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Flaming Youth

<h2>CHAPTER III</h2> The party was a Bingo. Before midnight that had been settled to the satisfaction of everyone. The music, good at the outset, soon become irresistible. (A drink all around every seven numbers was the Fentriss prescription for the musicians; expensive but worth it.) The punch was very special. Several of its masculine devotees had already faded, and one girl had been quietly spirited to an upper room, there to be disrobed and de-spirited. There was much drifting in and out of the French windows to the darkness of the lawn, and plaintive inquiries for missing partners were prevalent. Lovely, flushed, youthful, regnant in her own special queendom, Mona Fentriss sat in the midst of a circle of the older men, bandying stories with them in voices which were discreetly lowered when any of the youngsters drew near. It was the top of the time. Upstairs in her remote bed Patricia sat with her pillows banked behind her, her knees propping her chin, her angry eyes staring into the dark. The strong rhythms of the music, barbaric, excitant, harshly sensuous, throbbed upward, stirring her to dim and uninterpretable hungers. "Damn! Damn! Damn!" she whispered in shivering wrath. She had been banished from even the earliest part of the festivities. It was mean. It was rotten. It was stinkin' rotten. Why should she be treated so? She wasn't a baby. She wouldn't stand it! [Pg 30] Leaping from bed she ran to her tumbled clothes, began feverishly to put them on. In undergarments and stockings she crept across to Dee's room, listened and entered. This was gross violation of the law of the household. But Pat was desperate. Selecting a pink dinner dress rather high-cut for Dee, she held it against her half-developed body, decided that it would do, ran back with her booty to her own den. Putting it on before the glass she became unpleasantly conscious of several pimples on her face. She was always having pimples! The others never had them. She wondered why, resentfully. Should she pick the one at the side of her nose? Or would that only make it the more unsightly? She decided for the heroic method, performed a clumsy operation with a pin, and perceived at once that she must have some powder. This time it was Connie's room that she invaded, and while she was about it she found and added a touch of colour. It was by no means the height of artistry, but Pat approved it as eminently satisfactory. She did not wholly approve Dee's dress. There was too much of it in important spots. She meditated padding, but did not know how it was done. Or—dared she go back and get a scantier frock? Contemplating her boyish contours she realised that it would not do. "Flat like a board," she muttered disparagingly. "I'm bunched all in the wrong places." That the gown which fitted Dee's slender strength to perfection should oppress Pat across her round little stomach, struck her as an unjust infliction of fate, instead of the proper penalty of gluttony, which it was. The maltreated pimple—another sign and symbol of her unrestrained appetite—still bled a little and was obviously angry. She staunched it impatiently. The others, she decided, would do as they were. Not unskillfully she[Pg 31] touched the area around them with little dabs of Mme. Lablanche's Rose-skin. "I'm going to have one dance," she decided, "if they send me to jail." The back stairs and a side window gave her unobserved exit to the odorous shelter of a syringa. "I'll wait until I can catch Bobs," she ruminated. "He'll dance with me—old bear! But first I'll do a little scouting." She peeked into the big living room where most of the dancing was in progress. As was invariably the rule at Holiday Knoll, men held the superiority of numbers, and therefore, girls that of position. Every girl had a partner. To the ungrown waif outside of fairyland the dancers seemed ethereal beings, moving in a radiant and unattainable world. How beautifully the girls were dressed! How attractive the men looked! "I wish I was pretty," mourned Pat. She thought forlornly of her blotchy skin. "I never will be, though." Then she recalled the deep, eager lustre of her eyes as seen in the glass, and how one of the boys at school had once made awkward and admiring phrases about them. She had not liked that particular boy, but she was grateful for the phrases. Maybe if she paid more attention to herself she might come to be attractive like her lovely mother. No; that was too much to hope; never like her mother, nor like Constance, who was just then whirled by in the arms of one of the New York guests, all aglow with languorous triumph, easily the beauty of the party. Perhaps like Dee. Lots of men were crazy about Dee. Would any man ever be crazy about her, wondered Pat.... Wouldn't she look a smear if she did venture on the floor among all those human flowers? She left her window to prowl further. [Pg 32] The glass door of the breakfast room gave her a view of the proceedings within. Sprawled upon the tiles five of the youthful local element were intent upon the dice which one of them had just rolled toward a central heap of silver and bills. "Seven! I lose again," said the thrower cheerily. "Who'll stand