CHAPTER IV
A MERRY QUARTETTE
"Ready for dinner, girls?" sounded a cheery voice, and Mrs. Berry camebustling in. "Almost, aren't you? Try to remember that Mr. Forbesdoesn't like to be kept waiting."
"I'm scared to death," said Bernice, frankly. "I never know what to sayto Uncle Jeff, anyway, and being a guest makes it all the harder."
"Pooh! I'm not afraid," exclaimed Alicia. "Leave it to me. I'llengineer the conversation and all you girls need to do is to chip innow and then."
Alicia was a tall, fair girl, larger than any of the others. She wasplump and jolly-looking, and had a breezy manner that was attractivebecause of her smiling good-natured face. She laughed a great deal, andseemed to have no lack of self-confidence and self-assurance. Her dresshad many fluttering ribbons of vivid pink, and frills of lace of aninexpensive variety.
She led the way downstairs, calling out, "March on, march on tovictory!" and the others followed.
The four entered the drawing-room, and found there a tall, dignifiedgentleman, in full evening dress. He had a handsome face, though atrifle stern and forbidding of expression, and his closely trimmedwhite beard was short and pointed. He had large, dark eyes, whichdarted from one girl to the other as the quartette appeared.
"H'm," he said, "this is Bernice; how do you do, my dear? How do youdo?"
"I'm Alicia," announced that spry damsel, gaily, and she caught him bythe hand.
"Yes, and very like your mother, my dear sister. Well, Alicia, if youpossess half her fine traits, you'll make a splendid woman. But I doubtif you are very much like her except in appearance. You look to me likea flibbertigibbet,--if you know what that is."
"Yes, and I am one, thank you, Uncle Jeff," and Alicia laughed gaily,not at all abashed at her uncle's remark.
"These are my two friends from Berwick, uncle," said Bernice,introducing them. "Dolly Fayre and Dotty Rose."
"You are welcome, my dears," and the courteous old gentleman bowed tothem with great dignity. "I trust you can find amusement and enjoy yourvisit here. Now, let us dine."
Dolly looked curiously at her host, as he stood back, and bowed thegirls out of the room, before he followed them, but Dotty was sointerested in the surroundings that she gave no second thought to Mr.Forbes, as she passed him.
The dining-room was a marvel of old time grandeur. Nothing was modern,but the heavy black walnut sideboard and chairs spoke of long usage andold time ways.
Mrs. Berry did not appear at the table, and evidently was not expected,as no place was set for her.
Mr. Forbes sat at the head, and two girls at either side. Agrave-faced, important looking butler directed the service, and twofootmen assisted. Everything was of the best, and wonderfully cookedand served, but Dolly and Dotty could scarcely eat for the novelty andinterest of the scene.
"Come, come, Miss Fayre, eat your terrapin," counselled Mr. Forbes, "itis not so good cold."
"Oh, gracious, Uncle Jeff," exclaimed the volatile Alicia, "don't callthose kids Miss! Call 'em Dotty and Dolly, do."
"Can't remember which is which," declared her uncle, looking at the twoD's. "I can remember the last names, because the Fayre girl is fair,and the Rose girl is rosy. I shall call them Rosy and Fairy, I think."
"All right, Mr. Forbes," and Dolly smiled and dimpled at the prettyconceit.
"And you two must call me something less formal," he said. "Suppose youcall me Uncle Forbes, as you are not really my nieces."
This seemed a fine plan and was readily adopted.
"And now," Mr. Forbes went on, "I don't mind confessing that I've noidea what to do with you girls. By way of entertainment, I mean."
"Oh, Uncle Jeff," said Bernice, "it's enough entertainment just to behere in New York for a week. Why, we will have all we can do to see theshops and the sights--I suppose we can go around sight-seeing?"
"Bless my soul, yes. Of course you can. Go where you like. Order themotors whenever you choose. Mrs. Berry will do all you want her to;just tell her your plans. All I ask is that I shan't be troubled withyou during the day."
"Why, uncle," cried Alicia, "won't we see you at all in the daytime?"
"No. I am a very busy man. I cannot have my work interrupted by a packof foolish chatterers."
"Whatever did you ask us for?" Alicia's round face wore a look ofsurprised inquiry.
"Never you mind, miss. I had a very good reason for asking you, but onedoesn't always tell his reasons. However, I expect to see you everynight at the dinner table, and for an hour or so afterward in thedrawing room. The rest of the time you must amuse yourselves. Have youany friends in New York, any of you?"
"I have a few," said Dotty, as the inquiring glance turned in herdirection.
"Invite them to the house when you choose," said Mr. Forbes,hospitably, if curtly.
