CHAPTER XXXII.
PATTY’S AMBITION.
Patty and her redoubtable “chappyrone” were still holding their own in New York, in spite of the snubbing they had gotten from Eva.
Boarding at one of the finest hotels and lavishing money like water, they spared no effort to get into the society where Eva moved, a social queen by reason of her beauty and charm, coupled with her father’s wealth and position.
At the hotel they made some nice acquaintances, and but for the uncouth spinster the quite presentable Patty might have made some headway; but Cousin Tabby became the butt of everybody’s ridicule.
“She can never get on with that old fright dangling after her. Why don’t she engage some nice, fashionable woman of straitened means to present her in society, and send that old silly back to the woods?” Patty overheard one clever woman saying to another one morning.
She reddened with mortification, for she had secretly mistrusted all along that the spinster was a laughingstock for the cultured fashionables at the grand hotel.
She determined not to let the old woman stand in her light. She had received considerable attention asthe rich West Virginian heiress, and she wanted to make a good match, as grand as the one she heard Eva was going to make.
Patty never let any false delicacy stand in the way of her desires. She shortly sought an interview with the clever woman whose opinion she had overheard.
“Oh, Mrs. Putnam, what will you say when I tell you I overheard your remarks about Cousin Tabby this morning?” she smiled.
“Oh, my dear, can you ever forgive me?” with saucy penitence.
“You know I am not blaming you, dear Mrs. Putnam. I quite realize that you are right. Indeed, I never really expected to keep the silly old thing with me so long. I only brought her for a little sightseeing, expecting her to become my Cousin Eva’s guest. But when Eva declined to receive her, I had not the heart to send her home just yet.”
“Very good of you, I’m sure, my dear Miss Groves; but I think Miss Somerville showed more of her usual worldly wisdom in declining to present such a ridiculous relative to New York society,” purred Mrs. Putnam, who had been told in the beginning of their proud Cousin Eva, who had turned her back on her mother’s relations since her father elevated her to wealth and position.
Patty had also hinted that she “could tell some things Eva wouldn’t relish, if she chose.”
But she went no further, because the shrewd Miss Tabby had told her privately that a smirch on Eva’sname was a reflection on themselves, being near relations.
“The higher our relations stand the higher we can climb,” she observed with real worldly wisdom that Patty readily absorbed.
Therefore she diligently paraded the relationship and accounted for the coolness by the excuse of Eva’s alienation from her mother’s relatives.
“She thinks herself too aristocratic to mix with people that got rich just by oil,” she sighed.
Mrs. Putnam had met with such pride before, so she swallowed the fiction, and on being appealed to for advice, promptly gave it.
“I should do just what I said this morning: Engage a lady of undoubted social position, with slim means, to take me under her wing for a fair consideration. You couldn’t afford to be close over money in such a case, but it would pay you back with interest for all you expended. Then send that old maid home and get yourself launched in good society.”
“I will do it, but where can I find such a lady as you speak of?” cried Patty eagerly.
“Such chances don’t grow on trees, for such ladies wouldn’t have it known for the world that they carry on these things for money. But I am interested in you, Miss Groves, and I will undertake to find you a proper chaperone, although, in my opinion, Miss Somerville ought to have you for her guest and let her aunt introduce you,” exclaimed Mrs. Putnam frankly.
“But it’s no use counting on that heartless Eva foranything, though I could tell things if I chose that would mortify her enough, not that I intend to. I’d scorn to injure relations by silly airs!” cried Patty, tossing her dark head with fine indignation.
“Your good heart does you credit, my dear girl,” suavely returned the lady, though she nevertheless intended by and by to worm out of Patty all those mysterious secrets about the beautiful belle, Miss Somerville.
“But about my new chaperone. When can we get her to begin?” asked the heiress, who was so anxious to become a belle.
If there was one thing more than another she wanted it was to get acquainted with Eva’s lover, the handsome Reginald Hamilton, and measure lances with her for his heart.
“If I could just cut her out and take him away, I’d ask no more of fate. I’d have her humbled to the dust, and her proud heart breaking!” she cried vindictively.
“As to that, you may have to wait a few weeks, for the lady I have in view is on the other side now. But she will sail for home next week; so within three weeks I think we will have made a beginning,” Mrs. Putnam observed.
“It is a long time to wait,” sighed the impatient girl.
“But in the meantime I will try to help you out a little, Miss Groves. For instance, I will take you out with me this afternoon to a flower show, where Icould introduce you to some nice people if you will promise me to leave the old lady at home or send her off shopping or sightseeing alone.”
“In that case she might come to grief,” laughed Patty, adding: “But I will find means to keep her at home; never fear.”