Patty's Success Part 32

Mrs. Van Reypen received her pleasantly, and as they sat chatting over a cup of tea, Patty felt more like an honoured guest than a subordinate.

Then Mrs. Van Reypen dismissed her, saying:

"Go to your room now, my dear, and occupy yourself as you choose until dinner-time. Dinner is at seven. There will be no guests, but you will wear a light, pretty gown, if you please. I am punctilious in such matters."

Patty went to her room, greatly pleased with the turn events had taken.

She wished she could telephone home how pleasantly she was getting along; but she thought wiser not to do that so soon.

As it neared dinner-time, she put on one of her prettiest dresses, a light blue chiffon, with a touch of silver embroidery round the half-low throat and short sleeves.

A few minutes before seven, she went slowly down the dark, old staircase, with its ma.s.sive newels and bal.u.s.ters.

As she reached the middle steps, she observed an attractive, but bored-looking young man in the hall.

He had not noticed her light steps, and Patty paused a moment to look at him. As she stood, wondering who he might be, he chanced to turn, and saw her.

The young man ran his eyes swiftly, from the cloud of blue chiffon, up to the smiling face, with its crown of ma.s.sed golden hair, which a saucy bow of blue ribbon did its best to hold in place.

His face promptly lost its bored expression, and with his hands still in his pockets, he involuntarily breathed a long, low whistle.

The sound seemed to bring back his lost wits, and quickly drawing his hands into view, he stepped forward, saying:

"I beg your pardon for that unconventional note of admiration, but I trust you will accept it as the tribute for which it was meant."

This was an easy opening, and Patty was quite ready to respond gaily, when she suddenly remembered her position in the house and wondered if a companion ought to speak to a strange young man in the same language a young person in society might use.

"Thank you," she said, uncertainly, and her shy hesitation completely captured the heart of Philip Van Reypen.

"Come on down; I won't eat you," he said, rea.s.suringly. "You are, I a.s.sume, a guest of my aunt's."

"I am Mrs. Van Reypen's companion," said Patty, but though she made the announcement demurely enough, the funny side of it all struck her so forcibly that she had difficulty to keep the corners of her mouth from showing her amus.e.m.e.nt.

"By Jove!" exclaimed the young man, "Aunty Van always is lucky! Now, I'm her nephew."

"Does that prove her good luck?" said Patty, unable to be prim in the face of this light gaiety.

"Yes, indeed! Come on down, and get acquainted, and you'll agree with me."

"I don't believe I ought to," said Patty, hesitatingly placing one little satin-slippered foot on the next step below, and then pausing again. "You see, I've never been a companion before, but I don't think it's right for me to precede Mrs. Van Reypen into the drawing-room."

"Ah, well, perhaps not. Stay on the stairs, then, if you think that's the proper place. I daresay it is,--I never was a companion, either; so I'm not sure. But sit down, won't you? I'll sit here, if I may."

Young Van Reypen dropped onto a stair a few steps below Patty, who sat down, too, feeling decidedly at her ease, for, upon occasion, a staircase was one of her favourite haunts.

"It's like a party," she said, smiling. "I love to sit on a staircase at a party, don't you?"

And so provocative of sociability did the staircase prove, that when Mrs.

Van Reypen came down, in all the glory of her black velvet and old lace, she nearly tumbled over two chatting young people, who seemed to be very good friends.

"Philip! You here?" she exclaimed, and a casual observer would have said she was not too well pleased.

"Yes, Aunty Van; aren't you as glad to see me as I am to see you? I've been making Miss Fairfield's acquaintance. You may introduce us if you like, but it isn't really necessary."

"So it seems," said the old lady, drily; "but as I have some regard for the conventions, I will present to you, Miss Fairfield, my scape-grace and ne'er-do-well nephew, Philip Van Reypen."

"What an awful reputation to live up to," said Patty, smiling at the debonair Philip, who quite looked the part his aunt a.s.signed to him.

"Awful, but not at all difficult," he responded, gaily, and Patty followed as he escorted his aunt to the dining-room.

The little dinner-party was a gay one; Mrs. Van Reypen became mildly amiable under the influence of the young people's merry chatter, and Patty felt that so far, at least, a companion's lot was not such a very unhappy one.

After dinner, however, the young man was sent peremptorily away. He begged to stay, but his aunt ordered him off, declaring that she had seen enough of him, and he was not to return for a week at least. Philip went away, sulkily, declaring that he would call the very next morning to inquire after his aunt's health.

"I trust you are not flirtatiously inclined, Miss Fairfield," said Mrs.

Van Reypen, as the two sat alone in the large and rather sombre drawing-room.

"I am not," said Patty, honestly. "I like gay and merry conversation, but as your companion, I consider myself entirely at your orders, and have no mind to chatter if you do not wish me to do so."

"That is right," said Mrs. Van Reypen, approvingly. "You cannot have many friends in your present position, of course. And you must not feel flattered at Mr. Philip's apparent admiration of you. He is a most impressionable youth, and is caught by every new face he sees."

Patty smiled at the idea of her being unduly impressed by Mr. Van Reypen's glances. She had given him no thought, save as a good-natured, well-bred young man.

But she pleasantly a.s.sured Mrs. Van Reypen that she would give her nephew no further consideration, and though Mrs. Van Reypen looked sharply at Patty's face, she saw only an honest desire to please her employer.

The evening was long and uninteresting.

At Mrs. Van Reypen's request, Patty read to her, and then sang for her.

But the lady was critical, and declared that the reading was too fast, and the singing too loud, so that when at last it was bedtime, Patty wondered whether she was giving satisfaction or not.

But she was engaged for a week, anyway, and whether satisfactory or not, Mrs. Van Reypen must keep her for that length of time, and that was all Patty wanted.

She woke next morning with a pang of homesickness. It was a bit forlorn, to wake up as a hired companion, instead of as a beloved daughter in her own father's house.

But resolutely putting aside such thoughts, she forced herself to think of her good fortune in securing her present position.

"I'm glad I'm here!" she a.s.sured herself, as she dashed cold water into her suspiciously reddened eyes. "I know I shall have all sorts of odd and interesting adventures here; and I'm determined to be happy whatever happens. And, anyway, it will be over soon. A week isn't long."

Putting on a trim morning dress, of soft old rose cashmere, with a fine embroidered white yoke, she went sedately down to the breakfast room. She had been told to come to breakfast at nine o'clock, and the clock struck the hour just as she crossed the threshold.

Instead of her employer, she was astounded to see Philip Van Reypen calmly seated at the table.

"Jolly to see you again!" he cried, as he jumped up to greet her. "Just thought I'd run in for a bite of breakfast, and to inquire how Aunty Van's cold is."

"I didn't know she had a cold," said Patty, primly, trying to act as she thought a companion ought to act.

"Neither did I," said the irrepressible Philip. "But I didn't know but she might have caught one in the night. A germ flying in at the window, or something."