"Oh, no, sir," said Dotty, quickly. "They wouldn't fit in."
Mr. Forbes chuckled. "You have a sense of the fitness of things, MissRosy. Why wouldn't they fit in?"
"Why, they're plain people. Not grand and elegant like you."
"Oho! So I'm grand and elegant, am I? And are you grand and elegant,too?"
Dotty considered. "Yes," she said, finally, "I am, while I'm here. I'mvery adaptable, and while I'm in New York, I mean to be just as grandand elegant as the house itself."
Mr. Forbes burst into hearty laughter. "Good for you!" he cried. "Whenyou're in Rome do as the Romans do. And you, Fairy of the golden curls.Are you going to be grand, also?"
"I can't," returned Dolly, simply. "I can only be myself, wherever Iam. But I shall enjoy all the beautiful things as much as Dotty."
Again Mr. Forbes laughed. "You're a great pair," he said. "I'm glad Idiscovered you. And now, Bernice and Alicia, haven't you any youngfriends in town you'd like to invite to see you here? Remember thehouse is yours."
"Oh, Uncle Jeff," cried Alicia, "you are too good! Do you mean it? Canwe do just as we like? Invite parties, and all that?"
"Yes, indeed. Why not? Have the best time possible, and see to it thatthose two little friends of yours have a good time, too."
"But won't you go with us anywhere?" asked Bernice; "I thought you'dtake us to see places where we can't go alone."
"Bless my soul! Take a lot of chattering magpies sightseeing! No, notif I know it! Mrs. Berry will take you; and on a pinch, I might let mysecretary accompany you, say to see the downtown big buildings or thebright lights at night."
"Oh, do you have a secretary?" asked Alicia. "What's he like?"
"Fenn? Oh, he's a good sort. Very dependable and really accommodating.He'll be of great help to you, I'm sure."
"What is your business, Mr. Forbes?" asked Dolly, who was muchinterested in this strange type of man. She had never seen any one likehim, and he seemed to her a sort of fairy godfather, who waved his wandand gave them all sorts of wonderful gifts.
"I haven't any business, my dear. My occupation and amusement iscollecting specimens for my collection. I am an entomologist andornithologist, if you know what those big words mean."
"Yes, sir, I do." And Dolly smiled back at him. "Mayn't we see yourcollection?"
"I'm not sure about that, I don't show it to everybody. It is up on thefourth floor of this house, and no one is allowed up there unlessaccompanied by myself or Mr. Fenn. By the way, remember that, all ofyou. On no account go up to the fourth floor. Not that you'd be likelyto, for you have no call above the second floor, where your rooms are.But this is a special command. The house is yours, as I said, but thatmeans only this first floor and the one above it."
"Goodness me, Uncle Jeff!" said Alicia, "you needn't lay down the lawso hard! We're not absolute babes, to be so strictly cautioned andforbidden! If you desire us not to go up the second flight of stairs,of course we won't."
"That's right, my dear, don't. But I do lay it down as a law, and it isthe only law I shall impose on you. Except for that you can follow outyour own sweet wills."
"But," said Dotty, her dark eyes bril
liant with the excitement of theoccasion, "I'm not always sure as to what is proper. I want to do justwhat is right. Is it correct for us to go about alone, in your bigmotor, with your chauffeur? Can we go to the art galleries and theshops alone?"
"Bless my soul! I don't know." The big man looked absolutely helpless."Surely you must know such things yourselves. What do your mothers letyou do at home? Oh, well, if you're uncertain, ask Mrs. Berry, she'llknow. She's an all-round capable person, and she'll know all theunwritten laws about chaperonage and such things. Do as she bids you."
This was satisfactory, and Dotty began at once to make plans for thenext day.
"Let's go to the Metropolitan Museum first," she said.
"All right," chimed in Alicia, "we'll go there in the morning, then.But to-morrow is Wednesday, and I want to go to a matinee in theafternoon. Can't we, Uncle Jeff?"
"Of course you can. Tell Fenn, he'll see about tickets for you. Justtell Mrs. Berry to see Fenn about it."
"Oh," sighed the outspoken Dotty, "it is just like Fairyland! TellFenn! Just as if Fenn were a magician!"
"He is," said Mr. Forbes, smiling at her enthusiasm. "I couldn't keephouse without Fenn. He's my right hand man for everything. You girlsmustn't claim too much of his time and attention, for I keep him on thejump most of the time myself."
"Does your collection keep you so busy?" asked Dolly, whose secretlonging was to see that same collection, which greatly interested her.
"Yes, indeed. There's always work to be done in connection with it.I've a lot of new specimens just arrived to-day, awaitingclassification and tabulation."
