CHAPTER XX
THE ROLANDS
"There's a new family in that house across the road," said Mr. Fairfieldone evening at dinner.
"The Fenwick house?" asked Nan.
"Yes; a man named Roland has taken it for August. I know a man who knowsthem, and he says they're charming people. So, if you ladies want to beneighbourly, you might call on them."
Nan and Patty went to call and found the Roland family very pleasantpeople, indeed. Mrs. Roland seemed to be an easy-going sort of lady whonever took any trouble herself, and never expected anyone else to do so.
Miss Roland, Patty decided, was a rather inanimate young person, andshowed a lack of energy so at variance with Patty's tastes that sheconfided to Nan on the way home she certainly did not expect to cultivateany such lackadaisical girl as that.
As for young Mr. Roland, the son of the house, Patty had great ado tokeep from laughing outright at him. He was of the foppish sort, andthough young and rather callow, he assumed airs of great importance, andaddressed Patty with a formal deference, as if she were a young lady insociety, instead of a schoolgirl.
Patty was accustomed to frank, pleasant comradeship with the boys of heracquaintance; and the young men, such as Mr. Hepworth and Mr. Phelps,treated Patty as a little girl, and never seemed to imply anything likegrown-up attentions.
But young Mr. Roland, with an affected drawl, and what were meant to bekilling glances of admiration, so conducted himself that Patty's sense ofhumour was stirred, and she mischievously led him on for the fun ofseeing what he would do next.
The result was that young Mr. Roland was much pleased with pretty Patty,and fully believed that his own charms had made a decided impression onher.
He asked permission to call, whereupon Patty told him that she was only aschoolgirl, and did not receive calls from young men, but referred him toMrs. Fairfield, and Nan being in an amiable mood, kindly gave him thedesired permission.
"Well," said Patty, as they discussed the matter afterward, "if thatyoung puff-ball rolls himself over here, you can have the pleasure ofentertaining him. I'm quite ready to admit that another season of hisconversation would affect my mind."
"Nonsense," said Nan, carelessly, "you can't expect every young man to beas interesting as Mr. Hepworth, or as companionable as Kenneth Harper."
"I don't," said Patty, "but I don't have to bore myself to death talkingto them, if I don't like them."
"No," said Nan, "but you must be polite and amiable to everybody. That'spart of the penalty of being an attractive young woman."
"All right," said Patty, "since that's the way you look at it, you surelycan't have any objection to receiving Mr. Roland if he calls, for I warnyou that I shan't appear."
But it so happened that when a caller came one afternoon, Nan was not athome, and Patty was.
The maid brought the card to Patty, who was reading in her own room, andwhen she looked at it and saw the name of Mr. Charles Roland upon it, sheexclaimed in dismay.
"I don't want to go down," she said, "I wish he hadn't come."
"It's a lady, Miss Patty," said the girl.
"A lady?" said Patty, wonderingly, "why this is a gentleman's card."
"Yes, ma'am, I know it, but it's a lady that called. She's down in theparlour, waiting, and that's the card she gave me. She's a large lady,Miss Patty, with greyish hair, and she seems in a terrible fluster."
"Very mysterious," said Patty, "but I'll go down and see what it's allabout."
Patty went down to the parlour, and found Mrs. Roland there. She didindeed look bewildered, and as soon as Patty entered the room she beganto talk volubly.
"Excuse my rushing over like this, my dear," she said, "but I am in suchtrouble, and I wonder if you won't help me out. We're neighbours, youknow, and I'm sure I'd do as much for you. I asked for Mrs. Fairfield,but she isn't at home, so I asked for you."
"But the card you sent up had Mr. Charles Roland's name on it," saidPatty, smiling.
"Oh, my dear, is that so? What a mistake to make! You see I carryCharlie's cards around with my own, and I must have sent the wrong one.I'm so nearsighted I can't see anything without my glasses, anyway, andmy glasses are always lost."
Patty felt sorry for the old lady, who seemed in such a bewildered state,and she said, "No matter about the card, Mrs. Roland, what can I do foryou?"
"Why it's just this," said her visitor. "I want to borrow your house.Just for the night, I'll return it to-morrow in perfect order."
