All the time Patty was dressing she wondered about that letter; and when Mona, ready for dinner, stopped at her door, Patty drew her into the room.

“Mona,” she said, “did you get a Christmas card from Mr. Farnsworth?”

“Yes,” said Mona, “in a big blue envelope. Daisy had one, too. Didn’t you get one?”

“No; Jim said there was one for me, but it got lost somehow. Thrown in the fire, I shouldn’t wonder.”

“Well, don’t mind,” said Mona, cheerfully. “You can have mine. It isn’t very pretty, and Daisy’s isn’t either, but I suppose they’re the best Bill could find out there in Arizona. Do you want it now, Patty?”

“I don’t want it at all, Mona. What would I want with your card, or Daisy’s either? But if Little Billee sent one to me, I’d like to have it, that’s all.” 209

“Of course you would; but truly, they don’t amount to much.”

“Jim must have been mistaken about there being one for me,” said Patty, and then the two girls went downstairs.

The Christmas dinner was practically a repetition of the feast of the night before; but as Adèle said, how could that be helped if people would have two Christmas celebrations on successive days?

There were four extra guests, who proved to be merry and jolly young people, and after dinner Hal declared that his reign as Lord of Misrule was not yet over.

“Don’t let’s do any more stunts like we had last night,” said Mona. “They wear me out. Let’s play easy games, like blindman’s buff, or something.”

“Or Copenhagen,” said Hal, but Patty frowned at him.

“We’re too grown-up for such things,” she declared, with dignity. “What do you say to a nice, dignified game of hide and seek?”

“All over the house!” cried Roger. “May we, Mrs. Kenerley?”

“The house is yours,” said Adèle. “I reserve 210 no portion of it. From cellar to attic, from drawing-room to kitchen, hide where you will and seek where you like,—if you’ll only promise not to wake the baby. She’s taking her afternoon nap.”

“She doesn’t seem to mind noise,” said Roger. “We do make an awful racket, you know.”

“Oh, no, I don’t mean that,” said Adèle. “I’ve trained her not to mind noise. But I mean if your hiding and seeking takes you into the nursery quarters, do go softly.”

“Of course we will,” said Philip. “I’m specially devoted to that baby, and I’ll see that her nap isn’t disturbed, even if I have to stand sentry at her door. But what larks to have the whole house! I’ve never played it before but what they wouldn’t let you hide in this room or that room. Who’ll be It?”

“Oh, that’s an old-fashioned way to play,” said Hal. “Here’s a better way. Either all the men hide and the girls find them, or else the other way around; and, anyway, don’t you know, whoever finds who, has to be her partner or something.”

“For life?” asked Jim, looking horrified.

“Mercy, no!” said his brother-in-law. “This 211 is a civilised land, and we don’t select life partners that way!”

“You mean just partners for a dance,” said Patty, trying to help him out.

“Well, you see,” said Hal, “it ought to be more than just a dance; I mean more like a partner for a,—for a junketing of some kind.”

“I’ll tell you,” said Adèle. “There’s to be a masquerade ball at the Country Club on New Year’s Eve, and we’re all going.”

“Just the thing!” cried Hal. “Now, whichever seeker finds whichever hider, they’ll go in pairs to the ball, don’t you see? Romeo and Juliet, or anything they like, for costumes.”

“But we won’t be here,” and Philip Van Reypen looked ruefully at Roger. “We go back to town to-morrow.”

“But you can come up again,” said Adèle, hospitably. “I hereby invite you both to come back the day before New Year’s, and stay as long as you will.”

“Well, you are some hostess!” declared Roger, looking grateful. “I accept with pleasure, but I doubt if my friend Van Reypen can get away.”

“Can he!” cried Philip. “Well, I rather guess he can! Mrs. Kenerley, you’re all sorts 212 of a darling, and you’ll see me back here on the first train after your invitation takes effect.”

“Then hurrah for our game of hide and seek,” Hal exclaimed. “Jim and Adèle, you must be in it, too. You needn’t think you can go as Darby and Joan,—you must take your chances with the rest. If you find each other, all right, but if you find anybody else, that’s your fate,—see?”

