CHAPTER II
RIDDLES AND GAMES
Much to Patty's satisfaction Mabel Hartley was in the habit of diningwith her elders and was not condemned to "schoolroom tea."
The family was not large, consisting only of Mrs. Hartley, her mother,Mrs. Cromarty, her two sons, and Mabel. The sons, Sinclair and Robert,were big, stalwart fellows, a few years older than Mabel.
Patty liked them at once, for they were cordial and hearty in theirgreetings, and quite at ease in their conversation.
"I say, Mater," began Bob, after they were seated at dinner, "there's astunning garden-party on at Regent's Park next week. Don't you think wecan all go? Tickets only two shillings each."
"What is it, my son? A charity affair?"
"Yes. Rest cure for semi-orphans, or something. But they've all sorts ofjolly shows, and the Stagefright Club is going to give a little originalplay. Oh, say we go!"
"I'll see about it," answered Mrs. Hartley. "Perhaps, if we make up aparty, Miss Fairfield will go with us."
"I'd love to," said Patty. "I've never seen a real English garden party."
"Oh, this isn't a real English garden party in the true sense," saidSinclair. "To see that, you must be in the country. But this is a publicLondon garden party and typical of its sort. You'll like it, I'm sure.Will you go with us, Grandy?"
At first it seemed incongruous to Patty to hear the dignified Mrs.Cromarty addressed by such a nickname, but as she came to know herbetter, the name seemed really appropriate. The lady was of the classknown as _grande dame_, and her white hair and delicate, sharply-cutfeatures betokened a high type of English aristocracy. Her voice was verysweet and gentle, and she smiled at her big grandson, as she replied:
"No, my boy; I lost my taste for garden parties some years ago. But it'sa fine setting for you young people, and I hope Emmeline will take youall."
"Mother said she'd see about it," said Mabel, "and that's always the sameas 'yes.' If it's going to be 'no,' she says, 'I'll think it over.'"
"It's a great thing to understand your mother-tongue so well," saidPatty, laughing; "now I shouldn't have known those distinctions."
"We have a wonderful talent for languages," said Sinclair, gravely."Indeed, we have a language of our own. Shall I teach it to you?"
"You might try," said Patty, "but I'm not at all clever as a linguist."
"You may not learn it easily, but it can be taught in one sentence. Itconsists in merely using the initial of the word instead of the worditself."
"But so many words begin with the same initial," said Patty, bewilderedat the idea.
"Yes, but it's ever so much easier than you'd think. Now listen. Wouldn'tyou understand me if I said: 'D y w t g t t g p?'"
"Say it again, please, and say it slowly."
Sinclair repeated the letters, and Patty clapped her hands, crying: "Yes,yes, of course I understand. You mean 'Do you want to go to the gardenparty?' Now, listen to me while I answer: Y I w t g i i d r."
"Good!" exclaimed Mabel. "You said: 'Yes, I want to go, if it doesn'train.' Oh, you are a quick pupil."
"But those are such easy sentences," said Patty, as she considered thematter.
"That's the point," said Bob, "most sentences, at least, the ones we usemost, _are_ easy. If I should meet you unexpectedly, and say H d y d?you'd know I meant How do you do? Or if I took leave, and said G b, you'dunderstand good-bye. Those are the simplest possible examples. Now, onthe other hand, if I were to read you a long speech from the morningpaper, you'd probably miss many of the long words, but that's the otherextreme. We've talked in initials for years, and rarely are we uncertainas to the sense, though we may sometimes skip a word here and there."
"But what good is it?" asked Patty.
"No good at all," admitted Bob; "but it's fun. And after you're used toit, you can talk that way so fast that any one listening couldn't guesswhat you are saying. Sometimes when we're riding on an omnibus, oranything like that, it's fun to talk initials and mystify the people."
"D y o d t?" said Patty, her eyes twinkling.
"Yes, we often do that," returned Bob, greatly gratified at the rapidprogress of the new pupil. "You must be fond of puzzles, to catch this upso quickly."
