"Melodia, I have a guest only she's going to live with us! Please make lots of tarts, and can't Renée have just a little one now? Jasper, carry Miss Renée's trunk to my room--it's in the front hall! Maggie, please get a cot from the storeroom and put it right next to my bed." She turned toward the pantry. "I'll take some tarts now, Melodia, for Miss Renée is hungry! Don't all stand and stare like that, but please do as I tell you!" She helped herself as she spoke to two of the juiciest of the tempting tarts.
"Well, I never!" Jasper and Maggie and Melodia all exclaimed.
Patricia turned with dignity. "Miss Renée has come from France. She is a--a----" She was going to say "war-orphan" but suddenly it occurred to her that that might make Renée unhappy. So she finished: "Her brother has died for us in France and left her all alone!" Patricia used an expression she had heard often. "You three and Daddy and me have a debt to pay--and we are going to pay it!"
The three servants were deeply impressed by the grandness of Patricia's words and manner; and, too, Renée's sad little face won their hearts in an instant. Jasper coughed violently and hurried away to find the trunk. Melodia wiped her eye with the corner of her apron.
"The dear little thing! Well, we'll just make you happy and put flesh on your bones, bless your heart, missy!"
Patricia, satisfied that she had properly established Renée in the household, then led her upstairs to her own room. Renée, accustomed to the tiny chamber under the gable at St. Cloud, exclaimed with admiration when Patricia opened the door. Already Jasper had put down the queer old trunk and was busily engaged unfastening its buckles and straps. Maggie was watching, much disturbed.
"Miss Pat, I wish your mother was home! I know she wouldn't want me to bring a cot in here a-cluttering up the tidiness of your room when there's the blue room and the violet room empty and that room on the third floor----"
Alarmed that Maggie might separate them, Patricia exclaimed quickly: "I don't--care! We won't make things untidy! I want her in here!"
"What's all this about?" interrupted Mr. Everett, coming at that moment to the door.
Patricia, Renée, Jasper and Maggie all turned to him. But Patricia, catching his coat, pulled him to her so that, by reaching on tip-toe, she could whisper in his ear: