When Patty Went to College | Page 7

here,' she said severely. 'I should not think of having you in the house
for a moment. You're altogether too young and too good-looking.' And
with that Raoul got up and bolted.

"When Ellen told Miss Sarah the next day that he'd asked for me, she
was terribly mortified, and she made me write and explain, and invite
him to dinner; but wild horses couldn't have dragged him into the house
again. He's been afraid to stop off in Washington ever since. He always
goes straight through on a sleeper, and says he has nightmares even
then."
"And is that why he won't come to the college?"
"Yes," said Patty; "that's the reason. I told him we didn't have any
butlers here; but he said we had lady faculty, and that's as bad."
"But I thought you said he was coming to the Prom."
"He is this time."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes," said Patty, with ominous emphasis, "I'm sure. He knows," she
added, "what will happen if he doesn't."
"What will happen?" asked the Twin.
"Nothing."
The Twin shook her head, and Georgie inquired, "Then why don't you
make out his program?"
"I suppose I might as well. I didn't do it before because it sort of
seemed like tempting Providence. I didn't want to be the cause of any
really serious accident happening to him," she explained a trifle
ambiguously as she got out pencil and paper. "What dances can you
give me, Lucille? And you, Georgie, have you got the third taken?"
While this business was being settled, a knock unheeded had sounded
on the door. It came again.
"What's that?" asked Priscilla. "Did some one knock? Come in."

The door opened, and a maid stood upon the threshold with a yellow
envelop in her hand. She peered uncertainly around the darkened room
from one face to another. "Miss Patty Wyatt?" she asked.
Patty stretched out her hand in silence for the envelop, and, propping it
up on her desk, looked at it with a grim smile.
"What is it, Patty? Aren't you going to read it?"
"There's no need. I know what it says."
"Then I'll read it," said Priscilla, ripping it open.
"Is it a leg or an arm?" Patty inquired with mild curiosity.
"Neither," said Priscilla; "it's a collar-bone."
"Oh," murmured Patty.
"What is it?" demanded Georgie the curious. "Read it out loud."
"NEW HAVEN, November 29.
"Broke collar-bone playing foot-ball. Honest Injun. Terribly sorry.
Better luck next time."
"RAOUL."
"There will not," observed Patty, "be a next time."

III
The Impressionable Mr. Todhunter
"Has the mail been around yet?" called Priscilla to a girl at the other
end of the corridor.
"Don't believe so. It hasn't been in our room."

"There she comes now!" and Priscilla swooped down upon the
mail-girl. "Got anything for 399?"
"Do you want Miss Wyatt's mail too?"
"Yes; I'll take everything. What a lot! Is that all for us?" And Priscilla
walked down the corridor swinging her note-book by its shoe-string,
and opening envelops as she went. She was presently joined by Georgie
Merriles, likewise swinging a note-book by a shoe-string.
"Hello, Pris; going to English? Want me to help carry your mail?"
"Thank you," said Priscilla; "you may keep the most of it. Now, that,"
she added, holding out a blue envelop, "is an advertisement for cold
cream which no lady should be without; and that"--holding out a
yellow envelop--"is an advertisement for beef extract which no
brain-worker should be without; and that"--holding out a white
envelop--"is the worst of all, because it looks like a legitimate letter,
and it's nothing but a 'Dear Madam' thing, telling me my tailor has
moved from Twenty-second to Forty-third Street, and hopes I'll
continue to favor him with my patronage.
"And here," she went on, turning to her room-mate's correspondence,
"is a cold-cream and a beef-extract letter for Patty, and one from Yale;
that's probably Raoul explaining why he couldn't come to the Prom. It
won't do any good, though. No mortal man can ever make her believe
he didn't have his collar-bone broken on purpose. And I don't know
whom that's from," Priscilla continued, examining the last letter. "It's
marked 'Hotel A----, New York.' Never heard of it, did you? Never saw
the writing before, either."
Georgie laughed. "Do you keep tab on all of Patty's correspondents?"
"Oh, I know the most of them by this time. She usually reads the
interesting ones out loud, and the ones that aren't interesting she never
answers, so they stop writing. Hurry up; the bell's going to ring"; and
they pushed in among the crowd of girls on the steps of the
recitation-hall.

The bell did ring just as they reached the class-room, and Priscilla
dropped the letters, without comment, into Patty's lap as she went