"I am," said Patty. "I've guessed puzzles ever since I was a little girl.I always solve all I can find in the papers, and sometimes I take prizesfor them."
"We do that too," said Mabel; "and sometimes we make puzzles and sendthem to the papers and they print them. Let's make some for each otherthis evening."
After dinner the young people gathered round the table in the pleasantlibrary, and were soon busy with paper and pencils. Patty found theHartleys a match for her in quickness and ingenuity, but she was able toguess as great a proportion of their puzzles as they of hers.
After amusing themselves with square words and double acrostics, theydrifted to conundrums, and Bob asked:
"Which letter of the Dutch alphabet spells an English lady of rank?"
"That's not fair," objected Patty, "because I don't know the Dutchalphabet."
"That doesn't matter," said Mabel, "you can guess it just as wellwithout."
"Indeed I can't, and besides I don't know the names of all the Englishladies of rank."
"That doesn't matter either," said Sinclair, smiling; "it spells a title,not a name; and one you know very well."
"I can't guess it, anyway," said Patty, after a few moment's thought. "Igive it up; tell me."
"Why, Dutch S," said Bob, and Patty agreed that it was a good catch.
"Now, I'll catch you," said Patty. "You all know your London pretty well,I suppose, and are familiar with the places of interest. Well, Mabel, whyis your nose like St. Paul's?"
Mabel thought hard, and so did the boys.
"Is my nose like St. Paul's, too?" asked Bob, thoughtfully, stroking hiswell-shaped feature.
Patty looked at it critically. "Yes," she said, "and so is Sinclair's.But why?"
At last they gave it up, and Patty said, triumphantly, "Because it ismade of flesh and blood."
They all screamed with laughter, for they quickly saw the point, andrealised that it was the historic character referred to, and not thecathedral.
"Here's one," said Sinclair: "Where did the Prince of Wales go on hiseleventh birthday?" But Patty was quite quick enough for this. "Into histwelfth year," she answered promptly. "And now listen to this: A manwalking out at night, met a beggar asking alms. The man gave him tencents. He met another beggar and gave him fifteen cents. What time wasit?"
"Time for him to go home," declared Bob, but Patty said that was not theright answer.
"Springtime," guessed Mabel, "because the man was in such a good humor."
"No," said Patty, "it was quarter to two."
Her hearers looked utterly blank at this, and, suddenly realising thatthey were not very familiar with American coins, Patty explained thejoke. They saw it, of course, but seemed to think it not very good, andSinclair whimsically insisted on calling it, "a shilling to Bob," whichhe said was equally nonsensical.
"Give us one of your poetry ones, Grandy," said Bob to Mrs. Cromarty, whosat by, quietly enjoying the young people's fun.
"Miss Fairfield may not care for the old-fashioned enigma, but I willoffer this one," and in her fine, clear voice the old lady recited herverse with elocutionary effect:
"Afloat upon the ocean My graceful form you see;
The protector of the people, The protector of a tree.
I often save a patient, Though a doctor I am not;
My name is very easy, Can you tell me, children? What?"
The others had heard this before, and when Patty promptly guessed "Bark,"Mrs. Cromarty was distinctly pleased with her quick-wittedness.
Then lemonade and wafery little cakes were brought in, that the puzzlersmight refresh themselves.
The a
tmosphere of the Hartley household was very pleasant, and Patty feltmuch more at home than she had ever expected to feel among Englishpeople. She made allusion to this, and Bob said: "Oh, this place isn'thomey at all, compared with our real home. You must come to see us downin the country, mustn't she, mother?"
"I should be very glad to welcome you there, my dear," said Mrs. Hartley,smiling at Patty, "and I trust it may be arranged. We have this apartmentfor only a few weeks longer, and then we shall go back to Leicester."
"I'm in no haste to go," declared Mabel. "I love Cromarty Manor, but Iwant to stay in London a little longer. But when we do go, Patty, yousurely must visit us there."
"Indeed I will, if I can manage it. My parents want me to go with them toSwitzerland, but I'd much prefer to spend the summer in England. I haveever so many delightful invitations to country houses, and they seem tome a lot more attractive than travelling about. I suppose I ought to caremore about seeing places, but I don't."
