“I’ve come to stay three days,” she announced in the abrupt way peculiar to her; “I shall go home Tuesday morning at eleven o’clock. Let me look at you, Patty. Why, I declare, you look just as you always did. I was afraid I’d find you tricked out in all sorts of gew-gaws and disporting yourself like a grown-up young lady.”
“Oh no, I’m still a little girl, Miss Daggett,” said Patty, “and I’m just as fond of fun and frolic as ever.”
CHAPTER XVIII
THE CIRCUS PARTY
Patty made that last remark by way of introducing the subject of the circus, for her only hope was that by some miraculous whim Miss Daggett would consent to go with them. Their party numbered only six, and Patty knew that the box would hold eight, so there was room enough if Miss Daggett would go. But as Patty looked at her guest’s stern, angular face, she didn’t see anything that led her to feel very hopeful.
“We had expected, Miss Daggett,” she said, “to go to the circus this afternoon. Would you care to go with us?”
“To the circus! for the land’s sake, no! I’m surprised that you would think of going, or that your father would let you go. The circus, indeed!”
“Why, Miss Daggett,” said Patty, laughing, in spite of her disappointment, at Miss Daggett’s shocked expression, “papa’s going to take us, and Grandma is going, too—that is, we were—but of course, if you don’t care to go——”
“Care to go? of course I don’t care to go! All their elephants and wild tigers couldn’t drag me there. And of course I expect you to stay at home with me. You can go to the circus any time you choose, if you do choose, though I think it a shocking thing to do; but Rachel Daggett doesn’t visit in the city very often, and when she does she expects to have proper respect paid to her.”
Patty’s spirits sank. She had hoped that even if Miss Daggett wouldn’t go herself, she would insist that the rest of the party should keep their engagement.
“We had invited a few other friends to go,” she said, feeling that Miss Daggett’s attitude justified her in this further statement.