for hiking the limit to a dollar?" Opposite Pat's vantage point sprawled Selden Thorpe, son of the local rector. Pat knew they had not much means and, marking the pale, strained face of the boy, wished with misgivings that he wouldn't. The misgivings vanished when she heard him say: "I'm an easy hundred ahead so I can't kick. Let 'er go." She stepped back into the darkness to round the conservatory wing and brushed the mudguard of a lightless limousine. A girl's voice strained, tremulous, and laughing lent caution to her retreating steps; but she stopped within listening distance. "Don't, Freddie! I'll have to go in if you——" "Oh, come, Ada! Be a sport." "Do behave yourself. Get me another drink." "All right." As the man stepped out, Pat shrank behind the car. She had recognized the girl's voice as that of Ada Clare, who had the reputation of being an indiscriminate "necker." Pat passed on. But that whisper from within the limousine, with its defensive, nervous, eager, stimulated effect, troubled the eavesdropper with strange, disturbing surmises. She wanted, yet feared to return and wait until Fred Browning, a man of thirty, well-liked in the neighbourhood, not the less perhaps because of his reputation as a "goer," came back with the desired drink. What would be the next step in the unseen drama? A little stir of fear drove Pat onward. She stopped[Pg 33] abruptly at the end of the conservatory as she heard her mother's voice within. "Oh, Sid, dear! I almost wish I hadn't told you." Sid! That was Sidney Rathbone, a Baltimorean, much given to running over for week-ends. To Pat's mind he was stricken in years, being nearly forty, but the most distinguished looking (thus her mentally italicised characterisation) person she had ever seen and distantly adored. Furthermore there was a quietly knightly devotion in his attitude toward the beautiful Mrs. Fentriss which enlisted the submerged romanticism of the child's mind. Now she hardly recognised the usually smooth and gentle tones characteristic of him as he replied: "My God, Mona! I can't believe it. I won't believe it." "Poor boy! It's true, though." "What does Osterhout know about it! He's no diagnostician. You must come to Baltimore and see Finney or Earle——" "It's no use." What Rathbone next said the listener could not make out, but Mona answered very gently: "No, Sid, dear. Not again. That's all over. I couldn't now. You understand." And then the man's broken voice: "Yes; I understand, dearest. But——" "Oh, Sid! Please don't cry. I can't bear it." Pat blundered on into the darkness, rather appalled. What in the name of bewilderment did that mean? Mr. Rathbone crying! And her mother's voice was so sad. Though she did not care much for her mother beyond a lively admiration of her charm and beauty, Pat experienced a distinct chill. It was followed by a surge of exultation; she was certainly seeing life to-night! And then came the climax. A blithe voice at her elbow said: [Pg 34] "Hello! Who are you?" "Sh—sh-sh-sh!" she warned in startled sibilance. "Shush goes if you say so. Not dancing?" "No. They wouldn't let me," said Pat mournfully. "Who wouldn't?" "The family." "Snoutrage," declared the stranger economically. "You're one of the family, are you?" "Yes. I'm the kid. I hate it." "Cinderella; yes? The lovely but wicked sisters—they're peaches, too." He spoke clearly but a little disjointedly. "But you're not rigged for the part. You've got your regal rags on." "They're not mine. They're my sister's. I sneaked 'em." "Snappy child!" he laughed. "Let's have a look." He moved closer to her. A wale of light fell across his face. He was short and fair with a winsome, laughing mouth, and candid eyes. Drooping her chin Pat studied him covertly and decided that he was a winner. She herself was in the shadow; he could see little but contour. But the rich hoarseness of the voice pleased him. "I'm glad I found you," he murmured. Thrilling to his tone, all that she could find to say was: "Don't speak so loud." Naturally he took this as an invitation, and, moving still closer, felt for her hand in the darkness. Her fingers twined willingly within his. Instead of alarming her, his touch gave her confidence. "What are you doing out here?" she asked. "Cooling off. The family brew's got quite a kick in it." "Has it? Get me some." "You're too young." "Don't be hateful." [Pg 35] "What'll you give me for it?" he teased. It was the first spur that her instinct of conscious seductiveness had ever known. She replied instantly: "Anything." "You're on. Wait for me right there." While he was gone, a long time as it seemed to her, she stood surging with an exultant inner turmoil. A man and a girl passed close to her, unseeing in the bar of light. The girl's eyes wore a strange, sleepy expression as if the lids were almost too heavy to hold open. The man's shoulder was pressed close upon her. They disappeared. Strange scents of the night crept into Pat's brain; made her remember things she had never known. The music, softened through intervening walls, was pleading sensuously, urging upon her something mysterious and desirable. She felt her nerves like strung wires already tingling with electric forces but awaiting the supreme shock. "Drink, pretty creature!" The