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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Patty's Success, by Carolyn Wells
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Patty's Success
+
+
+Author: Carolyn Wells
+
+
+
+Release Date: June 21, 2008  [eBook #25869]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PATTY'S SUCCESS***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Roger Frank and the Project Gutenberg Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net)
+
+
+
+PATTY'S SUCCESS
+
+by
+
+CAROLYN WELLS
+
+Author Of
+Two Little Women Series,
+The Marjorie Series, Etc.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Grosset & Dunlap
+Publishers New York
+
+Copyright, 1910
+by Dodd, Mead and Company
+
+Printed in U.S.A.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAPTER                             PAGE
+      I  Welcome Home                  9
+     II  An Advance Christmas Gift    23
+    III  The Day Before Christmas     36
+     IV  A Splendid Tree              50
+      V  Skating and Dancing          65
+     VI  A Fair Proposition           80
+    VII  Department G                 93
+   VIII  Embroidered Blossoms        109
+     IX  Slips and Sleeves           124
+      X  The Clever Goldfish         139
+     XI  A Busy Morning              154
+    XII  Three Hats                  169
+   XIII  The Thursday Club           181
+    XIV  Mrs. Van Reypen             197
+     XV  Persistent Philip           211
+    XVI  An Invitation Declined      227
+   XVII  The Road to Success         243
+  XVIII  Home Again                  257
+    XIX  Christine Comes             271
+     XX  A Satisfactory Conclusion   284
+
+
+
+
+
+
+PATTY'S SUCCESS
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+WELCOME HOME
+
+
+"I do think waiting for a steamer is the horridest, pokiest performance
+in the world! You never know when they're coming, no matter how much they
+sight them and signal them and wireless them!"
+
+Mrs. Allen was not pettish, and she spoke half laughingly, but she was
+wearied with her long wait for the _Mauretania_, in which she expected
+her daughter, Nan, and, incidentally, Mr. Fairfield and Patty.
+
+"There, there, my dear," said her husband, soothingly, "I think it will
+soon arrive now."
+
+"I think so, too," declared Kenneth Harper, who was looking down the
+river through field-glasses. "I'm just sure I see that whale of a boat in
+the dim distance, and I think I see Patty's yellow head sticking over the
+bow."
+
+"Do you?" cried Mrs. Allen eagerly; "do you see Nan?"
+
+"I'm not positive that I do, but we soon shall know, for that's surely
+the _Mauretania_."
+
+It surely was, and though the last quarter hour of waiting seemed longer
+than all the rest, at last the big ship was in front of them, and
+swinging around in midstream. They could see the Fairfields clearly now,
+but not being within hearing distance, they could only express their
+welcome by frantic wavings of hands, handkerchiefs, and flags. But at
+last the gangplank was put in place, and at last the Fairfields crossed
+it, and then an enthusiastic and somewhat incoherent scene of reunion
+followed.
+
+Beside Mr. and Mrs. Allen and Kenneth Harper, Roger and Elise Farrington
+were there to meet the home-comers, and the young people seized on Patty
+as if they would never let her go again.
+
+"My! but you've grown!" said Kenneth, looking at her admiringly; "I mean
+you're grown-up looking, older, you know."
+
+"I'm only a year older," returned Patty, laughing, "and you're that,
+yourself!"
+
+"Why, so I am. But you've changed somehow,--I don't know just how."
+
+Honest Kenneth looked so puzzled that Elise laughed at him and said:
+
+"Nonsense, Ken, it's her clothes. She has a foreign effect, but it will
+soon wear off in New York. I _am_ glad to see you again, Patty; we didn't
+think it would be so long when we parted in Paris last Spring."
+
+"No, indeed; and I'm glad to be home again, though I have had a terribly
+good time. Now, I suppose we must see about our luggage."
+
+"Yes," said Roger, "you'll be sorry you brought so many fine clothes when
+you have to pay duty on them."
+
+"Well, duty first, and pleasure afterward," said Kenneth. "Come on,
+Patty, I'll help you."
+
+"Oh, dear," said Mrs. Allen, "must we wait for all this custom-house
+botheration? I'm so tired of waiting."
+
+"No, you needn't," said Mr. Fairfield, kindly. "You and Nan and Mr. Allen
+jump in a taxicab and go home. I'll keep Patty with me, and any other of
+the young people who care to stay, and we'll settle matters here in short
+order."
+
+The young people all cared to stay, and though they had to wait some
+time, when at last they did get a customs inspector he proved to be both
+courteous and expeditious.
+
+"Oh, don't spoil my best hat!" cried Patty, in dismay, as he laid
+thoughtless hands on a befeathered creation.
+
+"That I won't, ma'am," was the hearty response, and the hat was laid back
+in its box as carefully as an infant in its cradle. "I have ladies in my
+own family, ma'am, and I know just how you feel about it."
+
+"I'm perfectly willing to declare all my dutiable goods," went on Patty,
+"but I do hate to have my nice things all tumbled up."
+
+"Quite right, ma'am, quite right," amiably agreed the inspector, who had
+fallen a victim to Patty's pretty face and bright smiles.
+
+"Well, you did get through easily, Patty," said Elise, after it was over
+and the trunks despatched by express. "When we came home, mother was half
+a day fussing over customs."
+
+"It's Patty's winning ways as does it," said Kenneth. "She hypnotised
+that fat inspector with a mere glance of her eye."
+
+"Nonsense!" said Patty, laughing; "it's an easy trick. They're always
+nice and kind if you jolly them a little bit."
+
+"Jolly me," said Kenneth, "and see how nice and kind I'll be."
+
+"You're kind enough as you are," returned Patty. "If you were any kinder,
+I'd be overwhelmed with obligations. But how are we all going to get into
+this taxicab? Five into one won't go."
+
+"That's easy," said Roger. "I'll perch outside with the chauffeur."
+
+"No, let me," said Kenneth.
+
+But after a good-natured controversy, Roger won the day, and climbed into
+the front seat. Mr. Fairfield, Kenneth, and the two girls settled
+themselves inside, and off they started for the Fairfields' home in
+Seventy-second street.
+
+"I don't see much change in the old town," remarked Patty, as they neared
+the Flatiron.
+
+"You don't, eh?" observed Kenneth. "Well, there's the Metropolitan
+tower,--I guess you'll say that's pretty fine, if you have seen the
+Campanile in Venice."
+
+"But I didn't," returned Patty. "I was too late for the old one and too
+soon for the new. But is this a Campanile, father? What _is_ a Campanile,
+pure and simple?"
+
+"A Campanile ought always to be pure and simple, of line," said Mr.
+Fairfield; "but if you mean what is it specifically, it's a bell tower.
+Listen, you'll hear the quarter-hour now."
+
+"Oh, what lovely chimes!" cried Patty. "Let's move, father, and take a
+house beneath the shadow of a great clock."
+
+"I've moved enough for a while, my child; if I once get seated at my own
+fireside, I shall stay there."
+
+"How Christmassy things look," went on Patty, gazing out of the cab
+window. "It's only the middle of December, but the streets are crowded
+and there are holly wreaths in some of the windows."
+
+"You won't have to buy many Christmas presents, will you, Patty?" said
+Elise. "I suppose you brought home enough Italian trinkets to supply all
+your friends."
+
+"Yes, we did," laughed Patty. "I daresay my friends will get tired of
+busts of Dante, and models of the Forum."
+
+"Don't give those to me. If you have a Roman scarf nobody else wants,
+I'll thank you kindly."
+
+"All right, Elise; I'll remember that. And if I haven't, I daresay I can
+buy one in the New York shops."
+
+"Wicked girl! Don't attempt any such deception on your tried and true
+friend. Oh, Patty, do you remember the day we got lost in Paris?"
+
+And then the two girls plunged into a flood of reminiscences that lasted
+all the way home.
+
+"Come in? of course we'll come in!" said Roger, as he assisted them from
+the cab, and Patty graciously invited him. "That's what we're here for!
+We're all coming in, and if we're heartily urged, we may stay to dinner."
+
+In reality, Mrs. Allen, who was temporarily hostess in her daughter's
+house, had invited Kenneth and the two Farringtons to dine, in order to
+make a gay home-coming for Patty.
+
+Very cosy and attractive the house looked, as, after more than a year's
+absence, Patty once again stepped inside. It had been closed while Mr.
+and Mrs. Fairfield were away, but a few days before their return, Mrs.
+Allen, Nan's mother, had come over from Philadelphia and opened the house
+and made it cheery and livable. A bright fire glowed in the library,
+flowers were all about, and holly-wreaths hung in the windows.
+
+"It's good to be home again," said Patty, as she sank into an easy-chair
+and threw aside her furs.
+
+"It's good to have you here," responded Elise. "I've missed you
+terribly."
+
+"Me, too," said Roger, while Kenneth added, "So say we all of us."
+
+Always a favourite, wherever she went, Patty was specially beloved by her
+young friends in New York, and so the reunion was a happy one to all
+concerned.
+
+Before dinner was announced, Patty flew up to her own room to change her
+travelling costume for a pretty little house-dress.
+
+"Come on, Elise," she said, and soon the two girls were cosily chatting
+in Patty's dressing-room.
+
+"You look so different with your hair done up," said Elise. "Weren't you
+sorry to give up hair-ribbons?"
+
+"Yes, I was; I hate to feel grown-up. Just think, I'll be nineteen next
+May."
+
+"Well, May's a long way off yet. It's only December now. What are you
+going to do on Christmas, Patty?"
+
+"I don't know. Nan hasn't planned yet. She waited to see her mother
+first. But I know Mrs. Allen will invite us to Philadelphia to spend
+Christmas with her."
+
+"You don't want to go, do you? Can't you spend Christmas with me,
+instead?"
+
+"Oh, I'd love to, Elise! It would be lots more fun. We'll ask father
+to-night. How are all the girls?"
+
+"They're all well, and crazy to see you. Hilda is making you the
+loveliest Christmas present you ever saw. But, of course, I promised not
+to tell you about it."
+
+"No, don't tell me; I'd rather be surprised. Come on, I'm ready; let's go
+down and talk to the boys."
+
+Patty had done up her pretty hair in the prevailing fashion of the day;
+but though the soft braids encircled her head, many little golden curls
+escaped and made a soft outline round her face. Her frock, of pale rose
+colour, had a collarless lace yoke, and was very becoming.
+
+"You can wear any colour, Patty," declared Elise. "Of course, blue is
+yours, by right, but you're dear in that pinky thing."
+
+"Ah, sweet chub, I hoped I should be dear to thee in any old thing,"
+remarked Patty, as, slipping her arm through that of Elise, the two girls
+went downstairs.
+
+"Ha, Patty resplendent!" exclaimed Roger, as they entered the library.
+"Don't you dare to be a grown-up young lady, Patty Fairfield, or I shall
+cut your acquaintance."
+
+"Not I! Don't be alarmed, Roger. I am still childlike and bland."
+
+"Your cousin Ethelyn is going to make her debut next week. I have a bid
+to the ceremonies."
+
+"Yes, so have I. Well, let her 'come out,' if she likes. I prefer to
+'stay in' for another year, anyway."
+
+"So do I," said Elise. "Mother says I ought to come out next winter, but
+I'm not bothering about it yet."
