lacks the thrill of a real out-and-out elopement, because people know about it. An elopement, to be any good, must be a secret. If ever I get married, I’m going to elope, that’s one thing certain!”
“Why, Patty, how unlike you! I thought you’d want a flubdub wedding with forty-’leven bridesmaids and all the rest of it.”
“Oh, I s’pect I shall when the time comes. I often change my mind, you know.”
“You bet you do! You change it oftener than you make it up!”
“Why, I couldn’t – ” began Patty, and just then they reached the taxicab rank, and Bill put Patty into a car.
They went to the Waldorf, where they were to meet the Kenerleys, and found that Jim and Adele had just arrived.
“What a perfect scheme!” exclaimed Adele, as soon as greetings had been exchanged. “Who all are going?”
“Let us go to luncheon,” said Bill, “and then we can thrash out things. I reserved a table – ah, here we are,” as the head waiter recognised the big Westerner.
“I love to go round with Bill,” said Patty, “he always has everything ready, and no fuss about it.”
“He sure does,” said Jim Kenerley, in hearty appreciation. “But the way he scoots across the country and back, every other day or two, keeps him in trim. He lives on the jump.”
“I do,” agreed Farnsworth. “But some day I hope to arrange matters so I can stay in the same place twice running.”
Laughing at this sally, they took their places at the table, which Bill’s foresight had caused to be decorated with a low mound of white asters and maidenhair fern.
“How pretty!” cried Patty. “I hate a tall decoration, – this is just right to talk over. Now, let’s talk.”
And talk they did.
“I just flew off,” Patty declared, as she told Adele about it. “Nan’s going to pack a trunk and send it, when she knows we’re truly there. I think she feared the plan would fizzle out.”
“Indeed it won’t,” Bill assured them. “We’ve got the nucleus of our party here, and if we can’t get any more, we can go it alone.”
But it was by no means difficult to get the others. Some few whom they asked were out of town, but they responded to long distance calls, and most of them accepted the unusual invitation.
Farnsworth had a table telephone brought, and as fast as they could ring them up, they asked their guests.
The two Farringtons were glad to go; Marie Homer and Kit Cameron jumped at the chance. Mona and Daisy, with Chick Channing, would come up from the shore the next day, and that made eleven.
“Van Reypen?” asked Kenerley, as they sought for some one to fill out the dozen.
“Up to Patty,” said Bill, glancing at her.
“No,” and Patty shook her golden head, slowly; “no, don’t let’s ask Phil this time.”
“Why not?” said Adele in astonishment. “I thought you liked him.”
“I do; Phil’s a dear. But I just don’t want him on this picnic. Besides, he’s probably out of town. And likely he wouldn’t care to go.”
“Reasons enough,” said Farnsworth, briefly. “Cross off Van Reypen. Now, who for our last man?”
“Peyton,” said Jim. “Bob Peyton would love to go, and he’s a good all-’round chap. How’s that, Bill?”
“All right, Patty?” and Bill looked inquiringly at her.
“Yes, indeed. Mr. Peyton’s a jolly man. Do you think he’d go, Adele?”
“Like a shot!” Kenerley replied, for his wife. “Bob’s rather gone on Patty, if you know what I mean.”
“Who isn’t gone on Patty?” returned Farnsworth. “Well, that’s a round dozen. Enough!”
“Plenty,” Patty decreed. And then the talk turned to matters of trains and meetings and luggage.
“I’ll arrange everything for the picnic,” said Bill. “You girls see about your clothes and that’s all you need bother about. You’ll want warmish togs, it gets cool up there after sundown. Remember, it’s Maine!”
Patty and Adele at once began to discuss what to take, and Patty made a list to send to Nan for immediate shipment.
“What an enormous piece of humanity that Chicky is!” said Patty, suddenly remembering the stranger. “Do you know him, Jim?”
“Yes; known him for years. He’s true blue, every inch of him. Don’t you like him, Patty?”
“Can’t say yet. I only saw him half a jiffy. But, yes, I’m sure I shall like him. Bill says he’s salt of the earth.”
“He’s all of that. And maybe a little pepper, as well. But you and old Chick will be chums, I promise you. Now we’ll pack you two girls off to Fern Falls, and I’ll do a few man’s size errands, and Bill, here, will make his will and dispose of his estate, before going off into the wilderness with a horde of wild Indians. Then tomorrow, he’ll pick us up at Fern Falls, and we’ll all go on our way rejoicing.”
“Not so fast,” said Adele, after Jim finished his speech. “You two men can go where you like, Patty and I will take a taxi, and do some last fond lingering bits of shopping, before we go home. Don’t you s’pose we want some shoes and veils and – ”
“Sealing-wax?” asked Farnsworth, laughing. “All right, you ladies go and buy your millinery, and I’ll see you again tomorrow on the train.”
As might have been expected, with such capable management, everything went on smoothly, and it was a clear, bright afternoon when they completed the last stage of their journey, and the train from Portland set them down at their destination.
Not quite at their destination, however, for motorbuses were in waiting to take them to the hotel itself.
For more than an hour they bumped or glided over the varying roads, now through woods, and now through clearing.
At last, a vista suddenly opened before them, and they saw a most picturesque lake, its dark waters touched here and there by the setting sun. It was bordered by towering pines and spruces, and purple hills rose in the distance.
“Stunning!” cried Patty, standing up in the car to see better. “I never saw such a theatrical lake. It’s like grand opera! Or like the castled crag of Drachenfels, whatever that is.”
“I used to recite that at school,” observed Chick Channing; “so it must be all right, whatever it is.”
And then, as they turned a corner, the hotel itself appeared in sight. An enormous structure, not far from the lake, and set in a mass of brilliant salvias and other autumn flowers and surrounded by well-kept velvety greensward.
“What a peach of a hotel!” and Patty’s eyes danced with enthusiasm and admiration. “All for us, Little Billee?”
“All for we! Room enough?”
“I should say so! I’m going to have a suite, – maybe two suites.”
“Everybody can have all the rooms he wants, and then some. I believe there are about five hundred – ”
“What?” cried Daisy Dow, “five hundred! I shall have a dozen at least. What fun!”
The cars rolled up to the main entrance. Doormen, porters, and hallboys appeared, and the laughing crowd trooped merrily up the steps.
“I never had such a lark!” declared Mona. “Oh, I’ve seen hotels as big, – even bigger, – but never had one all to myself, so to speak. Isn’t it just like Big Bill to get up this picnic!”
Marie Homer looked a little scared. The vastness of the place seemed to awe her.
“Chr’up,