“I’m willing,” said Adèle, laughing. “I’m sure I’d be glad to go with any of you beautiful young men.”

“Now, will you listen to that!” cried her husband. “Well, I won’t be outdone in generosity. I’ll be proud to escort any one of this galaxy of beauty,” and he looked at the group of pretty girls.

“Now, we must do it all up proper,” said Hal. “In the first place, we must draw lots to see whether the girls shall hide or we shall. We must have it all very fair.”

He tore two strips of paper, one longer than the other, and holding them behind him, bade Adèle choose.

“Right!” she said, and Hal put forth his right hand and gave her a paper on which was written “Girls.” 213

“All right,” went on the master of ceremonies. “Now you girls must hide. We’ll give you fifteen minutes to tuck yourselves away, and then we’re all coming to look for you. As soon as any man finds any girl, he brings her back here to the hall to wait for the others. Now, there’s no stipulation, except that you must not go out of the house. Scoot! and remember, in fifteen minutes we’ll be after you!”

The six girls ran away and made for various parts of the house. The two Misses Crosby, who had come as dinner guests, looked a little surprised at this unusual game, and Patty said to them, kindly: “You don’t mind, do you? You know, you needn’t really go with the man who finds you, if you don’t want to.”

“Oh, we don’t mind,” said the elder Miss Crosby. “I think it’s fun,—only if I should draw that dignified Mr. Van Reypen I’d be scared to death!”

“Oh, he isn’t so awfully dignified,” laughed Patty. “That’s just his manner at first. When you know him better, he’s as jolly as anything. But hurry up, girls, the minutes are flying.”

The girls scampered away, some running to 214 the attic, others going into wardrobes or behind sofas, and Patty ran to her own room.

Then she bethought herself that that was one of the most likely places they would look for her, and she was seized with an ambition to baffle the seekers. With a half-formed plan in her mind, she slipped out of a side door of her own room that opened on a small passage leading to the nursery. In the nursery, she found the baby asleep in her crib, and the Fr?ulein lying down on a couch with a slumber-robe thrown over her, though she was not asleep.

Like a flash, Patty’s plan formed itself. She whispered to the Fr?ulein, and with a quick understanding the good-natured German girl took off her rather voluminous frilled cap, with its long muslin streamers, and put it on Patty’s head. Then Patty lay down on the couch, with her face toward the wall, and deep buried in the pillows. Fr?ulein tucked the slumber-robe over her, and then herself disappeared down into the kitchen quarters.

The search was rather a long one, for the house was large, and the girls had chosen difficult hiding-places.

The two Crosby girls were found first, because not knowing the house well, they had simply 215 gone into hall closets, and stood behind some hanging dresses. They were discovered by Jim Kenerley and Hal; and if the latter was disappointed in his quarry, he gave no sign of it.

The four returned to the hall, and after a while they were joined by Roger and Mona.

“Oho,” said Jim, who loved to tease, “what a coincidence that you two should find each other!”

“Easy enough,” said Roger. “I knew Mona would choose the very hardest place to find; so I went straight to the attic to the very farthest, darkest corner, and there she was, waiting for me!”

“There I was,” said Mona, “but I wasn’t waiting for you!”

“No, you were waiting for me, I know,” said Jim, ironically. “But never mind, Mona, we’ll be partners next time. Hello, Adèle, is that your terrible fate?” and they all laughed as Adèle and Mr. Hoyt came in together, with cobwebs on their hair and smudges of black on their faces.

“I thought I’d be so smart, Jim, and I hid in the coal-bin; but Mr. Hoyt found me! By the way, we must have that place cleaned; it’s a disgrace to the house!” 216

“But you know, my dear, we don’t often use it to receive our guests in.”

“Well, I don’t care, it must be cleaned. There’s no excuse for cobwebs. Now I must go and tidy up. I hope they haven’t wakened the baby. Oh, here’s Daisy.”
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