+
+"Let's have a good time this winter, then," said Kenneth, "while we're
+all children. If you girls come out next winter, you'll be so gay with
+dances and parties, I can't play with you at all."
+
+"All right," agreed Patty. "But have you time to play, yourself, Ken? I
+thought you were fearfully busy absorbing the laws of the United States."
+
+"Oh, I do have to hammer at that all day, and some evenings, too. But
+it's an unwritten law that a fellow must have some fun; so I'll take an
+afternoon off now and then, to come round and tease you girls."
+
+Then dinner was announced and, following their elders, the young people
+went out to the dining-room.
+
+"Oh, how pretty!" cried Patty, as she saw the table, for the decoration,
+though simple, was most effective.
+
+Along the centre of the white cloth, lay a long bed of holly leaves, on
+which the word "Welcome" was outlined in holly berries.
+
+There were no other flowers, and the glossy green and vivid scarlet made
+a charming centrepiece, surrounded, as it was, by dainty silver, glass,
+and china.
+
+"It's good to be here once more," said Nan, as she took her place at the
+head of her own table.
+
+"Right you are," said Mr. Fairfield, as he sat opposite her. "Mother
+Allen, it was kind of you to arrange this hearty Welcome Home for us."
+
+"It doesn't half express my joy at having you here again," said Mrs.
+Allen, as she looked affectionately at her daughter.
+
+Then the conversation turned upon Christmas and Christmas plans.
+
+"I must have Nan with me at Christmas," said Mrs. Allen. "And I shall
+count on Fred, also, of course. Patty, dear, I want you, too, if you care
+to come; but----"
+
+"Oh, Mrs. Allen," broke in Elise, "divide the family with me, won't you?
+If you have Mr. and Mrs. Fairfield, won't you let me take Patty?"
+
+As Elise had hinted this to Mrs. Allen while they were at the steamer
+dock waiting for Patty, the good lady was not greatly surprised. And she
+knew that Patty would prefer to be in New York with her young friends,
+rather than in Philadelphia.
+
+So it was settled that Patty should spend Christmas with Elise, much to
+the joy of both girls, and also to the satisfaction of the two boys.
+
+"We'll have a gay old time," said Roger. "We'll have a tree and a dance
+and a boar's head,--whatever that thing is,--I never did know."
+
+"I don't know either," confessed Patty; "but we'll find out. For we must
+have all the modern improvements."
+
+"I shouldn't call a boar's head a modern improvement," said Mr.
+Fairfield, smiling.
+
+"But ours will be," said saucy Patty, "for it will be such an improvement
+on the sort they used to have. And we'll have carols and waits----"
+
+"What are waits?" said Elise.
+
+"Why, waits," said Patty, "don't you know what waits are? Why, they're
+just _waits_."
+
+"Oh, yes," said Elise, "_now_ I understand _perfectly!_ You explain
+things so clearly, Patty!"
+
+"Yes, doesn't she!" agreed Kenneth. "Never mind, Elise, I'll be a wait
+and show you."
+
+"Do," said Elise, "I'd much rather see than be one. Just think, Patty,
+Christmas is only ten days off! Can you be ready?"
+
+"Oh, yes," said Patty, smiling. "Why, I could get ready for two
+Christmases in ten days."
+
+"Wonderful girl!" commented Roger. "I thought ladies were always behind
+time with their Christmas preparations. I thought they always said, 'It
+doesn't seem _possible_ Christmas is so near!' and things like that."
+
+"I haven't half my presents ready," said Kenneth, in an exaggerated
+feminine voice. "I haven't finished that pink pincushion for Sadie, nor
+the blue bedroom slippers for Bella."
+
+Roger took the cue.
+
+"Nor I," he said, also mimicking a fussy, womanish manner. "But I never
+get into the spirit of the thing until near Christmas Day. Then I run
+round and try to do everything at once."
+
+"Do you tie up your presents in tissue paper and holly-ribbon?" asked
+Kenneth, turning to Roger as if in earnest.
+
+"Oh, yes; and I stick on those foolish little seals, and holly tags.
+Anything to make it fussy and fluttery."
+
+"Gracious," said Patty, "that reminds me. I suppose I must get that holly
+ribbon and tissue paper flummery. I forgot all about it. What do they use
+this year, Elise? White tissue paper?"
+
+"No, red. It's so nice and cheery."
+
+"Yes," said Roger. "Most Christmas presents need a cheery paper. It
+counteracts the depressing effect of an unwelcome gift."
+
+"Don't pay any attention to him," said Elise, "he's putting on airs. He
+thinks it's funny to talk like that, but you just ought to see him on
+Christmas! He simply adores his presents, and fairly gloats over every
+one!"
+
+"Sure I do!" said Roger, heartily. "But when you get a purple necktie, or
+a hand-crocheted watch-chain, it's nice to have a cheery red paper round
+it."
+
+"Well, I have a lovely present for you," said Patty, "but I shall take
+the precaution of wrapping it in red paper."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+AN ADVANCE CHRISTMAS GIFT
+
+
+The ten days before Christmas flew by like Bandersnatches. Patty had a
+long list of friends to whom she wanted to give presents, and though she
+had brought home a lot of what Kenneth called "foreign junk," she had no
+notion of giving it all away.
+
+Of course, the lovely fans, beads, and scarves she brought made lovely
+gifts for the girls, and the little curios and souvenirs were all right
+for the boys, but there were so many friends, and her relatives beside,
+that she soon realised she would have little left for herself. And,
+though unselfish, she did want to retain some mementos of her foreign
+trip.
+
+So shopping was necessary, and nearly every day she went with Nan or
+Elise to buy the Christmas wares that the city shops displayed.
+
+"And I do think," she said, "that things are just as pretty and just as
+cheap here as over there."
+
+"Some things," agreed Nan.
+
+"Yes; I mean just the regular wares. Of course, for Roman silks and
+Florentine mosaics it's better to shop where they grow. What's father
+going to give me, Nan?"
+
+"Inquisitive creature! I shouldn't tell you if I knew, but as I don't
+know, and he doesn't either, I may as well tell you that he'd be glad of
+a hint. What would you like?"
+
+"Honestly, I don't know of a thing! Isn't it awful to have everything you
+want?"
+
+"You're a contented little girl, Patty. And that's a noble trait, I
+admit. But just at Christmas time it's trying. Now, if you only wanted a
+watch, or a diamond ring, or some trifle like that, I'd be glad to give
+your father a hint."
+
+"Thank you, stepmamma," said Patty, smiling; "but I have a watch, and I'm
+too young for diamonds. I can't help it if I'm amply supplied with this
+world's goods. And think of the lots of gifts I'll get, anyway! Perhaps
+father'd better just give me the money and let me put it in the bank
+against a rainy day."
+
+"Why, Patty, you're not getting mercenary, I hope! What do you want of
+money in the bank?"
+
+Patty looked earnest.
+
+"No, I don't think I'm mercenary," she said, slowly, "but, Nan, you never
+know what may happen. Suppose father should lose all his money."
+
+"Nonsense! he can't do that. It's most carefully invested, and you know,
+Patty, he thinks of retiring from business in a year or two more."
+
+"I know it," said Patty, with a little sigh. "I know we're rich. Not
+wealthy, like the Farringtons, but plenty rich enough. Only, you often
+hear of rich men losing their money, and sometimes I think I ought to
+save up some."
+
+"Goosie!" said Nan, smiling fondly at her; "don't bother your curly head
+about such things before it's necessary."
+
+"All right, then, I won't," said Patty, shaking the curly head and
+smiling back.
+
+That afternoon she went to see Clementine Morse. Clementine had called
+one day when Patty was not at home, so this was the first time the girls
+had met since Patty's return.
+
+The maid asked Patty to go right up to Clementine's own room, and there
+Patty found her friend surrounded by what looked like a whirlwind of
+rainbow-coloured rags.
+
+On tables, chairs, and even on the floor, were scraps and bits of silks,
+satins, ribbons, and laces, and in a low chair sat Clementine, sewing
+rapidly, as if for dear life.
+
+But at sight of Patty, she jumped up, upsetting her work-basket, and flew
+to greet her guest.
+
+"You dear thing!" she cried, as she embraced her; "I was so sorry not to
+see you when I called. I should have come again, but I'm so rushed with
+Christmas work, that I can't go anywhere until Christmas is over. Do take
+off your things and sit down, and don't mind if I go on sewing, will you?
+I can talk just as well, you know."
+
+"Apparently you can!" said Patty, laughing, for as she chatted,
+Clementine had already resumed her work, and her fingers flew nimbly
+along the satin seams. "What _are_ you doing?"
+
+"Dressing dolls," said Clementine, as she threaded her needle; "and I've
+forty-five still to do,--but their underclothing is done, so it's only a
+matter of frocks, and some hats. Did you have a good time in Europe?"
+
+Clementine talked very fast, apparently to keep time with her flying
+fingers, and as Patty picked up a lot of dry goods in order that she
+might occupy the chair they were in, her hostess rattled on.
+
+"How did you like Venice? Was it lovely by moonlight? Oh, would you put
+this scarlet velvet on the spangled lace,--or save it for this white
+chiffon?"
+
+"Clementine! do keep still a minute!" cried Patty; "you'll drive me
+frantic! What _are_ you doing with all these dolls?"
+
+"Dressing them. How did you like Paris? Was it very gay? And was London
+smoky,--foggy, I mean?"
+
+"Yes; everything was gay or smoky or lovely by moonlight, or just what it
+ought to be. Now tell me _why_ you dress four hundred million dolls all
+at once."
+
+"Oh, they're for the Sunshine Babies. Was Naples very dirty? How did you
+like----"
+
+"Clementine, you leave the map of Europe alone. I'm talking now! What are
+Sunshine Babies?"
+
+"Why, the babies that the Sunshine Society gives a Christmas to. And
+there's oceans of babies, and they all want dolls,--I guess the boys must
+like dolls, too, they want so many. And, oh, Patty, they're the dearest
+little things,--the babies, I mean,--and I just _love_ to dress dolls for
+them. I'd rather do it than to make presents for my rich friends."
+
+Suddenly Patty felt a great wave of self-compunction. She had planned and
+prepared gifts for all her friends, and for most of her relatives, but
+for the poor she had done nothing! To charity she had given no thought!
+And at Christmas, when all the world should feel the spirit of good will
+to men, she had utterly neglected to remember those less fortunate than
+herself.
+
+"What's the matter?" said Clementine, dismayed by Patty's expression of
+remorse.
+
+"I'm a pig!" said Patty; "there's no other word for such a horrid thing
+as I am! Why, Clementine, I've made presents for nearly everybody I know,
+and I haven't done a thing for charity! Did you ever know such an
+ungrateful wretch?"
+
+"Oh, it isn't too late, yet," said Clementine, not quite understanding
+why Patty was so serious about it; "here, help me sew these."
+
+She tossed her some tiny satin sleeves, already cut and basted, and
+offered a furnished work-basket.
+
+"'Deed I will!" said Patty, and in a few moments she too was sewing, as
+deftly, if not quite so rapidly, as Clementine.
+
+"You see, Clem," she went on, "I've been so busy ever since I came home,
+that I simply forgot the poor people. And now it's too late."
