CHAPTER VII
MYSTERIOUS CALLERS
Big Bill Farnsworth came into the nursery, where Patty was playing withthe baby. It was the nurse's luncheon hour, and Patty always lookedafter Fleurette then.
"Take her, Daddy," Patty cried, holding up the soft, fragrant littlebundle of happy humanity, and Farnsworth grasped the child in his strongcareful way, and tossed her up high above his head.
The baby laughter that followed proved Fleurette's delight in thisperformance, and she mutely insisted on its repetition.
"Azalea does that," said Patty, in a troubled tone, "she is strong andvery athletic, I know, but I can't bear to see anybody toss baby aroundbut you."
"No; Azalea oughtn't to do it,--she is strong, but she isn't carefulenough. Don't allow it, Patty."
"I do forbid it, but she comes in here when I don't know it,--or shepicks baby out of her carriage, Winnie says, and tosses her clear up andcatches her again."
"I'll speak to her about it; why, she'll drop the child some day! Shemust not do it!"
"I wish you would speak to her," Patty sighed. "Azalea is really atrial. I don't know what to do with her. Sometimes she is so sweet anddocile that I think I'm teaching her to be a civilised person, and thenshe flies off at a tangent and she's as unruly and intractable as shewas at first."
"How long has she been here now?"
"Nearly a month. I've tried and Betty has tried,--and, yes, Azalea hastried herself,--but we can't seem to--"
"Camouflage her!"
"That's just it! I want her to look like the background she's againsthere,--and she doesn't!"
"I should say not! Last night at dinner she threw herself back in herchair and yawned openly--"
"Openly! It was all of that! I saw her,--across the table through theflowers. And, Billee,--she's queer--that's what she is,--queer!"
"Have you noticed that, too? Yes, she _is_ queer,--here take thisLittle Flower. She's nearly asleep."
"So she is,--give her to me,--there, there, mudder's pressus,--pettypoppity,--yes, she's queer!"
"Who? Fleurette?"
"You know very well I don't mean Fleurette! I mean that Pride of theWest,--that stranger within our gates,--that thorn in the flesh,--thatawful Azalea!"
"Meaning me?" and Azalea herself popped her head in at the nursery door.
"Yes," replied Farnsworth, imperturbably, "meaning you. Come in, Azalea,I want to speak to you. When have you heard from your father?"
"Let me see--about a week ago, I think."
"Will you show me the letter?"
"Why, how inquisitive you are! What do you want to see it for?"
"I'd like to read it. I suppose it isn't distinctly a private letter."
"N-no, of course not. But, the truth is,--I haven't got it."
"What did you do with it?"
"I--I tore it up."
"Was it unpleasant?"
"No, but as I had answered it,--I didn't need to keep it."
"What was in it? Tell me,--in a general way."
"Oh,--it said--he hoped I was well,--and he--he hoped you werewell,--and--"
"And he hoped Patty was well! and he hoped the baby was well,--yes,--andafter those polite hopes, what else did he say?"
"Why,--why, I don't know,--I guess that was about all."
"Oh, it was! Why didn't he tell you something about himself? What he wasdoing,--or going to do?"
"I don't know. Papa isn't very much of a letter writer."
"Well, he used to be! It was his special forte. I've had letters fromhim a dozen pages long. I don't believe he's outgrown his bent of letterwriting. Now, listen, to this, Azalea, the next letter you get from him,I want you to show it to me, see? If there's anything in it you don'twant me to know about, cut that out,--but show me at least the beginningand the ending,--and a part of a page. You hear me?"
"Of course I hear you,--not being deaf! And I'll show you theletter,--if I think of it."
"You'll think of it,--I'll see to that, myself. You ought to get onesoon, oughtn't you?"
"No,--I haven't answered his last one yet."
"Why, you just said you had!"
"Oh, I meant the one before the last--"
"You meant nothing of the sort. And, mind you, Azalea, this is a directcommand,--you _must_ show me his next letter."
"I won't take commands! How dare you? You have no right to order meabout so. I hate you!"
"Don't talk so, Zaly," Patty said, gently. "Cousin Bill isn't askinganything out of the way. There's no reason you shouldn't show him yourfather's letter,--in part, at least,--is there now?"
"N--no,--but I don't want to."
"Of course you don't," put in Bill, "and for a very good reason!"
"What reason?" cried Azalea, her black eyes flashing.
"You know as well as I do."
"I don't!"
"Very well, say no more about it now,--only remember I want to see thenext one."
Azalea flounced out of the room, very angry, and muttering beneath herbreath.
"What in the world, Little Billee, are you getting at?" asked Patty, asshe cuddled Fleurette into her shoulder.
"There's something queer, Patty, something very queer about that girl!"
"You've oft repeated that assertion, Sweet William,--just what do youmean by it?"
