“Yes, don’t be so overcome. You didn’t know your little goose girl would turn out a swan, did you?”
“But there’s a misapprehension somewhere. You see, Mr. Stengel is not coming here tonight.”
“Yes, he is, I’ve just telephoned that he might.”
“You telephoned Stengel!”
“Well, not directly to him, but I told my friend, Miss Kent, that she might bring him.”
“Who? What friend?”
“Miss Kent. I met her up—down in Maine. She’s a musical—oh, Daddy Fairfield, don’t look as if you’d been struck by lightning!”
“But I have, and I’m trying to crawl out from under the débris. Now the first thing you do, my child, you fly back to that telephone, and call off that little engagement for this evening. Tell your Maine friend that circumstances over which you have no control make it impossible for you to receive her and the illustrious manager this evening.”
“But, Father,——”
“At once, Patty, please.”