"Well, go ahead with it, Patty. I think it will please your aunt very much, but don't wear yourself out over it."
Next morning at breakfast Patty announced her plan for an afternoon tea, and Aunt Isabel was delighted.
"You dear child," she exclaimed, "how sweet of you! I hate to have you go to any trouble on my account, but I shall be so pleased to meet the Vernondale ladies. I want to know what kind of people my niece is growing up among."
"I'm sure you'll like them, Aunt Isabel. Aunt Alice's friends are lovely.
And then I'll ask the mothers of the Tea Club girls, and my neighbour,
Miss Daggett, but I don't believe she'll come."
"Is that the rich Miss Daggett?" asked Aunt Isabel curiously; "the queer one?"
"I don't know whether she's rich or not," said Patty. "I dare say she is, though, because she has lovely things; but she certainly can be called queer. I'm very fond of her, though; she's awfully nice to me, and I like her in spite of her queerness."
"But you'll ask some young ladies, too, won't you?" said Ethelyn. "I don't care very much for queer old maids and middle-aged married ladies."
"Oh, this isn't for you, Ethel," said Patty. "I'll have a children's party for you and Reginald some other day."
"Children's party, indeed," said Ethelyn, turning up her haughty little nose. "You know very well, Patty, I haven't considered myself a child for years."
"Nor I," said Reginald.