"What I say, Faire Ladye! There's something rotten in the state ofDenmark,--there is that!"
"But why are you so anxious to see her father's letters?"
"They're part of the queer element. Have you ever seen her get one,--orread one from him?"
"Not that I definitely remember; but she may easily have read them rightbefore me, and I not have known it."
"But wouldn't she be likely to read a word or two,--or deliver somepolite message he might send?"
"I should think so,--but she never has."
"That's the queerness."
"Oh, do tell me, dear, what you're getting at! Do you think Mr. Thorpeis dead,--and she never told us? There'd be no sense in that!"
"Not a bit! It's something queerer than that."
"Do you think he's married again?"
"Queerer than that."
"Will-yum Farnsworth, if you don't tell your own wife what you mean,I'll never speak to you again! There!"
"At risk of that awful condition of things, I won't tell you just yet.But you do this. Here's something you can do toward solving themystery,--and I can't. Find out for sure,--don't ask her, but see foryourself,--if Azalea gets a letter from Horner's Corners addressed in abig, bold Spencerian hand. I remember Uncle Thorpe's handwritingperfectly, and it's unmistakable. I've not seen it since Azalea came."
"Goodness, do you call it a mystery?"
"I do, indeed. You'll find out it's a pretty startling mystery, or Imiss my guess."
"Well, Azalea is a handful, I admit, but I think she's good at heart,and she is devoted to my booful little Fleury-floppet! My ownDolly-winkums,--who looks prezackly like her Daddy-winkums!"
"Patty, you'll go to the lunatic asylum some day, if you let yourselftalk such gibberish!"
"Listen to him, Baby mine, my flubsy-dubsy,--my pinky-poppy-petal,listen to your dreadful Dads! Isn't he the--"
"The what?" and Farnsworth strode across the room and took his wife andchild both into his big bear-like embrace.
"The dearest, sweetest man in the world!" Patty said, laughing butnearly smothered in his arms.
"All right, you're excused," and he let them go.
Nurse Winnie came then and took Fleurette, and the two elder Farnsworthswent downstairs together.
They heard voices on the wistaria porch, and soon saw that Azalea wasentertaining two guests.
They were strangers, and not very attractive looking people.
"Shall we step out there?" Farnsworth asked.
"No," decreed Patty; "let her alone. It's probably those people shepicked up on the train coming here. She has spoken of them to me. Don'tlet's go out, or we may have to invite them to st
ay to dinner,--andjudging from this long distance view of them, I don't care specially todo so."
"No. I don't either; the man looks like a drummer and the woman likea--"
"A chorus girl!" said Patty, after one more peep at the stranger.
Leaving Azalea to entertain her friends without interruption they wentout on a porch on the other side of the house. And soon Raymond Galesauntered over from his home next door and joined them there.
"Some strong-arm, your Azalea guest," he said, in the course ofconversation.
"Yes," agreed Patty, a little shortly.
"She was over in our gym, this afternoon, and she put up as fine anexhibition of stunts as I've seen in a long time."
"What sort of stunts?" asked Bill.
"All sorts, from lariat or lasso work to handsprings and ground andlofty tumbling. That girl's been trained, I tell you!"
"Trained in a school?"
"No: her work is more as if self-taught,--or coached by a cowboy. Shehails from Arizona, doesn't she?"
"Yes. Here she is now; I hear you're an athlete, Zaly."
"Only so-so," the girl replied, half-absently.
"Have your friends gone?" asked Patty.
"Yes."
"I recognised them," began young Gale: "they were--"
Azalea turned to him quickly. "Don't you say who they were!" she cried,emphatically. "I don't want you to! Don't you dare mention their names!It's a secret!"
"Oh, all right, I won't. Don't take my head off!" Ray Gale laughedcarelessly, and pretended to be afraid of the excited girl.
"Why, why, Zaly," said Patty, "who can your friends be that you won'ttell their names? I'm surprised!"
"Their names are--are Mr. and Mrs. Brown," said Azalea, with a defiantlook at Raymond, who merely opened his eyes wide and said nothing.
It was quite evident that Brown was _not_ the name of the people who hadcalled on Azalea, and Patty could not imagine what reason there could befor the girl to tell such a falsehood.
"Is that the right name, Gale?" asked Bill, briefly.
But Raymond Gale only shook his head.
"Miss Thorpe says so," he replied, "surely she ought to know."
The subject was dropped and not resumed until after Gale had gone home.
Then Farnsworth asked Azalea who her friends were who had called.
"I told you they were Mr. and Mrs. Brown," she said, glibly. "I met themon the train coming from the West, and we got quite well acquainted."
"But their name is _not_ Brown," Bill said, quietly, "tell me what itis,--or, tell me _why_ you don't want to divulge it."
"It _is_ Brown," persisted Azalea, but the way she spoke and the way hereyes fell before Farnsworth's steady gaze, belied her words.
