“I’m so sorry for you,” said Patty, “to go to all that trouble and expense, and have it all for nothing.”
“Less than nothing,” said Chick, “for you stand to lose considerable, I suppose.”
“Yes, well over five hundred dollars. Oh, here are the motorbuses from the train. Now we’ll see.”
But though many guests arrived at the hotel the singer was not amongst them.
“No,” said Miss Kent, scanning them sadly, “she isn’t here. Oh, what shall I do?”
Patty’s mind was working fast. She knit her brows as she tried to think calmly of a wild project that had come into her mind.
“Miss Kent,” she began, and stopped; “I wonder—that is——”
“Well, my dear, what is it? Do you want to ask something of me? Don’t hesitate, I’m not very terrifying, am I, Chick?”
“No, indeed. What is it, Patty?”
“Oh, of course, it wouldn’t do,—I hate to suggest it, even,—but you see, Miss Kent, I can sing——”