Read "Aunt Patty's Paying Guests" by Eglanton Thorne online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
"NAN, who do you think I saw in Regent Street? " exclaimed my sister Dora, more eagerly than grammatically as she came into the little back garden-a typical London "garden"-consisting of a hawthorn, a rockery, and a grass-plot hardly bigger than a tablecloth, where mother, Peggy, and I were sitting to enjoy the cool of the evening. Dora had been with a party of her school-fellows under the care of their form-mistress to visit a certain interesting exhibition at the West End.
"I am sure I do not know, and I am not going to guess," I responded lazily, "so you may as well tell me at once."
"Well, then, it was Cousin Agneta," Dora said.
"You don't mean it? " I said, sitting up with sudden briskness.
"But I do," said Dora. "I tell you I saw her!"
"Was she alone? " I asked.
"No, she was walking with a gentleman-and such a masher too."
"Dora," mother broke in, "I wish you would not use those horrid slang expressions!"
"Oh, mother, what harm is there in masher? Would you rather I said swell?"
"No, I do not like either word," mother replied. "Cannot you simply say that he was a smart-looking man! Did you speak to your cousin?"
"No, I was going to; but she took hold of the man's arm and made him turn sharp round with her into one of the side streets. Yet I feel sure that she saw me," Dora said.
"Are you sure that you saw her? " Peggy asked. "I mean, did you not mistake some one else for Cousin Agneta?"
"As if I should! " Dora said with an injured air. "Surely I may be supposed to know my own cousin, when she was staying here only a few weeks ago."
"How was she dressed? " I asked.
"I don't know what her dress was like," Dora replied, "but she had on a grey hat with pink roses under the brim."
"Agneta does not possess a grey hat," I said, with a sense of relief, "so you must have made a mistake."
"If you had said a red hat, now! " suggested Peggy.
"I don't care what you like to say," Dora protested, "I know it was Cousin Agneta. She may have bought a new hat."
"Since yesterday? " I said.
"Why not? " demanded Dora.