"I'm sorry, but I can't believe you," he said.
"I can't help that," she returned, pertly, and ran away to her own room.
"What's she up to now?" said Patty.
"Part of the queerness," Bill vouchsafed, and said no more about it.
* * * * *
The next day, Azalea went to her room directly after breakfast, and,locking the door, remained there all the morning.
At luncheon she was quiet, and absent-minded, and as soon as the mealwas over she went back to her room.
It was nearly five o'clock, when Patty, puzzled at such actions, tappedat Azalea's door.
"What's the matter, dear?" she called, through the closed door, as therewas no response to her knock.
"Nothing; let me alone!" came Azalea's impatient voice.
"Are you ill? Don't you feel well?"
"Let me alone. I'm all right." The tone was ungracious, and there was nomistaking the import of her speech, so Patty went away.
At dinner time Azalea appeared. She wore the same frock she had worn allday, and Patty looked at her in amazement. Apparently she had beenworking hard at something. Her hair was rumpled, her collar awry, andher whole appearance untidy and unpresentable.
"Have you been busy?" Patty said; "couldn't you get time to dress?"
"Forgot it!" muttered Azalea. "Sorry. Shall I go back and dress?"
Patty hesitated. It would, of course, delay dinner, which was alreadyannounced,--and, too, in Azalea's present state of pre-occupation, shemight fall to work again, and not come to dinner at all.
So Patty said, "No, come as you are," and she gave Azalea's hair atouch, and pulled her collar straight.
Farnsworth watched the "queer" girl all through dinner. Azalea hadimproved somewhat in manners, though her notions of table etiquettestill left much to be desired.
To-night she was unlike herself. She answered in monosyllables whenspoken to, and paid no attention to the conversation of the others.
"I expect my friend Elise Farrington to-morrow," said Patty; "I'm sureyou'll like her, Azalea."
"Will she like me?" said the girl, indifferently.
"If she doesn't, it will be your own fault," and Patty took advantage ofthe opportunity for a word of warning. "Elise is a person of stronglikes and dislikes. If you try to be real nice and courteous she willcertainly like you, and if you're rude and blunt, I don't believe shewill. Do you care, Azalea, whether she does or not?"
"No," said Azalea, calmly, and Patty gave a sigh of despair. What wasthe use of trying to help a girl who acted like that?
Farnsworth, too, shook his head, and glanced at Patty with asympathetic smile, and then they talked together to the entire exclusionof Azalea, who was so wrapped in her own thoughts that she didn't evennotice them.
Not waiting for coffee, when the others went to the library, Azalea,with the briefest "good-night," went up to her room, and again lockedher door.
"What does ail her?" exclaimed Patty, as she and her husband sippedtheir coffee.
"I don't know,--but I'm going to find out. Any letter from her fatherto-day?"
"No; I looked over her mail. Oh, it does seem awful, to lookinquisitively at another's letters!"
"It's necessary, dear, in this case. There's a big mystery about AzaleaThorpe, and we must solve it, or there'll be trouble!"
"I wish you'd tell me all about it."
"I will, soon. Trust me, darling, I'd rather not say what I suspect,until I've a little more reason for my suspicion. It's _too_ incredible!And yet,--it _must_ be so!"
"All right, my True Love. I can wait. Now, listen, and I'll tell you ofthe marvellous achievement of your daughter to-day!"
And Farnsworth listened with all his heart to the amazing tale ofFleurette's intelligent observation of a red balloon.
The next day Elise came.
"Here I am!" she cried, as she stepped from the motor, and flew intoPatty's embrace. "Where's your eccentric cousin I've heard about? Butfirst, where's my godchild? I've brought her the loveliest presents! Letme at her!"
"All right," said Patty, laughing at her impatience, "come right alongto the nursery before you take your hat off."
The two went to the nursery, and Patty softly opened the door. But theroom was empty.
"That's funny," Patty said, "Winnie always has baby here at this hour.She takes her morning nap about now. Where can they be?"
The bassinette was disordered, as if the child had been taken from it,and Patty looked at it in amazement. She ran around to several adjoiningrooms, and returned, with a frightened face.
"Elise, there's no sign of Baby or Winnie anywhere! What does it mean?"
"Goodness! _I_ don't know! Did the nurse go down to see her beau,--andtake the baby with her?"
Just then Nurse Winnie appeared: "Here's the food, Mrs. Farnsworth,"she said, showing a bowl of steaming white liquid. "It's all ready."
"What food?" said Patty, mystified.
"Miss Thorpe came here fifteen minutes ago, and said you ordered me to amake a bowl of prepared food,--that Fleurette was not getting enoughnourishment."
"Why, I did nothing of the sort! Where is Miss Thorpe? And where is thebaby?"
"I don't know," and Winnie lo
oked as if she thought Patty was crazy."Don't you know, ma'am?"