"Borrow this house?" repeated Patty, wondering if her guest were reallysane.
"Yes," said Mrs. Roland; "now wait, and I'll tell you all about it. I'mexpecting some friends to dinner and to stay over night, and would youbelieve it, just now of all days in the year, the tank has burst and thewater is dripping down all through the house. We can't seem to doanything to stop it. The ceilings had fallen in three rooms when I cameaway, and I dare say the rest of them are down by this time. And myfriends are very particular people, and awfully exclusive. I wouldn'tlike to take them to the hotel; and I don't think it's a very nice hotelanyway, and so I thought if you'd just lend me this house over night, Icould bring my friends right here, and as they leave to-morrow morning,it wouldn't be long, you know. And truly I don't see what else I can do."
"But what would become of our family?" said Patty, who was greatly amusedat the unconventional request.
"Why, you could go to our house," said Mrs. Roland dubiously; "that is,if any of the ceilings will stay up over night; or," she added, her facebrightening, "couldn't you go to the hotel yourselves? Of course, itisn't a nice place to entertain guests, but it does very well for one'sown family. Oh, Miss Fairfield, please help me out! Truly I'd do as muchfor you if the case were reversed."
Although the request was unusual, Mrs. Roland did not seem to think so,and the poor lady seemed to be in such distress, that Patty's sympathieswere aroused, and after all it was a mere neighbourly act of kindness toborrow and lend, even though the article in question was somewhat largerthan the lemon or the egg usually borrowed by neighbourly housekeepers.
So Patty said, "What about the servants, Mrs. Roland? Do you want toborrow them too?"
"I don't care," was the reply, "just as it suits you best. You may leavethem here; or take them with you, and I'll bring my own. Oh, please, MissFairfield, do help me somehow."
Patty thought a minute. It was a responsibility to decide the questionherself, but if she waited until Nan or her father came home, it would betoo late for Mrs. Roland's purpose.
Then she said, "I'll do it, Mrs. Roland. You shall have the house andservants at your disposal until noon to-morrow. You may bring your ownservants also, or not, just as you choose. We won't go to your house,thank you, nor to the hotel. But Mr. and Mrs. Fairfield and myself willgo over to my aunt, Mrs. Barlow's, to dine and spend the night. They canput us up, and they won't mind a bit our coming so unexpectedly."
"Oh, my dear, how good you are!" said Mrs. Roland in a burst ofgratitude. "I cannot tell you how I appreciate your kindness! Are yousure your parents won't mind?"
"I'm not at all sure of that," said Patty, smiling, "but I don't see asthey can help themselves; when they come home, you will probably be inpossession, and your guests will be here, so there'll be nothing for mypeople to do but to fall in with my plans."
"Oh, how good you are," said Mrs. Roland. "I will surely make this up toyou in some way, and now, will you just show me about the house a bit, asI've never been here before?"
So Patty piloted Mrs. Roland about the house, showed her the variousrooms, and told the servants that they were at Mrs. Roland's orders forthat night and the next morning.
After Mrs. Roland had gone back home, made happy by Patty's kindness,Patty began to think that she had done a very extraordinary thing, andwondered what her father and Nan would say.
"But," she thought to herself, "I'm in for it now, and they'll have toabide by my decision, whatever they think. Now I must pack some thingsfor our vi
sit. But first I must telephone to Aunt Grace."
"Hello, Auntie," said Patty, at the telephone, a few moments later. "Papaand Nan and I want to come over to the Hurly-Burly to dinner, and to stayall night. Will you have us?"
"Why, of course, Patty, child, we're glad to have you. Come right alongand stay as long as you like. But what's the matter? Has your cook left,or is the house on fire?"
"Neither, Aunt Grace, but I'll explain when I get there. Can you sendsomebody after me in a carriage? Papa and Nan have gone off in the cart,and I have two suit cases to bring."
"Certainly, Patty, I'll send old Dill after you right away, and I'll makehim hurry, too, as you seem to be anxious to start."
"I am," said Patty, laughing. "Good-bye."
Then she gathered together such clothing and belongings as were necessaryfor their visit, and had two suit cases ready packed when her aunt'scarriage came for her.