+
+"It's too late to make things," agreed Clementine, "but not too late to
+buy them."
+
+"But I've spent all my Christmas money," said Patty, contritely. "Father
+gives me a liberal allowance, and then extra, for Christmas money. And
+it's just about all gone, and I hate to ask him for more."
+
+"Well, never mind, Patsy, you can make up for it next year. And if you
+help me dress these dolls, that will square up your conscience."
+
+"No, it won't. But I'll find a way to do something, somehow. Are these
+Sunshine people all babies?"
+
+"Oh, no; the society helps all sorts of poor people, children and
+grown-ups too. Mother is one of the directors, and we do a lot of this
+doll-dressing every year."
+
+"Well, I'll help you a while this afternoon, but I won't have another
+chance. You see just about every moment is taken up from now till
+Christmas."
+
+"You're going to the Farringtons', aren't you?"
+
+"Yes, for three or four days, while Nan and father are in Philadelphia at
+Nan's mother's. You're coming to the Christmas Eve dance, of course?"
+
+"Yes, indeed. It's to be a lovely party. The Farringtons always have such
+beautiful entertainments. Now, Patty, do tell me about your trip."
+
+So Patty told many tales of her stay in Paris and in England, and of her
+pleasure trip through Italy, and as she talked, her fingers flew, and she
+had soon completed three doll dresses, that were quite as pretty and
+well-made as Clementine's.
+
+"Now, I must go," she said, at last. "I'm glad to have been of a little
+help, and next year I'll help you a lot. Though, I suppose your Sunshine
+Babies _could_ have dolls when it isn't Christmas."
+
+"Oh, yes; these are for their Tree, you know."
+
+"Well, Clem, if I should have some money left me unexpectedly, is it too
+late to buy some toys for the Tree?"
+
+"I don't know," said Clementine, "but we can ask mother. She'll know."
+
+They found Mrs. Morse in her sitting-room, tying up parcels and
+addressing them.
+
+Patty soon discovered that these were all charitable gifts, and not
+presents to Mrs. Morse's own friends.
+
+"I'm so glad I came here to-day," she said, after the welcoming greetings
+were over, "for it has roused my charitable instincts. I am quite sure,
+Mrs. Morse, I can send some toys for your society's tree, if you want
+them."
+
+"Want them? Indeed we do! Why, Patty, there are forty little boys who
+want drums or trumpets and we can only give them candy and an orange.
+It's harder than you'd think to get subscriptions to our funds at
+Christmas time, and though we've dolls enough, we do so want toys for the
+boys."
+
+"Well, I'll send you some, Mrs. Morse. I'll send them to-morrow. Do you
+care what they are?"
+
+"No, indeed. Drums, or balls, or tin carts,--anything that a boy-child
+can play with."
+
+"Well, you may depend on me for the forty," said Patty, smiling, for she
+had formed a sudden, secret resolve.
+
+"Why, Patty, dear, how kind of you! I am so glad, for those children were
+on my mind, and I've already asked every one I know to give to our fund.
+You are a generous little girl, and I know it will gladden your own heart
+as well as the children's."
+
+Patty ran away, and all the way home her heart was full of her project.
+
+"If he will only consent," she thought. "If not, I don't know how I shall
+keep my promise. Oh, well, I know I can coax him to say yes."
+
+After dinner that evening, Patty put her plan into action.
+
+"Father Fairfield," she said, "what are you going to give me for a
+Christmas gift?"
+
+"Well, Pattykins, that's not considered a correct question in polite
+society."
+
+"Then let's be impolite, just for this once. Do tell me, daddy."
+
+"You embarrass me exceedingly, young lady," said Mr. Fairfield, smiling
+at her, "for, to tell you the truth, I haven't bought you anything."
+
+"Oh, I'm so glad!" exclaimed Patty, "for, father, I want to ask you a
+great favour. Won't you give me the money instead, and let me spend it as
+I like?"
+
+"That would be a funny Christmas gift. I thought you liked some pretty
+trinket, tied up in holly paper and red ribbons and Santa Claus seals,
+and served to you on a silver salver."
+
+"Well, I do, from other people. But from you, I just want the money that
+my present would cost, and--I want it now!"
+
+"Bless my soul! She wants it now! Why, Patsy, what are you going to do?
+Buy stock?"
+
+"No, but I do want it, father. Won't you give it to me, and I'll tell you
+afterward what I'm going to do with it."
+
+"I'll tell you now," said Nan, smiling at the pair. "She's going to put
+it in the bank, because she's afraid she'll be poor some day."
+
+"I don't wonder you think that, stepmothery," said Patty, her eyes
+twinkling at Nan, "for I did tell you so. But since then I've changed my
+mind, and though I want my present from father in cash, I'm going to
+spend it before Christmas, and not put it in the bank at all."
+
+"Well, you are a weathercock, Patty. But before morning you will have
+changed your mind again!"
+
+"No, indeedy! It's made up to stay this time. So give me the money like a
+duck of a daddy, won't you?"
+
+Patty was very wheedlesome, as she caressed her father's cheek, and
+smiled into his eyes.
+
+"Well, as you don't often make a serious request, and as you seem to be
+in dead earnest this time, I rather think I shall have to say yes."
+
+"Oh, you dear, good, lovely father!" cried Patty, embracing him. "Will
+you give it to me now, and how much will it be?"
+
+"Patty," said Nan, laughing, "you're positively sordid! I never saw you
+so greedy for money before."
+
+Patty laughed outright. Now that she had gained her point she felt in gay
+spirits.
+
+"Friends," she said, "you see before you a pauper,--a penniless pauper!
+Therefore, and because of which, and by reason of the fact that I am in
+immediate need of money, I stoop to this means of obtaining it, and, as
+aforesaid, I'd like it now!"
+
+She held out her rosy palm to her father, and stood waiting expectantly.
+
+"Only one hand!" exclaimed Mr. Fairfield, in surprise. "I thought such a
+grasping young woman would expect both hands filled."
+
+"All right," said Patty, and she promptly extended her other palm, too.
+
+Putting both his hands in his pockets, Mr. Fairfield drew them out again,
+and then laid a ten-dollar goldpiece on each of Patty's outstretched
+palms.
+
+"Oh, you dear daddy!" she cried, as she clasped the gold in her fingers;
+"you lovely parent! This is the nicest Christmas gift I ever had, and now
+I'll tell you all about it."
+
+So she told them, quite seriously, how she had really forgotten to give
+the poor and the suffering any share of her own Christmas cheer, and how
+this was the only way she could think of to remedy her neglect.
+
+"And it's so lovely," she concluded; "for there are forty little
+boy-children. And with this money I can get them each a fifty-cent
+present."
+
+"So you can," said Nan. "I'll go with you to-morrow to select them. And
+if we can get some cheaper than fifty cents, and I think we can, you'll
+have a little left for extras."
+
+"That's so," agreed Patty. "They often have lovely toys for about
+thirty-nine cents, and I could get some marbles or something to fill up."
+
+"To fill up what?" asked her father.
+
+"Oh, to fill up the tree. Or I'll get some ornaments, or some tinsel to
+decorate it. Oh, father, you are so good to me! This is a lovely
+Christmas present."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE DAY BEFORE CHRISTMAS
+
+
+Mr. Fairfield's gift to his wife was a beautiful motor-car, and as they
+were going away for the holiday, he presented it to her the day before
+Christmas.
+
+It was practically a gift to Patty as well, for the whole family could
+enjoy it.
+
+"It's perfectly lovely," said Nan, as they all started out for a little
+spin, to try it. "I've had so much trouble of late with taxicabs, that
+it's a genuine comfort to have my own car at my beck and call. It's a
+lovely car, Fred, and Patty and I shall just about live in it."
+
+"I want you to enjoy it," returned Mr. Fairfield, "and you may have every
+confidence in the chauffeur. He's most highly recommended by a man I know
+well, and he's both careful and skilful."
+
+"A nice-mannered man, too," observed Patty. "I like his looks, and his
+mode of address. But if this car is partly my present, then I ought not
+to have had that gold money to buy drums with."
+
+"Oh, yes, you ought," said her father. "That was your individual gift. In
+this car you and Nan are partners. By the way, Puss, did you ever get
+your forty drums? I didn't hear about them."
+
+"You're lucky that you didn't hear them," laughed Patty. "Yes, I did get
+them,--not all drums, some other toys,--and I took them down to the
+Sunshine place yesterday. I went with Mrs. Morse and Clementine. You know
+the kiddywids had their Christmas tree, the little poor children, and
+such a noise you never heard! They yelled and shouted for glee, and they
+banged drums and tooted horns, and then they sang songs, and I think I
+never knew such a noisy celebration, even on the fourth of July."
+
+"And were they glad to get your gifts?"
+
+"Oh, yes, indeed! Why, just think, father, the little girls all had
+dolls, but if I hadn't taken the gifts for the boys, they would only have
+had candy or an orange. Next Christmas I'm going to do more for them."
+
+"I'm glad to see your charitable spirit waking up, Patty-girl. I don't
+want you to be a mere social butterfly. But, you know, you needn't wait
+for Christmas to make the poor babies happy."
+
+"No; I know it, daddy, dear; and after Christmas is over, I'm going to
+try to do some good in the world."
+
+"Now, Patty," said Nan, "don't you go in for settlement work, and that
+sort of thing. I won't let you. You're not strong enough for it."
+
+"I don't know exactly what settlement work is," said Patty, "but I do
+know I'm not going to be a mere butterfly. I'm going to accomplish
+something worth while."
+
+"Well, wait till the holiday season is over," advised Mr. Fairfield.
+"You've made forty boys happy, now turn your attention to making your
+family and friends happy. What are you going to give your poor old father
+for a Christmas gift, I should like to know."
+
+"I haven't any such relative as you describe," returned Patty, smiling at
+him affectionately. "I have a young and handsome father, and I think he
+seems to be rather a rich gentleman. Also I have a gift awaiting him at
+home, and I think we'd better be going there."
+
+"I do, too," said Nan. "We've none too much time to get our luncheon and
+go to the train. Oh! what a comfort it will be to go to the train in our
+own motor-car."
+
+"Yes," said Patty, "and then Miller can come back and take me over to
+Elise's."
+
+So home they went, and had their own little Christmas celebration, before
+they went their separate ways.
+
+"This is a make-believe Christmas feast," said Patty, as they sat at
+their own luncheon table.
+
+She had placed a sprig of holly at each plate, and a vase of poinsettia
+blossoms graced the centre of the table.
+
+"This ox-tail soup is in place of the boar's head," she went on, gaily;
+"and I know we are going to have chicken croquettes, which we will
+pretend are the roast turkey. And then we'll have our presents, as I know
+you two will fly for your train as soon as you leave the table."
+
+So Patty gave Nan her present, which was a lovely white couch pillow of
+lace and embroidery. And Nan gave Patty a picture to hang in her own
+room. It was a beautiful water-colour, a Venetian scene, and Patty was
+delighted with it.
+
+Then Patty gave her father a gold penholder, which she had had made
+expressly for him, and engraved with his name.
+
+"Why, that's fine, Pattykins!" he exclaimed. "I can only write poems with
+a pen like that. It's not made for business letters, I'm sure."
