Patty's Social Season by Carolyn Wells

"Patty, do come along and get your luncheon before everything grows / cold!"

"And the stars are old, And the leaves of the judgment book unfold," / chanted Patty, who had just learned this new song, and was apt to sing / it at unexpected moments. She sat on the floor in the middle of the / long drawing-room of her New York home. To say she was surrounded by / flowers, faintly expresses it. She was hemmed in, barricaded, nearly / smothered in flowers.