Aunt Isabel had parties, and did things for my pleasure all the time.

Well, I'll invite them right away.

Perhaps I ought to ask Aunt Isabel, too." "Yes, you might ask her," said Mr.Fairfield, "and she can bring the children down, but she probably will not stay as long as they do." So Patty wrote for her aunt and cousins, and the first day of July they arrived.
Mrs.St.Clair, who was Patty's aunt only by marriage, was a very fashionable woman of a pretty, but somewhat artificial, type.

She liked young people, and had spared no pains to make Patty's visit to her a happy one.

But it was quite evident that she expected Patty to return her hospitality in kind, and she had been at Boxley Hall but a few hours before she began to inquire what plans Patty had made for her entertainment.
Now, though Patty had thought out several little pleasures for her cousins, it hadn't occurred to her that Aunt Isabel would expect parties made for her.
She evaded her aunt's questions, however, and waited for an opportunity to speak alone with her father about it.
"Why, papa," she exclaimed that evening after their guests had gone to their rooms, "Aunt Isabel expects me to have a tea or reception or something for her." "Nonsense, child, she can't think of such a thing." "Yes, she does, papa, and what's more, I want to do it.