When Patty Went to College | Page 9

he impressed?" asked Priscilla.
"Yes," said Patty; "I think you might almost say dazed. He asked me
apologetically if we ever did anything to relieve the strain,--had any

amusements, you know,--and I said, oh, yes; we had a Browning and an
Ibsen club, and we sometimes gave Greek tragedies in the original. He
was positively afraid to come near me again, for fear I'd forget and talk
to him in Greek instead of English."
In view of the facts, Patty's friends considered this last remark
distinctly humorous, for she had flunked her freshman Greek three
times, and had been advised by the faculty to take it over sophomore
year.
"I hope, since he's a newspaper writer," said Priscilla, "that you'll do
something to lighten his impression, or he'll never favor women's
colleges in England."
"I hadn't thought of that," said Patty; "perhaps I ought."
They had reached the steps of the dormitory. "Let's not go in," said
Georgie; "let's go down to Mrs. Muldoon's and get some chocolate
cake."
"Thank you," said Priscilla; "I'm in training."
"Soup, then."
"Can't eat between meals."
"You come, then, Patty."
"Sorry, but I've got to take my white dress down to the laundry and
have it pressed."
"Are you going to dress up for him to the extent of evening clothes?"
"Yes," said Patty; "I think I owe it to the American Girl."
"Well," sighed Georgie, "I'm hungry, but I suppose I might as well go
in and dress that doll for the College Settlement Association. The
show's to-night."

"Mine's done," said Priscilla; "and Patty wouldn't take one. Did you see
Bonnie Connaught sitting on the back seat in biology this morning,
hemming her doll's petticoat straight through the lecture?"
"Really?" laughed Patty. "It's a good thing Professor Hitchcock's
near-sighted."
The College Settlement Association, by way of parenthesis, was in the
habit of distributing three hundred dolls among the students every year
before Christmas, to be dressed and sent to the settlement in New York.
The dolls were supposed to be so well dressed that the East Side
mothers could use them as models for the clothing of their own
children, though it must be confessed that the tendency among the girls
was to strive for effect and not for detail. On the evening before the
dolls were to be shipped a doll show was regularly held, at which two
cents admittance was charged (stamps accepted) to pay the expressage.
* * * * *
IT was ten minutes past six, and Phillips Hall (such of it as was not late)
was dining, when the maid arrived with Mr. Algernon Vivian
Todhunter's card. Patty, radiant in a white evening gown, was trying,
with much squirming, to fasten it in the middle of the back.
"Oh, Sadie," she called to the maid, "would you mind coming in here
and buttoning my dress? I can't reach it from above or below."
"You look just beautiful, Miss Wyatt," said Sadie, admiringly.
Patty laughed. "Do you think I can uphold the honor of the nation?"
"To be sure, miss," said Sadie, politely.
Patty ran down the corridor to the door of the reception-room, and then
swept slowly in with what she called an air of continental repose. The
room was empty. She glanced about in some surprise, for she knew that
the two reception-rooms on the other side of the hall were being used
for the doll show. She tiptoed over and peered in through the half-open

door. The room was filled with dolls in rows and tiers; every piece of
furniture was covered with them; and in a far corner, at the end of a
long vista of dolls, appeared Mr. Algernon Vivian Todhunter, gingerly
sitting on the edge of a sofa, surrounded by flaxen-haired baby dolls,
and awkwardly holding in his lap the three he had displaced.
Patty drew back behind the door, and spent fully three minutes in
regaining her continental repose; then she entered the room and greeted
Mr. Todhunter effusively. He carefully transferred the dolls to his left
arm and stood up and shook hands.
"Let me take the little dears," said Patty, kindly; "I'm afraid they're in
your way."
Mr. Todhunter murmured something about its being a pleasure and a
privilege to hold them.
Patty plumped up their clothes and rearranged them on the sofa with
motherly solicitude, while Mr. Todhunter watched her gravely, his
national politeness and his reportorial instinct each struggling for the
mastery. Finally he began tentatively: "I say, Miss Wyatt, do--er--the
young ladies spend much time playing with dolls?"
"No," said Patty, candidly; "I don't think you could say they spend too
much. I have never heard of but one girl actually neglecting her work
for it. You mustn't think that we have as many dolls as this here every
night,"