+
+"Of course it isn't," said Patty, gaily; "it's to keep on your desk in
+the library here at home. And you must use it just for social
+correspondence or----"
+
+"Or to sign checks for us," suggested Nan, smiling.
+
+"That's just what I'll do with it," declared Mr. Fairfield. "It's a gem
+of a pen; Patty, you know my weakness for fine desk appointments, don't
+you?"
+
+Nan gave her husband a watch fob, on which hung a locket containing a
+miniature of her own sweet face. Neither Patty nor her father had seen
+this before, as Nan had been careful to keep the matter secret in order
+to surprise them.
+
+It was a real work of art, and so winsome was the pictured face that
+Patty cried out in admiration: "What a stunner you are, Nan! I didn't
+realise you were so good-looking,--but it's exactly like you."
+
+"That's a mixed-up compliment, Patty," laughed Nan, "but I'll surmise
+that you mean well."
+
+"I do so! I think it's a lovely picture of a lovely lady! There, how's
+that?"
+
+"Much better," said Nan, as Patty caught her round the shoulders and
+kissed her affectionately.
+
+"Give me the lady," said Mr. Fairfield, taking Nan into his own arms. "As
+the portrait is a gift to me, I will kiss her for it, myself."
+
+"Do," said Patty, "but if you give her more than three kisses, you'll
+lose your train; it's getting pretty late."
+
+"Is it?" cried Mr. Fairfield. "Then, Jane, bring in those two boxes I
+left in your charge, will you?"
+
+"Yes, sir," cried the waitress, and, leaving the room, she returned in a
+moment with two large white boxes.
+
+"These are Christmas gifts to the two loveliest ladies I know," said Mr.
+Fairfield, gallantly tendering a box to each.
+
+"But I've had my Christmas gift from you!" exclaimed Patty, and "So have
+I!" cried Nan.
+
+"Nevertheless these are laid at your feet," said Mr. Fairfield, calmly
+depositing the boxes on the floor in front of them.
+
+"Oh, well, we may as well see what they are," said Patty, untying the
+white ribbons that fastened her box.
+
+Nan did likewise, and in a moment they were both rapturously exclaiming
+over two sets of white furs that nestled in billows of white tissue
+paper.
+
+Nan's furs were ermine, and Patty's were soft, fluffy, white fox, and so
+beautiful were they that the two recipients donned them at once, and
+posed side by side before the mirror, admiring themselves and each other.
+Then, with a simultaneous impulse they turned to thank the donor, and Mr.
+Fairfield found himself suddenly entangled in four arms and two boas,
+while two immense muffs met at the back of his neck and enveloped his
+head and ears.
+
+"Have mercy!" he cried; "come one at a time, can't you? Yes, yes, I'm
+glad you're pleased, but do get this fur out of my mouth! I feel as if I
+were attacked by polar bears!"
+
+"Oh, Fathery Fairfield," Patty cried, "you are the dearest thing in the
+world! How _did_ you know I wanted furs? And white fox, of all things!
+And ermine for Nan! Oh, but you _are_ a good gentleman! Isn't he,
+stepmother?"
+
+"He'll do," said Nan, smiling roguishly at her husband, who, somehow,
+seemed satisfied with this faint praise.
+
+"Now, scamper, Nan-girl," he cried, "if you would see your mother to-day,
+you must leave here in less than an hour. Can you be ready?"
+
+"I can't, but I will," replied Nan, gaily, as she ran away to prepare for
+her journey.
+
+Patty, too, went to her room to get ready for her visit at the
+Farringtons'. She was to stay three days, and as there were several
+parties planned for her entertainment, she packed a small trunk with
+several of her prettiest gowns. Also, she had a suitcase full of gifts
+for the Christmas tree, which was to be part of the festivities.
+
+She bade her parents good-by when they started, and watched the new
+motor-car disappear round the corner, then returned to her own
+preparations.
+
+"I do have lovely things," she thought to herself, as she folded her
+dainty garments and laid them in their places.
+
+Then she glanced again at her new furs.
+
+"I have too much," she thought; "it isn't fair for one girl to have so
+much, when so many poor people have nothing. I wonder what I ought to do
+about it."
+
+Poor Patty was confronting the problem that has troubled and baffled so
+many honest hearts, but the more she thought about it, the more it seemed
+insoluble.
+
+"At any rate, it would be absurd to give my white furs, or my chiffon
+frocks to poor people," she concluded, "for they couldn't use them. Well,
+after the holidays, I'm going to see what I can do. But now, I must
+hurry, or I'll be late."
+
+An hour or two later, she found herself in the Farringtons' home.
+
+"What lovely furs, Patty," exclaimed Mrs. Farrington, "and how well they
+suit you!"
+
+They were extremely becoming, and Patty's pretty face, with its soft
+colour and smiling eyes, rose like a flower from the white fur at her
+throat.
+
+"Yes, aren't they beautiful?" Patty responded. "Father just gave them to
+me, and I'm so pleased with them."
+
+"And well you may be. Now, you girls run away and play, for I've a
+thousand things to do."
+
+Indeed, Mrs. Farrington was in a whirlpool of presents that she was both
+sending and receiving. Maids and footmen were running hither and thither,
+bringing messages or carrying out orders, and as the whole house was full
+of warmth and light, and the spicy fragrance of Christmas greens, Patty
+fairly revelled in the pleasant atmosphere.
+
+She was of a nature very susceptible to surroundings. Like a cat, she
+loved to bask in warm sunshine, or in a luxurious, softly-furnished
+place. Moreover, she was fond of Elise, and so looked forward to her
+three days' visit with glad anticipation.
+
+After Patty had laid aside her things, the two girls sat down to chat in
+the big hall on the second floor of the mansion. A wood-fire was blazing,
+and soft, red-shaded lights cast a delightful glow.
+
+"Elise," said Patty, somewhat suddenly, "don't you think we have too much
+riches and things?"
+
+Elise stared at her.
+
+"What do you mean?" she asked.
+
+Patty laughed at her friend's blank expression, but she went on.
+
+"I mean just what I say. Of course, you have lots more riches and things
+than I have; but I think we all have too much when we think of the poor
+people who haven't any."
+
+"Oh, you mean Socialism," exclaimed Elise, suddenly enlightened.
+
+"No, I don't mean Socialism. I mean plain, every-day charity. Don't you
+think we ought to give away more?"
+
+"Why, yes, if you like," said Elise, who was greatly puzzled. "Do you
+want me to subscribe to some charity? I will."
+
+"Well, perhaps I'll hold you to that," said Patty, slowly; "for after the
+holidays I'm going to try to do something in the matter. I don't know
+just what; I haven't thought it out yet. But I'm not going to be what my
+father calls a 'mere social butterfly,' and I don't believe you want to,
+either."
+
+"No, I don't; but do leave it all till after the holidays, Patty, for now
+I want you to help me with some Christmas presents."
+
+Elise looked so worried and so beseeching that Patty laughed. Then she
+kissed her, and said: "All right, Lisa mine. Command me. My services are
+at your disposal."
+
+So the girls went up to the Sun Parlour, where Elise had all her choicest
+belongings, and where she now had her array of Christmas gifts.
+
+The room was entirely of glass, and by a careful arrangement of double
+panes and concealed heat-pipes, was made comfortable even in the coldest
+weather. Flowers and plants were round the sides; birds in gilt cages
+sang and twittered; and gilt wicker furniture gave the place a dainty
+French effect that was charming. On the tables were strewn Christmas
+gifts of all sorts.
+
+"I'm just tying up the last ones," said Elise. "Don't be afraid to look;
+yours is safely hidden away. Now, here's what I want to know."
+
+She picked up a gold seal ring, which, however, had no crest or monogram
+cut on it,--and a bronze paper cutter.
+
+"They're lovely," said Patty, as she looked at them. "Who catches these?"
+
+"That's just what I don't know. I bought the ring for Roger and the paper
+cutter for Kenneth Harper; he's coming to-night. But I'd like to change
+them about and give the ring to Ken, and the paper knife to Roger. Would
+you?"
+
+"No, I wouldn't," said Patty, bluntly. "Why do you want to do such a
+thing?"
+
+"The ring is much the handsomer gift," said Elise, who had turned a
+trifle pink.
+
+"Of course it is," said Patty, "and that's why you should give it to your
+brother. It's too personal a gift to give to a boy friend."
+
+"That's what I was afraid of," said Elise, with a little sigh. "But Roger
+won't care for it at all, and Kenneth would like it heaps."
+
+"_Because_ you gave it to him?" asked Patty, quickly.
+
+"Oh, I don't know. Yes, perhaps so."
+
+"Nonsense, Elise! You're too young to give rings to young men."
+
+"Ken isn't a young man, he's only a boy."
+
+"Well, he's over twenty-one; and anyway, I know it wouldn't be right for
+you to give him a ring. Your mother wouldn't like it at all."
+
+"Oh, she wouldn't care."
+
+"Well, she ought to, and I think she would. Now, don't be silly; give the
+ring to Roger, and if you want something grander than this bronze jig for
+Ken, get him a book. As handsome a book as you choose; but a book. Or
+something that's impersonal. Not a ring or a watch-fob, or anything like
+that."
+
+"But he gave you a necklace,--the day we sailed for Paris."
+
+"Fiddle-de-dee! It was only a locket, with the merest thread of a gold
+chain; and anyway, I never wore it but once or twice."
+
+"Well, you oughtn't to have accepted it, if a personal gift is so
+reprehensible."
+
+"Elise, you're a goose!" said Patty, losing her patience at last. "A gift
+like that is not in very good taste from a boy to a girl; but from a girl
+to a boy, it's very much worse. And, anyway, it was different in my case;
+for Ken and I are old friends, which you and he are not. And, beside,
+father knew about it, and he said as a parting keepsake it was all right.
+But at a Christmas tree, in your own house,--Elise, you'll make a great
+mistake if you give Kenneth Harper a seal ring."
+
+"All right, Patty, you know I always do just as you say, so I'll give it
+to Roger."
+
+Patty knew she had judged rightly in the matter, but she also knew that
+Elise was greatly disappointed at her decision.
+
+She had already noticed that Elise liked handsome Kenneth, but if she
+did, that was only an added reason why she should not make him a present
+of a ring.
+
+"She ought to have had more sense!" Patty said to herself, indignantly.
+"And I'm sorry if she's sorry; but I couldn't let her do such a foolish
+thing!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+A SPLENDID TREE
+
+
+The Christmas Eve dinner was set for an early hour, that the younger
+Farrington children might take part in the festivities.
+
+Beside Elise and Roger, there were two younger girls, Louise and Hester,
+and Bobby, aged ten.
+
+When Patty went down to the drawing-room, she found these three eager
+with anticipation of the Christmas frolic about to begin.
+
+Kenneth Harper was there too, but there were no other guests, as this
+evening was to be a family celebration. Soon the other members of the
+household appeared, and then dinner was announced, and they all went to
+the dining-room.
+
+Mr. Farrington offered his arm to Patty, and escorted her out first, as
+guest of honour. Mrs. Farrington followed with Kenneth, and then the five
+Farrington children came out less formally.
