Patty Fairfield | Page 8

rug. But I don't care; when we have a party it
will all get spruced up; mamma has everything put in order then. Now
we'll dress for dinner, Patty. What are you going to wear?"
"I don't know; I haven't many dresses. Aunt Isabel is going to buy me
some, you know."
"Yes, I know. Let's see what you have."
Ethelyn was already kneeling before Patty's open trunk, and
overhauling her belongings. "Oh, here's a blue crape," she cried, "you
must look sweet in this. Put it on."
"Why, that's my best party-frock, Ethelyn."
"Never mind; wear it to-night, and mamma'll get you some new party

clothes."
So Patty put on the blue crape, and very becoming it was, though
somewhat inappropriate for a quiet family dinner.
"We only have one maid between us," explained Ethelyn, calling from
her own room into Patty's. "Elise will do your hair when you want her,
but just now she's doing mine."
To Patty's surprise, when she saw Ethelyn again, she was arrayed in a
light green silk dress, and her hair was puffed high on her head. Patty
wore hers as usual, and felt as if her cousin had suddenly grown up
away from her.
"Doesn't my hair look nice?" asked Ethelyn, as the girls went
down-stairs together. "Mamma says I'm too young to have it done up
this way yet, but I don't care what she says. I'm fifteen, and I think I'm
old enough to do as I choose. To-morrow we'll make Elise do yours up
and see how you look."
"But I'm only fourteen," protested Patty, "and I don't want to be grown
up for years yet. Your hair looks lovely, but I like you better with it
down, as it was this afternoon."
"Don't say so before mamma, or shell insist on my wearing it so."
When the girls entered the drawing-room, Mrs. St. Clair smiled
amiably at her pretty niece, and bade her come to her side.
"My dear," she said, "you are a pretty little girl, and a sweet one, I've
no doubt, but your name I do not like at all. I can't abide nicknames, so
I'm going to call you by your full name. What is it, Martha?"
"Martha!" exclaimed Patty in surprise, "oh, no, Aunt Isabel, I was
named for my great-grandmother. My name is Patricia."
"Oh, how lovely," cried Aunt Isabel, kissing her niece in the
exuberance of her delight. "We will all call you Patricia. It is a

beautiful name and suits you extremely well. You must stand very
straight, and acquire dignified manners in order to live up to it."
This made merry Patty laugh, but she offered no objection to her aunt's
decision, and promised to sign her name Patricia whenever she wrote it,
and to make no further use of the despised nickname while staying at
Villa Rosa. Ethelyn was pleased too, at the change.
"Oh," she said, "now your name is as pretty as mine and Florelle's, and
we have the prettiest names in Elmbridge. Here comes Reginald, you
haven't seen him yet."
Reginald St. Clair, a lad of thirteen, advanced without a trace of
shyness and greeted his new cousin.
"So it is Patricia," he said, as he took her hand; "I heard them
rechristening you. How do you do, Cousin Patricia?"
"Very well, I thank you," she replied, smiling, "and though I meet you
the last of my new cousins, you are not the least," and she glanced up at
him, for Reginald was a tall boy for his age, taller than either Ethelyn
or Patty.
"Not the least in any way, as you'll soon find out if you stay with us,
Cousin Patricia."
Patty almost laughed at this boastful assumption of importance, but
seeing that the boy was in earnest, she humored him by saying:
"As the only son, I suppose you are the flower of the family."
Then dinner was announced, and the beautiful dining-room was a new
pleasure to the little visitor. She was rapidly making the discovery that
riches and luxury were very agreeable, and she viewed with delight the
handsome table sparkling with fine glass and silver.
"Well, Patricia," said Uncle Robert, who had been warned against using
the objectionable nickname, "how do you like Villa Rosa so far?"

"Oh, I think it is beautiful, Uncle Robert. Every room is handsomer
than the last, and my own room I like best of all. You're awfully good,
Aunt Isabel, to give me such a lovely room, and to spend so much
thought and time arranging it for me."
"And money, too," said her aunt, smiling. "That rug in your room,
Patricia, cost four hundred dollars."
"Did it really?" said Patty, with such a look of amazement, almost
horror, that they all laughed.
You see, Patty