Margaret Cameron

“ You throw them into intimate daily intercourse—he falls desperately in love with her—"
"You forget the other woman."
"If Patty Carlyle deliberately sets out to fascinate that kid, there won't be any other woman!"
"You encourage me," said Davenport, laughing. "Evidently you think it will work."
"Work? Of course it will work! But, good Lord, Ned, have you no regard for the girl? Think what it will mean to her if she marries a cub! She's one of the most charming women I ever met! She ought to marry a man of maturity—experience—distinction—"
"I see." ”

“ She shrugged her shoulders. "But 'what woman could hesitate when the whole future happiness of a noble youth is at stake'?" At this they both laughed softly.
"Your sense of humor always gives you away," he said, concealing his relief. ”

“ Which only goes to show how little any of us realize the dynamic force latent in the simplest situation.
The next contact setting the currents in motion occurred at dinner, when some one mentioned the unwillingness of many human parents to let their young fare forth on their own wings, and Davenport was reminded of a case in point.
"There's Bob Chamberlain, a distant cousin of mine," he said. "Attractive, energetic, ambitious kid, but he's an only child, and ever since his father's death he's been tied tight to his mother's apron-string. ”

“ She twinkled a glance at the diplomat. "A man wrote it."
"H'm. Well—anyway, we have her on the field. She falls on. Now what's the most engaging form of peril? Drowning's always effective, but rather messy. Runaway horses are out of date. I suppose a train wreck would be difficult to arrange, even for angels? How about an automobile collision?"
"An aeroplane smash would be newer," Davenport suggested, with an amused glance at Patricia, while a ripple of laughter ran around the table, "and would be sure to interest Bob."
"The very thing!" cried Blaisdell. ”

“ But need we enlarge man's opportunities for indulging his preferences in that direction?" she deprecated. "You see, ours will be strictly an emergency service, and surely we shouldn't permit the monopolistic desires of one man to interfere with the otherwise wide usefulness of an angel-at-large! Just see what a field we should have," she elaborated, including the whole party in her sparkling glance. "We could settle family quarrels and prevent business disasters. We could supply inventors with capital, investors with opportunity, and artists with inspiration. ”

“ Patricia to the rescue!" Davenport lifted his wineglass.
"Well, you may laugh"—she was laughing herself—"but that's a perfectly good idea! Somebody ought to found an order of women to look after the mis-managed sons of incompetent mothers."
"What's the matter with the younger brothers of well-meaning sisters?" some one asked, "And the husbands of unintelligent wives?"
"Or poor unattached males without any women-folk to guide their faltering footsteps," Blaisdell contributed, smiling into Patricia's eyes. ”

“ The situation's desperate, and she's worked out an ingenious scheme for handling it. I believe she can pull it off. Anyhow, it will do no harm to try. Things couldn't be worse."
"Oh, couldn't they!" snorted Blaisdell. "Evidently you don't know! She's going to attempt that idiotic aeroplane stunt!"
"Is she?" His friend laughed easily, not in the least believing it. "Well, if she does, it 'll be all right."
"All right! Man alive, she may kill herself!"
"You don't know Patty! She loves her young life. But she'll make Master Bob sit up and take notice, or I miss my guess! ”

“ And if she doesn't—if it's the money she's after— It's a man's whole future, Patty, and everything else has failed. It's up to you."
"What are you two so absorbed in?" Blaisdell, coming in search of Patricia, smiled at them from the doorway.
"Bob Chamberlain," replied his host. "Come in, Billy. Cousin Julia's played her last card and lost, and she's sounding the S.O.S."
"I suppose you'll complete your metaphor by hot-footing to the rescue," laughed the diplomat as he joined them, and Davenport daringly ventured:
"No. Patty says it's her job."
"Yours? Why yours?" Blaisdell looked at her. ”

“ When she found Cousin Julia couldn't be induced to invite her to High Haven, she remembered that an old friend of hers lived in their vicinity, got herself invited by wireless to visit this Mrs. Fairweather, and they all whisked over on the same train. Fairweather Hill less than a mile from High Haven, siren apparently firmly intrenched there, Bob refusing to leave the neighborhood on any pretext and more deeply in her toils every day—wax in her hands now, his mother says—and there you are!"
"But why are you necessarily there?"
Patricia persisted. "Surely other people model in wax! ”

“ It's a new career!" she cried. "An Order of Female Knights Errant, whose purpose it shall be to succor gentlemen in distress."
"Wouldn't Guardian Angel be a more suitable term to apply to a woman performing that noble mission?" submitted the diplomat, with grave lips and twinkling eyes.
"Better yet!" she returned, in the same tone. "But we must lift the term above its former narrow, circumscribed—er—individual application. Our service must be in accord with the modern awakened social consciousness. We shall be—well—angels-at-large, as it were."
"H'm," deliberated Blaisdell. ”

“ Fortunately, Frederick Howard—the chap they call 'the water-power wizard'—owns the place next theirs down on Long Island, where they spend their summers, and for years he's been filling Bob up with ideals about the use of wealth in the development of natural resources. That's the reason the kid took the engineering course in college, and when Howard offered to send him to Brazil after he graduated, Bob was for it strong. But his mother wouldn't hear of it, and toted sonny off to Europe two days after Commencement."
"Where does the siren come in?" asked one of the men. ”