+
+A burst of applause greeted their first sight of the dinner table. It was
+indeed a Christmas feast to the eye as well as to the palate.
+
+In the centre of the table was a Christmas tree, decorated with tinsel
+and gay ornaments, and lighted by tiny electric bulbs.
+
+At each plate also, was a tiny Christmas tree, whose box-shaped standards
+bore the names of the diners.
+
+"Here's mine!" cried Bobby, as he slid into his chair. "Oh, what a jolly
+dinner!"
+
+On the little place trees hung nuts and bonbons which were to be eaten,
+"at the pleasure of the performer," as Roger expressed it.
+
+The table was also decked with holly and red ribbons, and the various
+viands, as they were served, were shaped or decorated in keeping with the
+occasion.
+
+The Farrington household was conducted on a most elaborate plan, and
+their dinners were usually very formal and conventional. But to-night was
+an exception, and, save for the solemn butler and grave footmen,
+everybody in the room was bubbling over with laughter and merriment.
+
+"I'm not hungry any more," declared Bobby, after he had done full justice
+to several courses; "let's hurry up, and have the tree."
+
+"Wait, Bobs," advised Hester; "we haven't had the ice cream yet."
+
+"Oh, that's so," said Bobby; "can't we have it now, mother, and skip
+these flummerydiddles?"
+
+He looked scornfully at the dainty salad that had just been placed before
+him, but Mrs. Farrington only smiled, not caring to remind him of the
+laws of table etiquette on a festive occasion.
+
+"Have patience, Bobby, dear," she said; "the ice cream will come next;
+and, too, you know the longer the dinner, the later you can sit up."
+
+"That's so!" agreed Bobby. "My, but Christmas Eve is fun! Wish I could sit
+up late every night."
+
+"But it wouldn't be Christmas Eve every night," said Patty, smiling at
+the chubby-faced boy.
+
+"That's so! Neither no more it wouldn't! Well, I wish it was Christmas
+Eve every night, then!"
+
+"That's right," laughed Patty. "Make a good big wish while you're about
+it."
+
+Then the ice cream was served and of course it was in shapes of Christmas
+trees, and Santa Clauses, and sprigs of holly, and Christmas bells, and
+Patty's portion was a lovely spray of mistletoe bough.
+
+"Ho, ho!" laughed Kenneth, seeing it across the table; "another good
+chance lost! You know the penalty, Patty, if you're caught under the
+mistletoe. But of course if you eat mistletoe, the charm fails."
+
+"I'm willing it should," said Patty, as she took up her spoon. "I'm not
+pining for a rustic swain to kiss me 'neath the mistletoe bough."
+
+Patty looked very roguish and provoking as she said this, and Mr.
+Farrington said, gallantly:
+
+"Ah, no, perhaps not. But the swains are doing the pining, without
+doubt."
+
+Now Roger sat on the other side of Patty, and as his father finished
+speaking, he said, apparently apropos of nothing:
+
+"Mother, are these your Spode plates, or are they Cauldon ware?"
+
+"They're Spode, Roger; why do you want to know? Are you suddenly becoming
+interested in China?"
+
+"Yes," he replied; "are you sure, mother, these are Spode?"
+
+He lifted the handsome plate in front of him, and gazed intently at the
+mark on its under side, as he held it just above the level of his eyes.
+
+"Be careful, Roger, you'll spill your ice cream," admonished his father.
+
+"No, I won't, sir," he said, as he replaced his plate. "But I never saw
+Spode with this decoration before. Let me look at yours, Patty."
+
+He took up Patty's plate of ice cream, and lifting it quite high studied
+the stamp on that.
+
+Suddenly he moved it, until the dish of mistletoe ice cream was directly
+over Patty's head.
+
+"Fairly caught!" he cried; "under the mistletoe!" And before Patty caught
+the jest, Roger had kissed her pretty pink cheek, and then calmly
+restored her plate of ice cream to its place in front of her.
+
+"You villain!" she cried, glaring at him, and pretending to be greatly
+offended, but smiling in spite of herself at his clever ruse.
+
+"Good for you, my boy!" cried Mr. Farrington, clapping his hands. "I wish
+I had thought of that myself. But it's a game that won't work twice."
+
+"Indeed it won't!" said Patty, "I'll take care of that!" and she began to
+eat her mistletoe ice cream in proof of her words.
+
+"It never can happen again," said Kenneth, in sad tones, as he watched
+the "mistletoe" disappear. "But I'll not give up all hope. It's still
+Christmas Eve, and there are other mistletoes and other manners."
+
+"And other girls," said Patty, glancing mischievously at Elise.
+
+"Yes, there are four of us," said Louise, so innocently that they all
+laughed.
+
+"All right, Louise," said Kenneth, "you find a nice, big spray of
+mistletoe, after dinner, and wear it in that big topknot bow of yours,
+and I'll promise to kiss you on both cheeks."
+
+But Louise was too shy to respond to this repartee, and she dropped her
+eyes in confusion.
+
+"Now," said Mrs. Farrington, as she rose from the table, "we'll have our
+Christmas Waits sing carols, and then we'll have our tree."
+
+The children understood this, and Hester and Bobby at once ran out of the
+room. A few moments later they returned, dressed in trailing white robes,
+like surplices, and before they reached the drawing-room, their childish
+voices could be heard singing old-fashioned carols.
+
+They had been well trained, and sang very prettily, and as they appeared
+in the doorway, Patty could scarcely believe that these demure little
+white-robed figures were the two merry children.
+
+After two or three carols by the "Waits," the whole party joined in a
+Christmas chorus, and Patty's clear soprano rang out sweetly in the
+harmony.
+
+"What a lovely voice you have, Patty, dear," said Mrs. Farrington, as the
+song was done; "it has improved greatly since I heard you last. Are you
+taking lessons?"
+
+"I shall, Mrs. Farrington, after we get fairly settled. Father wants me
+to begin as soon as he can find the right teacher."
+
+"Yes, indeed; you must do so. It would be a shame not to cultivate such a
+talent as that."
+
+"You _have_ improved, Patty!" declared Kenneth. "My! but your voice is
+stunning. I expect we'll see you on the concert stage yet."
+
+"More likely on a Fifth Avenue stage," said Patty, laughing.
+
+"Now for the tree!" exclaimed Bobby, who had thrown aside his white robe,
+and was ready for the fun to begin.
+
+The tree had been set up in the indoor tennis-court, which was in the
+Casino.
+
+This Casino, practically another house, opened from the great hall of the
+Farrington mansion, and its various apartments were devoted to different
+sorts of amusements.
+
+The tennis court made a fine setting for the Christmas celebration, and
+had been carefully prepared for the great event.
+
+The floor was covered with white canton flannel, so arranged over slight
+ridges and hummocks that it looked exactly like a field of drifted snow.
+
+The tree, at the end of the room, was the largest that could be obtained,
+and was loaded with beautiful ornaments and decorations, and glittering
+with electric lights of all colours.
+
+Patty had seen many Christmas trees, but never such a large or splendid
+one, and it almost took her breath away.
+
+"I didn't know trees ever grew so big," she said. "How _did_ you get it
+into the house?"
+
+"It _was_ difficult," said Mr. Farrington. "I had to engineer the job
+myself. But Bobby asked for a big tree, and as the children are growing
+up so fast, I wanted to humour him."
+
+As Patty had often said, "for a millionaire, Mr. Farrington was the
+kindest man she ever knew."
+
+Though wealthy, he had no desire for display or ostentatious
+extravagance, but he loved to please his children, and was sufficiently
+rewarded by their enjoyment of the pleasures he provided.
+
+Now, he was as frankly delighted with Bobby's enthusiasm as Bobby was
+with his tree.
+
+"Come on, old chappie," he cried; "you shall be Santa Claus, and
+distribute the gifts."
+
+Meantime, the older ones were admiring the decorations of the room. Round
+the walls were smaller evergreen trees of varying heights, giving the
+effect of a clearing in a grove of evergreens. The ceiling had been
+draped across with dark blue material, and was studded with stars, made
+of tiny electric lights.
+
+Bunches and wreaths of holly, tied with red ribbons, gave a touch of
+colour to the general effect, and in one corner beneath a green arched
+bower, a chime of bells pealed softly at intervals.
+
+Altogether, the whole place breathed the very spirit of Christmas, and so
+perfect were the appointments, that no false note marred the harmony of
+it all.
+
+"Now for the presents!" cried Bobby. "Oh, daddy, there's my 'lectric
+railroad! Won't you other people wait till I see how it works?"
+
+The others all laughed at the eager, apologetic little face, as Bobby
+found it impossible to curb his impatience to see his new toy.
+
+It was indeed a fine electric railway, and every one became interested as
+Mr. Farrington began to take it from its box and put the parts together.
+
+"This is the way it goes, dad," said Roger, kneeling on the floor beside
+his father.
+
+"No, this way," said Kenneth, as he adjusted some of the parts.
+
+Quite content to wait for their gifts, Mrs. Farrington and the girls
+stood round watching the proceedings with interest, and soon Patty and
+Elise were down on the floor, too, breathlessly waiting the completion of
+the structure, and cheering gaily as the first train went successfully
+round the long track. Other trains followed, switches were set, signals
+opened or closed, bridges crossed, and all the manoeuvres of a real
+railroad repeated in miniature.
+
+"I haven't had so much fun since I was a kid," said Kenneth, rising from
+the floor and mopping his heated brow with his handkerchief.
+
+"Nor I!" declared Mr. Farrington. "I'd rather rig up that toy for that
+boy of mine than--than to own a real railroad!"
+
+"I believe you would!" said his wife, laughing. "And now, suppose you see
+what Santa Claus has for the rest of us."
+
+"Father's all in," said Roger. "You sit on that heap of snow, dad, and
+Kenneth and I will unload these groaning branches."
+
+Bobby was too absorbed in his cars to think of anything else, so the
+little girls acted as messengers to distribute the gifts from the tree.
+
+And this performance was a lengthy one.
+
+Parcel after parcel, daintily wrapped and tied, was given to Patty, and,
+of course, the Farringtons had many more.
+
+But Patty had a great quantity, for knowing where she was to spend her
+Christmas, all her young friends had sent gifts to her at the
+Farringtons', and the accumulation was almost as great as Elise's.
+
+"I'm helpless," said Patty, as she sat with her lap full of gifts, boxes
+and papers strewn all about her on the floor, and Louise or Hester still
+bringing her more parcels.
+
+"Let me help you," said Kenneth, as he picked up a lot of her belongings.
+
+As he was only a dinner guest, of course Kenneth had no such array of
+gifts, though the Farringtons had given him some pretty trifles, and
+Patty gave him a charming little Tanagra statuette she had brought from
+Florence.
+
+"See what Elise gave me," he remarked, as he showed the bronze
+paper-knife. "Jolly, isn't it?"
+
+"Yes, indeed," returned Patty, relieved to see that Elise had not given
+him the ring after all. "It'll be fine to cut your briefs when you're a
+real out-and-out lawyer. What are briefs, anyway?"
+
+"Little girls shouldn't use words of which they don't know the meaning,"
+said Kenneth, reprovingly.
+
+"Well, anyway, if they're brief enough, they won't need cutting,"
+returned Patty, saucily, and then returned to the opening of her own
+presents.
