“The tea sounds cheerful,” said Adelaide, “but if you’re going to have Lorraine, I’ll have to ask you to excuse me.”
“Oh, then of course I won’t ask her,” said Patty, quickly, for she did not think it just to the others to insist upon Lorraine’s presence; “I can have her some other time just as well. But Clementine Morse said she would come and see me this afternoon.”
“That’s all right,” said Editha; “everybody likes Clementine.”
In a gay mood Patty prepared for her little tea-party. She easily persuaded Grandma to send out for a box of marshmallows and a big bag of chestnuts. “For,” she said, “that lovely wood fire is just the very place to toast marshmallows and roast chestnuts. I know you’ll like Clementine Morse, Grandma, she’s so sweet and pretty, and I know she’ll like you—for the very same reasons.” Patty paused in her preparations to bestow a butterfly kiss on Grandma’s forehead, and then went on arranging her dainty tea-table.
“It’ll be almost like the Tea Club,” she said, as she piled up the sugar lumps and cut thin slices of lemon. “I suppose they’re having a meeting this afternoon, and Marian is being president. Do you know, Grandma, sometimes I get a little homesick for the Tea Club.”
“I should think you would, my dear. The Vernondale girls are a nice set. But perhaps you can get up a Tea Club here.”
“I’d like that,” said Patty, “but the girls are all so different here. They seem divided, and in Vernondale we were all united, just like one big family.”
The Harts came early. Editha brought a piece of exquisite fancy-work. She was a dainty, fragile girl, like a piece of Dresden china, and Patty looked at her in admiration as she deftly worked at the beautiful embroidery.
“What clever girls you are,” said Patty; “I couldn’t do anything like that, if I tried; and I couldn’t make the things Adelaide makes.”
“Probably you can do a lot of things that we can’t do,” said Editha, as she threaded her needle.