it! But, nearly as many people call me that asChick!”
“And I thought it was original with me! All right, I’ll think upanother, and I shan’t speak to you again until I’ve thought of it.”
Nonchalantly turning aside, Patty walked across the great hall to wherea few of the others had already gathered.
“Pretty Patty,” said Kit Cameron, in his wheedling way; “wilt thoustroll with me, after dinner, through the moonlight?”
“She wilt not,” answered Adele, for her. “Look here, young folks, if I’mto chaperon you, I’m going to be pretty strict about it. No strollingsin moonlights for yours! If you want gaiety, you may have a dance in theballroom. The strolling can wait till tomorrow, and then we’ll all gofor a nice walk round the lake.”
“A dance!” cried Patty, “better yet! Who would go mooning if there’s adance on? I’ll give you the first one, Kit. Oh, you haven’t asked forit, have you?”
“But _I_ have, Patty,” said Farnsworth’s voice over her shoulder, “willyou give it to me?”
“I promised Kit,” said Patty, shortly, and then she turned to speak toBob Peyton about a golf game next day.