+
+She had pretty little gifts from Hilda Henderson, Lorraine Hamilton,
+Clementine Morse, and many of the other girls, some of whom she had not
+seen since her return to New York.
+
+"Isn't it lovely to have so many friends?" said she, looking over her
+pile of gifts at Kenneth.
+
+"Do you love them all?" he asked, smiling back at her happy face.
+
+"Oh, indeed I do. Not exactly because they've given me all these pretty
+things, for I love the girls just as much in the summer time as at
+Christmas. But because they're my friends, and so,--I love them."
+
+"Boys are your friends, too," suggested Kenneth.
+
+"Of course they are!" Patty agreed; "and I love them, too. I guess I love
+everybody."
+
+"Rather a big order," said Roger, coming up just then. "Loving everybody,
+you can't give a very large portion to each one."
+
+"No," said Patty, pretending to look downcast. "Now, isn't that _too_
+bad! Well, never mind, I've plenty of gratitude to go round, anyway. And
+I offer you a big share of that, Roger, for this silver box."
+
+"Do you like it? Oh, please like it, Patty."
+
+"Of course I do; it's exquisite workmanship, and I shall use it
+for,--well, it seems most too prosaic,--but it's exactly the right shape
+and size for hairpins!"
+
+"Then use it for 'em! Why not?" cried Roger, evidently pleased that Patty
+could find a use for his gift.
+
+"And see what Ken gave me," went on Patty, as she held up a small crystal
+ball. "I've long wanted a crystal, and this is a beauty."
+
+"What's it for?" asked Roger, curiously; "it looks like a marble."
+
+"Marble, indeed! Why, Roger, it's a crystal, a Japanese rock crystal."
+
+"Isn't it glass?"
+
+"No, ignorant one! 'Tis not glass, but a curio of rare and occult value.
+In it I read the future, the past, and the present."
+
+"Yes, it is a present, I know," said Roger, and in the laugh at this
+sally the subject was dropped, but Roger secretly vowed to look up the
+subject of crystals and find out why Patty was so pleased with a marble.
+
+"Elise is simply snowed under," said Kenneth, as they heard rapturous
+exclamations from the other side of the room, where Elise was examining
+her gifts.
+
+"Think of it!" cried Patty; "she had everything a girl could possibly
+want yesterday, and now to-day she has a few bushels more!"
+
+It was literally true. Getting free, somehow, of her own impedimenta,
+Patty ran over to see Elise's things.
+
+"You look like a fancy bazaar gone to smash," she declared, as she saw
+Elise in the midst of her Christmas portion.
+
+"I feel like an International Exhibition," returned Elise. "I've gifts
+from all parts of the known world!"
+
+"And unknown!" said Kenneth, picking up various gimcracks of whose name
+or use he had no idea.
+
+"But this is what I like best," she went on, smiling at Kenneth, as she
+held up the dainty little card-case he had given her. "I shall use this
+only when calling on my dearest friends."
+
+"Good for you!" he returned. "Glad you like it. And as I know you've lots
+of dearest friends, I'll promise, when it's worn out, to give you
+another."
+
+Elise looked a trifle disappointed at this offhand response to her more
+earnest speech, but she only smiled gaily, and turned the subject.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+SKATING AND DANCING
+
+
+"Kenneth thinks an awful lot of you, Patty," said Elise, as, after the
+Christmas party was all over, the girls were indulging in a good-night
+chat.
+
+"Pooh," said Patty, who, in kimono and bedroom slippers, nestled in a big
+easy-chair in front of the wood-fire in Elise's dressing-room. "I've
+known Ken for years, and we do think a lot of each other. But you needn't
+take that tone, Elise. It's a boy and girl chumminess, and you know it.
+Why, Ken doesn't think any more of me than Roger does."
+
+"Oh, Roger! Why, he's perfectly gone on you. He worships the ground you
+walk on. Surely, Patty, you've noticed Roger's devotion."
+
+"What's the matter with you, Elise? Where'd you get these crazy notions
+about devotion and worship? If you'll excuse my French,--you make me
+tired!"
+
+"Don't you like to have the boys devoted to you, Patty?"
+
+"No, I don't! I like their jolly friendship, of course. I like to talk to
+Ken and Roger, or to Clifford Morse, or any of the boys of our set; but
+as for _devotion_, I don't see any."
+
+"None so blind as those who won't see," said Elise, who had finished
+brushing her hair, and now sank down on an ottoman by Patty's side.
+
+"Well, then, I'll stay blind, for I don't want to see devoted swains
+worshipping the Persian rugs I walk on! Though if you mean these
+beautiful rugs that are on all the floors of your house, Elise, I don't
+know that I blame the swains so much. By the way, I suppose some of them
+are 'prayer rugs' anyway, so that makes it all the more appropriate."
+
+"Oh, Patty, you're such a silly! You're not like other girls."
+
+"You surprise me, Elise! Also you flatter me! I had an idea I belonged to
+the common herd."
+
+"Patty, _will_ you be serious? Roger is terribly in love with you."
+
+"Really, Elise? How interesting! Now, what would you do in a case like
+that?"
+
+"I'd consider it seriously, at any rate."
+
+Patty put one finger to her forehead, frowned deeply, and gazed into the
+fire for fully half a minute. Then she said:
+
+"I've considered, Elise, and all I can think of is the 'Cow who
+considered very well and gave the piper a penny.' Do you suppose Roger
+would care for a penny?"
+
+"He would, if you gave it to him," returned Elise, who was almost
+petulant at Patty's continued raillery.
+
+"Then he shall have it! Rich as the Farringtons are, if the son of the
+house wants a penny of my fortune, it shall not be denied him!"
+
+Patty had risen, and was stalking up and down the room with jerky
+strides, and dramatic waving of her arms. Her golden hair hung in a curly
+cloud over her blue silk kimono, and her voice thrilled with a tragic
+intensity, though, of course, exaggerated to a ludicrous degree.
+
+Having finished her speech, Patty retained her dramatic pose, and glared
+at Elise like a very young and pretty Lady Macbeth.
+
+"Oh, Patty," cried Elise, forgetting the subject in hand, "you ought to
+be an actress! Do you know, you were quite stunning when you flung
+yourself round so. And, Patty, with your voice,--your singing voice, I
+mean,--you ought to go on the stage! _Do_, will you, Patty? I'd love to
+see you an opera singer!"
+
+"Elise, you're crazy to-night! Suppose I should go on the stage, what
+would become of all these devoted swains who are worshipping my
+feetsteps?"
+
+"Bother the swains! Patty, my heart is set upon it. You must be an
+actress. I mean a really nice, gentle, refined one, like Maude Adams, or
+Eleanor Robson. Oh, they are so sweet! and such noble, grand women."
+
+"Elise, you have lovely ambitions for your friends. What about yourself?
+Won't you be a circus-rider, dear? I want you to be as ambitious for you
+as you are for me."
+
+"Patty, stop your fooling. I was quite in earnest."
+
+"Then you'd better begin fooling. It's more sensible than your
+earnestness. Now, I'm going to run away to bed and leave you to dream
+that you're a circus-rider, whizzing round a ring on a snow-white Arab
+steed. Good-night, girlie."
+
+Alone in her room, Patty smiled to herself at Elise's foolishness. And
+yet, though she had no desire to be an actress, Patty had sometimes
+dreamed of herself as a concert singer, enchanting her audiences with her
+clear, sweet voice, which was fine and true, if not great. She was
+ambitious, though as yet not definitely so, and Elise's words had roused
+a dormant desire to be or to do something worth while, and not, as she
+thought to herself, be a mere social butterfly.
+
+Then she smiled again as she thought of Elise's talk about Ken and Roger.
+
+But here no answering chord was touched. As chums, she thoroughly liked
+both boys, but the thought of any more serious liking only roused a
+feeling of amusement in her mind.
+
+"Perhaps I may be glad to have somebody in love with me some day," she
+thought; "but it will be many years from now, and meantime I want to do a
+whole lot of things that are really worth doing."
+
+Then, with a whimsical thought that to sleep was the thing most worth
+doing at the present moment, Patty tumbled into the soft, white nest
+prepared for her and was soon sound asleep.
+
+Christmas Day was one of the finest. No snow, but a clear, cold, bracing
+air, that was exhilarating to breathe.
+
+"Skating this afternoon?" said Roger, after the Merry Christmas greetings
+had been exchanged.
+
+"Yes, indeed," cried Patty and Elise in one breath.
+
+"Let's get up a party, shall us?" went on Roger, "and skate till dusk,
+and then all come back here and have tea under the Christmas tree?"
+
+"Lovely!" cried Elise, but Patty hesitated.
+
+"You know we have the dance on for to-night," she said.
+
+Patty was not robust, and continuous exertions often tired her. Nan had
+cautioned her not to attempt too much gaiety during this visit, and she
+wanted to rest before the evening's dance.
+
+"Oh, pshaw!" said Elise, "there'll be lots of time. The dance won't begin
+till nine, anyway."
+
+So Patty agreed, and Roger went off to invite his skating party by
+telephone.
+
+He secured Kenneth, and the two Morses, and then he hung up the receiver.
+
+"That's enough," he declared. "I don't like a big skating party. Slip
+away, girls, and get your bonnets and shawls; the car'll be here in half
+an hour."
+
+The girls went off to dress, and Patty viewed her new skating costume
+with decided approval.
+
+It was all of white. A white cloth frock, with short skirt; white
+broadcloth coat and a Russian turban of white cloth and fur; long white
+leather leggings, and her Christmas furs, which added a charming touch to
+the costume.
+
+As being more comfortable for skating, she had returned to her former
+mode of hair-dressing, and so two big white ribbon bows bloomed at the
+back of her head. These, and the short skirt, quite took away Patty's
+grown-up air, and made her seem a little girl again.
+
+"Hello, Baby," said Roger, as he saw her come downstairs, with rosy
+cheeks and eyes sparkling with pleasurable anticipation, for Patty loved
+to skate.
+
+"Mam-ma!" said Patty, putting her finger in her mouth, and assuming a
+vacant, babyish stare.
+
+Roger laughed at her foolishness, and then Elise came along and they all
+went out to the car.
+
+Elise's suit was of crimson cloth, bordered with dark fur, and as a
+consequence the two girls together made a pretty picture.
+
+"You're such a comfort, Patty," Elise said, as they climbed into the big
+car. "You always dress just right to harmonise with my clothes."
+
+"Sure you do!" said Roger, looking at the two girls admiringly. "No
+fellow on the ice will escort such beautiful ladies as I have in my
+charge. Now, we'll pick up Ken and the Morses, and then make a dash for
+the Pole."
+
+They reached the Park by three o'clock, so had nearly two hours of
+skating before the dusk fell.
+
+Patty was a superior skater, and so were most of the others, for Roger
+had chosen his party with care.
+
+"Skate with me, Patty, will you?" said Roger, just at the same moment
+that Kenneth said, "Of course you'll skate with me, Patty."
+
+Patty looked at both boys with a comical smile. "Thank you," she said;
+"but I always like to pick out my own escort." Then, turning to Clifford
+Morse, she said:
+
+"Skate with me, won't you, Cliff? We're a good team."