After dinner they all returned to the drawing-room. Mr. Forbes seemeddesirous of keeping up a general conversation, but it was hard to finda subject to interest him. He would talk a few moments, and then lapseinto absent-mindedness and almost forget the girls' presence.
At times, he would get up from his chair, and stalk up and down theroom, perhaps suddenly pausing in front of one of them, and asking adirect question.
"How old are you?" he asked abruptly of Alicia.
"Sixteen," she replied. "I was sixteen last October."
"You look like your mother at that age. She was my only sister. She hasnow been dead--"
"Ten years," prompted Alicia. "I was a little child when she died."
"And who looks after you now? Your father's sister, isn't it?"
"Yes, Uncle Jeff. My Aunt Nellie. But I'm at school, you know. I shallbe there the next four years, I suppose."
"Yes, yes, to be sure. Yes, yes, of course. And you, Bernice? You haveno mother, either. But who looks after you?"
"I look after myself, Uncle. Father thinks there's no necessity for meto have a chaperon in our little home town."
"Not a chaperon, child, but you ought to have some one to guide andteach you."
"Dad doesn't think so. He says an American girl can take care ofherself."
"Maybe so, maybe so. It might be a good thing for you to go to schoolwith Alicia."
"It might be. But I like our High School at home, and we learn a lotthere."
"But not the same kind of learning. Do they teach you manners andgeneral society instruction?"
"No," said Bernice, smiling at thought of such things in connectionwith the Berwick school. "But my father thinks those things comenaturally to girls of good families."
"Maybe so, maybe so." And then Mr. Forbes again walked up and down thelong room, seemingly lost in his own thoughts.
Dolly and Dotty felt a little uncomfortable. They wanted to makethemselves agreeable and entertaining, but their host seemed interestedexclusively in his young relatives, and they hesitated lest theyintrude.
As it neared ten o'clock, Mr. Forbes paused in his pacing of the room,bowed to each of the four in turn, and then saying, courteously, "I bidyou goodnight," he vanished into the hall.
Immediately Mrs. Berry entered. It seemed a relief to see her kind,smiling face after the uncertain phases of their eccentric host.
"Now you young people must go to bed," the housekeeper said; "you'retired,--or ought to be. Come along."
Not at all unwillingly they followed her upstairs, and she looked aftertheir comfort in most solicitous fashion.
After she had shown them how to ring the various bells to call themaids or to call her, in emergency, and had drawn their attention tothe ice water in thermos bottles, and told them how to adjust theventilators, she bade them good-night and went away.
The rooms had a communicating door, and this Alicia promptly threw openand came through into the two D's room.
"Oh, isn't it all the greatest fun! And did you EVER see anything socrazy as Uncle Jeff? What he wants us here for, _I_ don't know! Butit's something,--and something especial. He never asked us here toamuse him! Of that I'm certain."
"Not much he didn't!" and Bernice followed Alicia, and perched on theedge of Dolly's bed. "Isn't he queer? I didn't know he was so funny ashe is. Did you, Alicia?"
"No; I haven't seen him since I was a tiny mite. But he's all right. Heknows what he's about and I don't wonder he doesn't want us botheringaround if he's busy."
"I'd love to see his collection," said Dolly. "I'm awfully interestedin such things."
"Oh, well, you'll probably have a chance to see it while we're here,"and Alicia began taking down her hair. "Now, girls, let's get to bed,for I'm jolly well tired out. But I foresee these poky evenings rightalong, don't you? We'll have to cram a lot of fun into our days, if theevenings are to be spent watching an elderly gentleman stalking aroundthus." And then Alicia gave a very good imitation of the way Mr. Forbeswalked around. She didn't ridicule him; she merely burlesqued hismanner as he paused to speak to them in his funny, abrupt way.
"What are you, my dear?" she said, looking at Dolly. "Are you aspecimen I can use in my collection? No? Are you a fashionablebutterfly? I say, Bernice," she suddenly broke off, "why was he socurious about the way we live at home, and who brings us up?"
"I don't know; and anyway, he knew how long our mothers have been deadand who takes care of us. Why did he ask those things over and over?"
"I think he's a bit absent-minded. Half the time he was thinking ofmatters far removed from this charming quartette of bewitchingbeauties. Well, it's up to us to make our own good time. I move wecorral the big limousine for to-morrow morning and go in search ofadventure."
"To the Metropolitan?" suggested Dolly.
"Yes, if you like, though I'd rather go to the shops," and Aliciagathered up her hairpins to depart. Her long light hair hung round hershoulders, and she pushed it back as she affectionately kissed Dollyand Dotty good-night. "You are sure two darlings!" she saidemphatically.