gay, insinuating, mirthful voice was close to her. "You've only half filled it," she complained, taking the glass. "Must have spilled some. In such a hurry to get back to you," he explained. "There's plenty more where it came from if you like it." "I don't," she gasped. The liquid, of which she had taken a generous swallow, stung in her throat. She poured the rest out upon the ground. "Here," she said holding out the glass to him. His fingers met hers again. The glass fell and crunched beneath his foot as he stepped to her. She was hardly cognisant of his arm drawing her. Rather what she felt was some irresistible power compelling her to itself. The face of the youth, still gay with laughter, drew down[Pg 36] upon hers, closer, closer, changed, seemed to become dimly luminous. Her arms, without volition, crept upward to his shoulders. She was incongruously and painfully conscious of something pressing into her bosom, one of his pearl shirt-studs, and drew away from it slightly. He bent his head after her. And then, as their lips met and merged—the shock! She went limp under it. After a long, long minute in which were blended the pulsations of the music, the undermining odours of the night, the look of the passing girl's eyes (how heavy were her own now!), the memory of that broken whisper overheard in the limousine, and the surge of the blood in her veins, she heard him say: "Let's go." "Where?" "I've got my car here." She was silent, deeply, passively acquiescent to his will. Misconstruing her speechlessness, he urged: "Come on, sweetie! We'll take a fifty-mile-an-hour dip into the landscape. The little boat can go some." "I'll have to get a wrap." "Take my coat." His arm tightened, guiding her. She lifted a hungry face. He bent again when a door opened shedding a broad ray of light upon them. Against the glaring background moved Constance, a vision of witchery in her filmy gown, followed by Emslie Selfridge. "Pat!" she exclaimed. "What are you doing here?" Before the confused girl could reply, her escort came briskly to her rescue. "I caught it peeking behind a bush," he explained, "and it wasn't a bur-gu-lar after all. So I'm taking it in to see what it is and whether it can dance." [Pg 37] "It's my kid sister," said Constance. "Mother will be pleased!" "Are you going to tell her?" demanded Pat. "I certainly am." "Then I may as well have my dance before you find her," declared the culprit calmly. "The fourteenth, a foxy little trot; with Mr. Warren Graves," put in her escort cheerily. He drew her arm through his own where it nestled gratefully. Armoured though he was in the careless self-confidence of youth, young Mr. Graves winced as his partner stood revealed under the full glare of the lights. She looked so awfully and awkwardly young! Her hair was so awry, her gown so ill-fitted, her skin so splotchy. But there was magic in the long, slanted, shy, trustful eyes looking into his own, and the tingling excitation of her kiss was still in his blood. Moreover he had had a steady succession of drinks. "How old are you?" he asked in her ear as her cheek pressed close to his. "Seventeen," she lied glibly. "Sub-deb stuff," he laughed. "I love 'em young. You can dance, too. Can I have the next?" "There won't be any next," said Pat tragically. "Here's Mother." "Oh, Lord!" said Warren Graves. "Let me do the talking." But no talking was called for. Mona Fentriss swept down upon her truant daughter, caught her in a laughing embrace, slapped one hot cheek, kissed the other, and delivered her verdict! "Back to bed with you! Quick! How did you ever get out?" "Can't I have just one more turn," pleaded Pat. [Pg 38] "Not a step. Where did this roost-robber"—she indicated Graves—"find you?" "I was looking on and wanting in," replied the dismal and thwarted Pat. "Wait three years, until you're seventeen. Away!" "Let me escort you to your—er—baby-carriage," said the youth with an elaborate bow. The feeble witticism, meant only to cover his own sense of being at a loss, stabbed Pat. She averted her angry and tearful eyes as they crossed the floor together. "I hate you," she muttered. "I'm crazy about you," he retorted close to her ear. Instantly she was radiant again. "Good-night," she said softly and ran up the stairs. The turn of the landing hid her from view. But, after a moment's struggle with herself against doubt, she stopped and leaned out over the rail. There he stood with the blithe expectancy of his face upturned. Queer looking, unkempt, ill-dressed she might be, and hardly more than a child at that, but the glamour of her youth and her passion held him. "Don't forget me," he pleaded under his breath. She nodded. Forget him! With the fervent assurance of the neophyte she was sure that she never would, never could forget him and the moment which he had deified for her. And herein her inexperience was a true mentor. For, whatever else may pass from her crowded memories, a girl does not forget her first kiss. Pat had been mulcted of that dance which she had rebelliously promised herself. But there was compensation in overflowing measure. She had had her taste of life. <hr /> [Pg 39] <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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