+
+"We are that!" he replied, greatly pleased, if a little surprised at
+Patty's invitation.
+
+Kenneth and Roger grinned at each other, and then turned quickly to the
+other girls, who had not heard the little parley.
+
+Of course Roger skated with Clementine Morse, and Kenneth with Elise,
+which arrangement quite satisfied the dark-eyed beauty.
+
+"You look like Little Red Riding-hood," said Kenneth, as they started
+off, with long, gliding strokes.
+
+"Don't be a wolf, and eat me up," laughed Elise, for Kenneth had fur on
+his cap and overcoat, and with his big fur gloves, seemed almost like
+some big, good-natured animal.
+
+"You skate beautifully, Elise," said Kenneth, "and all you girls do. Look
+at Clementine; isn't she graceful?"
+
+"Yes," agreed Elise, "and so is Patty."
+
+"Patty," echoed Kenneth. "She is a poem on ice!"
+
+She was, and Elise knew it, but a naughty little jealousy burned in her
+heart at Ken's words.
+
+She bravely tried to down it, however, and said: "Yes, she is. She's a
+poem in every way."
+
+"Well, I don't know about that. In some ways she's more of a jolly, merry
+jingle."
+
+"A nonsense rhyme," suggested Elise, falling in with his metaphor.
+
+"Yes; how quick you are to see what I mean. Now, Clementine is a
+lyric,--she glides so gracefully along."
+
+"And I?" asked Elise, laughing at his witty characterisation.
+
+"You? Well, I can't judge unless I see you. Skate off by yourself."
+
+Elise did so, and Kenneth watched the scarlet-clad figure gracefully
+pirouetting and skilfully executing difficult steps.
+
+"Well?" she said, as she returned to him, and again they joined hands and
+glided along in unison.
+
+"Well, you're delightful on ice. You're a will o' the wisp."
+
+"But I want to be a poem of some sort. The other girls are."
+
+Kenneth smiled at the pretty, anxious face.
+
+"You are a poem. You're one of those little French forms. A virelay or a
+triolet."
+
+Elise was a little uncertain as to what these were, exactly, but she
+resolved to look them up as soon as she reached home. At any rate, she
+knew Kenneth meant to be complimentary, and she smiled with pleasure.
+
+Then the others joined them and they all skated together for a time, and
+then the sun set, and Roger said they must go home.
+
+He was a most reliable boy, and always took charge of their little
+expeditions or outings. Elise never thought of questioning his authority,
+so again they all bundled into the car, and started homeward.
+
+"I ought to go right home," said Clementine.
+
+"Oh, come round for a cup of Christmas tea," said Roger, "and I'll take
+you home in half an hour."
+
+So the Morses consented, and the six merry young people had tea under the
+Christmas tree, and told stories by the firelight, and laughed and
+chatted until Clementine declared she must go, or she'd never get back in
+time for the dance.
+
+"What are you going to wear, Patsy?" asked Elise, as they went upstairs,
+arm in arm.
+
+"I've a new frock, of course. Did you think I'd come to your dance in one
+I'd worn before? Nay, I hold Miss Farrington in too high esteem for
+that!"
+
+"Well, scurry into it, for I'm crazy to see it. If it's prettier than
+mine, I won't let you go down to the ballroom!"
+
+"It won't be," returned Patty; "don't worry about that!"
+
+But when the two girls were dressed, Patty's frock, though not so
+expensive, was quite as attractive as Elise's.
+
+Patty's was of apricot-coloured satin, veiled all over with a delicate
+thin material of the same shade. A pearl trimming encircled the slightly
+low-cut throat and the short sleeves. It was very becoming to pretty
+Patty, and she knew herself that she had never looked better.
+
+Elise's gown was of white silk, draped with silvered lace. It was lovely,
+and suited Elise's dark hair and eyes, and really both girls were
+pictures. But Patty's face was sunny and happy, while Elise's red mouth
+drooped in a little curve of discontent.
+
+The girl was discontented by nature, and though she had everything that
+heart could wish, she was never brimming over with content and happiness,
+as Patty always was.
+
+The dance was in the tennis court, where a smooth crash had replaced the
+snowy floor of the Christmas Eve celebration. The Christmas tree still
+stood there, as it formed a beautiful decoration for that end of the
+ballroom.
+
+It was not a large party, for Mrs. Farrington would not allow Elise to
+act like a young lady out in society. About thirty young people were
+asked, and the hours were from nine till twelve.
+
+But the music was of the finest, and as Patty's favourite amusement was
+dancing, she had a most enjoyable time.
+
+An exquisite dancer, she was, of course, besieged by partners, but in her
+merry, wholehearted way, she treated them all alike, showing favouritism
+to none, and dancing with less desirable partners as pleasantly and
+happily as with those she liked better.
+
+Roger grumbled at this.
+
+"You're wasted on a fellow like Harry Barr," he said, as he and Patty
+started for a turn. "He dances like a grain-thresher, and yet you bob
+along with him as smilingly as if you were dancing with a decent
+tripper."
+
+"Why not?" returned Patty; "he's pleasant and kind. He doesn't _talk_
+like a grain-thresher, and he can't help his dancing. Or rather, his lack
+of it, for you can't call those gymnastics of his dancing. Oh, Roger,
+there's Mr. Hepworth!"
+
+Sure enough, Mr. Hepworth had just come in, and as Patty spoke, he caught
+her eye and smiled.
+
+She smiled back, and when the dance was over asked Roger to take her to
+him.
+
+"Old Hepworth?" said Roger, in surprise. "You can't waste time on him,
+Patty; your dance card is full, you know."
+
+"I don't care, I must just speak to him. I haven't seen him since I came
+home. Whoever belongs to my next dance can wait a few minutes."
+
+"All right; come on, then." Roger led her across the room, and with a
+smiling face, and in tones of glad welcome, she said:
+
+"Oh, Mr. Hepworth, how do you do?"
+
+"Patty!" he exclaimed, taking her hands in his. "I'm so glad to see you
+again."
+
+There was a thrill in his voice that startled her, but she only said,
+"And so am I glad to see you. Why haven't you been to call on me?"
+
+"I've just returned from a Southern trip. Only reached New York
+to-night,--and here I am."
+
+"Here I am, too, but I can't talk to you now. My programme is full, and I
+make it a point always to keep my engagements."
+
+"Not one dance left?" said Mr. Hepworth, looking over the scribbled card.
+
+"Not one! I'm so sorry,--but, of course, I didn't know you were coming."
+
+"Of course not. Run along now, and enjoy yourself, and I'll call on you,
+if I may, some time when you are at home."
+
+"Yes, do," said Patty, realising that Mr. Hepworth was the same kind,
+thoughtful friend he had always been.
+
+"I wonder why I'm so glad to see him," she thought to herself, as she
+walked away with her new partner; "but I am, all the same."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+A FAIR PROPOSITION
+
+
+It was on the afternoon of New Year's Day that Mr. Hepworth came to call
+on Patty. She was at home again, having returned from her visit to Elise
+a few days after Christmas.
+
+"You know I am old-fashioned," he said, as he greeted the Fairfield
+family, and joined their circle round the library fire. "But I don't
+suppose you thought I was quite so old-fashioned as to make calls on New
+Year's Day. However, I'm not quite doing that, as this is the only call I
+shall make to-day."
+
+"We're glad to see you any day in the year," said Nan, cordially, and
+Patty added:
+
+"Indeed we are. I've been wondering why you didn't come round."
+
+"Busy," said Mr. Hepworth, smiling at her. "An artist's life is not a
+leisure one."
+
+"Is anybody's now-a-days?" asked Mr. Fairfield. "The tendency of the age
+is to rush and hurry all the time. What a contrast to a hundred years
+ago!"
+
+"And a good contrast, too," declared Nan. "If the world still jogged
+along at a hundred years ago rate, we would have no motor-cars, no
+aeroplanes, no----"
+
+"No North Pole," suggested her husband. "True enough, Nan, to accomplish
+things we must be busy."
+
+"I want to get busy," said Patty. "No, I don't mean that for slang,"--as
+her father looked at her reprovingly,--"but I want to do something that
+is really worth while."
+
+"The usual ambition of extreme youth," said Mr. Hepworth, looking at her
+kindly, if quizzically. "Do you want to reform the world, and in what
+way?"
+
+"Not exactly reform it," said Patty, smiling back at him; "reform has
+such a serious sound. But I do want to make it brighter and better."
+
+"That's a good phrase, too," observed Mr. Hepworth, still teasingly.
+"But, Patty, you do make the world brighter and better, just by being in
+it."
+
+"That's too easy; and, anyway, I expect to remain in it for some several
+years yet; and I want to do something beside just _be_."
+
+"Ah, well, you can doubtless find some outlet for your enthusiasms."
+
+"What she really wants," said her father, "is to be an operatic star."
+
+"And sing into phonographs," added Nan, mischievously.
+
+"Yes," smiled Patty, "and have my picture in the backs of magazines!"
+
+"That's right," said Mr. Hepworth, "aim high, while you're about it."
+
+"I can aim high enough," returned Patty, "but I'm not sure I can sing
+high enough."
+
+"Oh, you only need to come high enough, to be an operatic star," said Mr.
+Hepworth, who was in merry mood to-day.
+
+"But, seriously," said Patty, who was in earnest mood, "I do want to do
+good. I don't mean in a public way, but in a charity way."
+
+"Oh, soup-kitchens and bread-lines?"
+
+"No; not exactly. I mean to help people who have no sweetness and light
+in their lives."
+
+"Oh, Patty," groaned Nan, "if you're on that tack, you're hopeless. What
+have you been reading? 'The Young Maiden's Own Ruskin,' or 'Look Up and
+Not Down'?"
+
+"And lend a ten," supplemented Mr. Fairfield.
+
+"You needn't laugh," began Patty, pouting a little. Then she laughed
+herself, and went on: "Yes, you may laugh if you want to,--I know I sound
+ridiculous. But I tell you, people, I'm going to make good!"
+
+"You may make good," said her father, "but you'll never be good until you
+stop using slang. How often, my daughter, have I told you----"
+
+"Oh, cut it out, daddy," said Patty, dimpling with laughter, for she knew
+her occasional slang phrases amused her father, even though they annoyed
+him. "If you'll help me 'do noble things, not dream them all day long,'
+I'll promise to talk only in purest English undefiled."
+
+"Goodness, Patty!" said Nan, "you're a walking cyclopaedia of poetical
+quotations to-day."
+
+"And you're a running commentary on them," returned Patty, promptly,
+which remark sent Mr. Hepworth off in peals of laughter.
+
+"Oh, Patty!" he exclaimed, "I'm afraid you're going to grow up clever!
+That would be fatal to your ambition! Be good, sweet child, and let who
+will be clever. Nobody can be both."
+
+"I can," declared Patty; "I'll show you Missouri people yet!"
+
+Mr. Fairfield groaned at this new burst of slang, but Mr. Hepworth only
+laughed.
+
+"She'll get over it," he said. "A few years of these 'noble aims' of hers
+will make her so serious-minded that she won't even see the meaning of a
+slang phrase. Though, I must admit, I think some of them very apt,
+myself."