Patty looked a little dubious as she left the house, but she didn't feelthat she could have acted otherwise than as she had done, and, too, sincetheir own trusty servants were to stay there, certainly no harm couldcome to the place.
So, giggling at the whole performance, Patty jumped into the Barlowcarriage and went to the Hurly-Burly.
"Well, of all things!" said her Aunt Grace, after Patty had told herstory. "I've had a suspicion, sometimes, that we Barlows were anunconventional crowd, but we never borrowed anybody's house yet! It'sridiculous, Patty, and you ought not to have let that woman have it!"
"I just couldn't help it, Aunt Grace, she was in such a twitter, andthrew herself on my mercy in such a way that I felt I had to help herout."
"You're too soft-hearted, Patty; you'd do anything for anybody who askedyou."
"You needn't talk, Aunt Grace, you're just the same yourself, and youknow that if somebody came along this minute and wanted to borrow yourhouse you'd let her have it if she coaxed hard enough."
"I think very likely," said Aunt Grace, placidly. "Now, how are you goingto catch your father and Nan?"
"Why, they'll have to drive past here on their way home," said Patty,"and I mean to stop them and tell them about it. We can put the horse inyour barn, I suppose."
"Yes, of course. And now we'll go out on the verandah, and then we cansee the Fairfield turn-out when it comes along."
The Fairfields were waylaid and stopped as they drove by the house, whichwas not astonishing, as Patty and Bumble and Mrs. Barlow watched from thepiazza, while Bob was perched on the front gate post, and Uncle Ted waspacing up and down the walk.
"What's the matter?" cried Mr. Fairfield, as he reined up his horse inresponse to their various salutations.
"The matter is," said Patty, "that we haven't any home of our ownto-night, and so we're visiting Aunt Grace."
"Earthquake swallowed our house?" inquired Mr. Fairfield, as he turned todrive in.
"Not quite," said Patty, "but one of the neighbours wanted to borrow it,so I lent it to her."
"That Mrs. Roland, I suppose," said Nan; "she probably mislaid her ownhouse, she's so careless and rattle-pated."
"It was Mrs. Roland," said Patty, laughing, "and she's having adinner-party, and their tank burst, and most of the ceilings fell, andreally, Nan, you know yourself such things do upset a house, if theyoccur on the day of a dinner-party."
Fuller explanations ensued, and though the Fairfields thought it a crazypiece of business, they agreed with Patty, that it would have beendifficult to refuse Mrs. Roland's request.
And it really didn't interfere with the Fairfields'comfort at all, andthe Barlows protested that it was a great pleasure to them to entertaintheir friends so unexpectedly, so, as Mr. Fairfield declared, Mrs. Rolandwas, after all, a public benefactor.
"You'd better wait," said Nan, "until you see the house to-morrow. I knowa little about the Rolands, and I wouldn't be a bit surprised to findthings pretty much upside down."
It was nearly noon the next day when Mrs. Roland telephoned to theHurly-Burly and asked for Mrs. Fairfield.
Nan responded, and was told that the Rolands were now leaving, and thatthe Fairfields might again come into their home.
Mrs. Roland also expressed voluble thanks for the great service theFairfields had done her, and said that she would call the next day tothank them in person.
So the Fairfields went back home, and happily Nan's fears were notrealised. Nothing seemed to be spoiled or out of order, and the servantssaid that Mrs. Roland and her family and friends had been most kind, andhad made no trouble at all.
"Now, you see," said Patty, triumphantly, "that it does no harm to do akind deed to a neighbour once in a while, even though it isn't theparticular kind deed that you've done a hundred times before."
"That's true enough, Patty," said her father, "but all the same when youlend our home again, let it be our own house, and furnished with our ownthings. I don't mind owning up, now that it's all over, that I did feel acertain anxiety arising from the fact that this is a rented house, andalmost none of the household appointments are our own."
"Goodness, gracious me!" said Patty. "I never once thought of that! Well,I'm glad they didn't smash all the china and bric-a-brac, for they'remortal homely, and I should certainly begrudge the money it would take toreplace them."