"You're quite young enough yet," said Mrs. Hartley, "to look forward totravelling in future years. I think some experiences of English lifewould be quite as advantageous for you."
"I'll tell father you said that," said Patty. "Then perhaps he'll let mehave my own way. But he usually does that, anyway."
"You'd love Cromarty Manor," said Bob, enthusiastically. "It's sobeautiful in spring and early summer."
"But not half as grand as other houses where Patty's invited," saidMabel, and again the shadow crossed her face that seemed always to comewhen she spoke of her country home.
"Grandeur doesn't count in the country," declared Bob. "That belongs toLondon life. Other places may be larger or in better condition than ours,but they _can't_ be more beautiful."
"That is true," said Mrs. Cromarty, in her quiet way, which always seemedto decide a disputed point. And then it was time to go home, and Mrs.Hartley sent Patty away in her carriage, with a maid to accompany her.The woman was middle-aged, with a pleasant voice and a capable manner.She chatted affably with Patty, and dilated a little on the glories ofthe Cromarty family.
Patty realised at once that she was an old family servant, and had earneda right to a little more freedom of speech than is usual to Englishdomestics.
"Oh, yes, Miss," she said; "it's a wonnerful old place, that it is. Andif the dear lady only 'ad the money as is 'ers by right, she'd keep it uplordly, that she would."
Patty wondered what had become of the money in question, but Sarah saidno more concerning it, and Patty felt she had no right to ask. "You livewith them, then, in the country?" she said.
"Yes, Miss, I've allus lived with them. My mother was housekeeper at theManor when Miss Emmeline married Mr. 'Artley. Oh, he was the finegentleman. Dead now, this ten year come Whitsuntide. Master Bob, he's theimage of his father. Are you warm enough, Miss?"
Sarah's quick transit from reminiscences to solicitude for her comfortalmost startled Patty, but she was getting used to that peculiarity ofthe British mind.
"Yes, thank you," she said, "and anyway, we're home now. Here's theSavoy."
Mr. Fairfield and Nan had not yet arrived, so the good Sarah attendedPatty to her own apartment and gave her over to Louise, who awaited hercoming.
Louise helped her off with her pretty frock, and brought her a beribbonednegligee, and Patty curled up in a big armchair in front of the fire tothink over the evening.
"These wood-fires are lovely," she said to herself, "and they do havemost comfortable stuffed chairs over here, if they only knew enough toput rockers under them."
Patty was a comfort-loving creature, and often bewailed the absence ofthe rocking-chairs so dear to her American heart. Soon her parents camein and found her sound asleep in the big chair.
She woke up, as her father kissed her lightly on the forehead.
"Hello, Prince Charming," she said, smiling gaily at the handsome man inevening clothes who stood looking down at her.
"I suppose you want a return compliment about the Sleeping Beauty," hesaid, "but you won't get it. Too much flattery isn't good for a baby likeyou, and I shall reserve my pretty speeches for my wife."
"Oh, I'll share them with Patty," laughed Nan, "but with no one else."
"Tell us about your evening, girlie," said her father. "Did you have agood time?"
"Fine," said Patty. "The Hartleys are lovely people; I like them betterthan any I've met in London, so far. And they do puzzles, and askriddles, and they're just as clever and quick as Americans. I've heardthat English people were heavy and stupid, and they're not, a bit."
"You mustn't believe all you hear. Are they a large family?" "Not very.Two sons, one daughter, and the mother and grandmother. Mabel's fatherhas been dead for years. And they want me to visit them at their home inLeicester this summer. Can't I go?"
"Desert your own family for foreigners!"
"Yes; I do want to go there and to some other country places while youand Nan go touristing about. Mayn't I?"
"We won't decide now. It's too near midnight for important matters to bediscussed. Skip to bed, chickabiddy, and dream of the Stars and Stripes,lest you forget them entirely."
"Never!" cried Patty, striking a dramatic attitude.
"Though English people may be grand, My heart is in my native land!"
And humming the Star-spangled Banner, she went away to her own room.