+
+"They sure are!" said irrepressible Patty, giggling at her father's
+frown.
+
+"But I'll tell you one thing," went on Mr. Hepworth: "Whatever line you
+decide upon, let it be something that needs no training. I mean, if you
+choose to go in for organised charity or settlement work, well and good.
+But don't attempt Red Cross nursing or kindergarten teaching, or anything
+that requires technical knowledge. For in these days, only trained labour
+succeeds, and only expert, at that."
+
+"Oh, pshaw," said Patty; "I don't mean to earn money. Though if I wanted
+to, I'm sure I could. Why, if I _had_ to earn my own living, I could do
+it as easy as anything!"
+
+"I'm not so sure of that," said Mr. Hepworth, gravely. "It isn't so easy
+for a young woman to earn her living without a technical education in
+some line."
+
+"Well, Patty, you'll never have to earn your own living," said her
+father, smiling; "so don't worry about that. But I agree with our friend,
+that you couldn't do it, if you did have to."
+
+"That sounds so Irish, daddy, that I think it's as bad as slang. However,
+I see you are all of unsympathetic nature, so I won't confide in you
+further as to my aims or ambitions."
+
+"I haven't noticed any confidences yet," murmured Nan; "only appeals for
+help."
+
+Patty gave her a withering glance.
+
+"The subject is dropped," she said; "let us now talk about the weather."
+
+"No," said Hepworth; "let me tell you a story. Let me tell you of a girl
+I met down South, who, if she only had Patty's determination and force of
+character, might achieve success, and even renown."
+
+"Do tell us about her," said Nan, for Mr. Hepworth was always an
+interesting talker.
+
+"She lives in Virginia, and her name is Christine Farley. A friend of
+mine, down there, asked me to look at some of her drawings, and I saw at
+once that the girl has real talent, if not genius."
+
+"Of course you would know," said Nan, for Mr. Hepworth himself was a
+portrait painter of high repute.
+
+"Yes, she really has done some remarkable work. But she is poor and lives
+in a small country town. She has already learned all the local teachers
+can give her, and needs the technical training of a good art school. With
+a year of such training she could easily become, I am sure, a successful
+illustrator. At least, after a year's study, I know she could get good
+work to do, and then she would rapidly become known."
+
+"Can't she manage to do this, in some way?" asked Mr. Fairfield.
+
+"No; she is ambitious in her work, but in no other way. She is shy and
+timid; a country girl, inexperienced in the ways of the world, ignorant
+of city life, and desperately afraid of New York, which to her is a name
+for all unknown terrors."
+
+"Goose!" said Patty. "Oh, I'm sorry for her, of course; but as an
+American girl, she ought to have more spunk."
+
+"Southern girls don't have spunk, Patty," said her father, with a merry
+twinkle in his eye.
+
+"Don't they! Well, I guess I ought to know! I'm a Southern girl, myself.
+At least, I was until I was fourteen."
+
+"Perhaps you've achieved your spunk since you came North, then," said
+Hepworth; "for I agree with your father, Southern girls do not have much
+energy of character. At least, Miss Farley hasn't. She's about nineteen
+or twenty, but she's as childish as a girl of fourteen,--except in her
+work; there she excels any one of her age I've ever known."
+
+"Can nothing be done in the matter?" asked Nan.
+
+"I don't know. I'm told they're very proud people, and would not accept
+charity. Of course she never can earn anything by her work if she stays
+at home; and as she can't get away, it seems to be a deadlock."
+
+"I'd like to help her," said Patty, slowly. "I do think she ought to have
+ingenuity enough to help herself, but if she hasn't, I'd like to help
+her."
+
+"How can you?" asked Nan.
+
+"I don't know. But the way to find out how to do things is to do them."
+
+"Oh, dear," moaned Mr. Hepworth, in mock despair. "I said I feared you
+were clever. Don't say those things, Patty, you'll ruin your reputation
+as a beauty."
+
+"Pooh!" said Patty, who sometimes didn't know whether Mr. Hepworth was
+teasing her or not, "that isn't a clever thing to say."
+
+"Well, if you don't mean it for an epigram, I'll forgive you,--but don't
+let it happen again. Now, as to Christine Farley. I'll let you be clever
+for once, if you'll turn your cleverness to devising some way to aid her
+to an art education. Can you think of any way?"
+
+"I can think of dozens," returned Patty, "but the only thing to do is for
+her to come to New York, get a scholarship at the Art School, and then
+board in a hall bedroom,--art students always do that,--and they have
+jolly good times with chafing dishes and palette knives, and such things.
+I've read about 'em."
+
+"Yes," said Mr. Hepworth, "but how is she to pay the board for the hall
+bedroom? They are really quite poor, I'm told."
+
+"Well!" said Patty, scornfully, "anybody,--the merest infant,--could earn
+enough money outside class hours to pay a small sum like that, I should
+hope! Why, how much would such board cost?"
+
+"Patty, child," said her father, "you don't know much of social
+economics, do you? I fancy the young woman could board properly for about
+twelve or fifteen dollars a week; eh, Hepworth?"
+
+"Yes; I daresay fifteen dollars a week would cover her expenses,
+including her art materials. Of course this would mean literally the
+'hall bedroom' in a very modest boarding-house."
+
+"Well!" went on Patty, "and do you mean to say that this girl couldn't
+earn fifteen dollars a week, and attend her classes, too?"
+
+"I mean to say just that," said Mr. Hepworth, seriously.
+
+"I agree with you," said Nan. "Why, I couldn't earn fifteen dollars a
+week, and stay at home from the classes."
+
+"Oh, Nan!" cried Patty, "you could! I'm sure you could! Why, I'll bet I
+could earn fifteen dollars a week, and have plenty of time left for my
+practising, my club meetings, motoring, skating, and all the things I
+want to do beside. Fifteen dollars a week is _nothing_!"
+
+"Gently, gently, my girl," said her father, for Patty's cheeks were pink
+with the earnestness of her argument. "Fifteen dollars a week seems
+nothing to you, because you have all the money you want. But where is
+your sense of proportion? Your idea of relative values? The value of
+fifteen dollars handed out to you willingly by a loving father, or the
+value of fifteen dollars earned from a grudging employer, are totally
+different matters."
+
+"I don't care," said Patty. "I know I could earn that much a week, and I
+believe this other girl could do so, if she had somebody to make her
+think she could."
+
+"There's a good deal in that," said Hepworth, thoughtfully. "Miss Farley
+does need somebody to make her think she can do things. But the life of
+an art student is a busy one, and I'm sure she couldn't earn much money
+while she's studying."
+
+"But fifteen dollars a week isn't much," persisted Patty. "Anybody could
+earn that."
+
+"Look here, Puss," said her father: "sometimes you show a bravery of
+assertion that ought to be put to the test. Now I'll make a proposition
+to you in the presence of these two witnesses. If you'll earn fifteen
+dollars in one week,--any week,--I'll agree to pay the board of this Miss
+Farley in New York, for a year, while she pursues her art studies."
+
+"Oh, father, will you?" cried Patty. "What a duck you are! Of course I
+can earn the money, easily."
+
+"Wait a moment; there are conditions, or rather stipulations. You must
+not do anything unbecoming a quiet, refined girl,--but I know you
+wouldn't do that, anyway. You must not engage in any pursuit that keeps
+you away from your home after five o'clock in the afternoon----"
+
+"Oh," interrupted Patty, "I don't propose to go out washing! I shall do
+light work of some sort at home. But never you mind what I do,--of course
+it will be nothing you could possibly object to,--I'll earn fifteen
+dollars in less than a week."
+
+"A week, though, is the proposition. When you bring me fifteen dollars,
+earned by yourself, unassisted, in the space of seven days, I'll carry
+out my part of the bargain."
+
+"But the girl won't accept it," said Patty, regretfully.
+
+"I'm trusting to your tact, and Nan's, to offer the opportunity to her in
+such a way that she will accept it. Couldn't that be done, Hepworth?"
+
+"Why, yes; I daresay it could be managed. And you are very generous, Mr.
+Fairfield, but I can't say I have much hope of Patty's success."
+
+"'Patty's success' is always a foregone conclusion," said that young
+woman, saucily; "and now, at last, I have an aim in life! I shall begin
+to-morrow,--and we'll see!"
+
+The others laughed, for no one could take pretty Patty very seriously,
+except herself.
+
+"But don't tell anybody," she added, as the doorbell rang.
+
+They all promised they wouldn't, and then Elise and Roger came in to
+bring New Year's greetings, and the conversation took a lighter and
+merrier turn.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+DEPARTMENT G
+
+
+Alone in her own room that same night, Patty thought out her great
+project. She was not at all doubtful of her success, she was only
+choosing among the various methods of earning money that occurred to her.
+
+All were easy, and some of them even seemed delightful occupations.
+
+"Father is an angel," she thought to herself; "a big, splendid angel. He
+knew I could do my part easily enough, and he only made it a stipulation
+because he didn't want to shoulder the whole affair outright. He wanted
+me to feel I had a hand in it. He's so tactful and dear. Well, I'll do my
+part so well, he'll have nothing to complain of. Then I'll get Nan to
+write to the girl, and invite her here for a few days or a week. Then I
+rather guess we can gently persuade her to accept the goods the gods
+provide."
+
+Considering the matter as settled, Patty went to sleep and dreamed
+happily of her coming triumphs as a wage-earner.
+
+"Do you go to business to-day, Miss Fairfield?" asked her father, at the
+breakfast table.
+
+"Yes, Mr. Fairfield. That is, I shall occupy myself with my--with my
+occupation."
+
+"Indeed! that is logical, at any rate. Would it be indiscreet to inquire
+the nature of said occupation?"
+
+"It would be not only indiscreet, but useless, for I decline to tell. But
+it is work I shall do at home. I've no desire to enter an office. And,
+you don't need a stenographer, anyway, do you?"
+
+"No, and if I did, I shouldn't take you. You're too young and too
+self-assured,--not desirable traits in office work."
+
+"I may get over them both," said Patty, smiling at him.
+
+"You probably will," said Nan, "before you've succeeded in this
+ridiculous scheme you've undertaken."
+
+"Now, Nannikins, don't desert Mr. Micawber in that cruel fashion," Patty
+flung back, gaily; "the game's never out till it's played out, you know;
+and this game isn't even yet begun."
+
+"You'll be played out before the game is," said her father.
+
+"Oh, daddy, I'm 'fraid that's slang! I am truly 'fraid so!"
+
+"Well, mind now, Puss; you're not to tire yourself too much. Remember
+when you 'most worked yourself to death, at your Commencement
+celebration."
+
+"Yes, but I've had a lot of experience since that. And I'm much weller
+and stronger."
+
+"Yes, you're well; but you're not of a very strong constitution, and
+never will be. So remember, and don't overdo."
+
+"Not I. I can earn fifteen dollars a week, and more too, I know, without
+overdoing myself."
+
+"Good-by, then; I must be off. I'll hear to-night the report of your
+first day's work."
+
+The family separated, and Patty ran singing away to make her preparations
+for the campaign.
+
+"What _are_ you doing?" asked Nan, as she went rummaging in the linen
+closet.
+
+"Nothing naughty," replied Patty, giggling. "Curb your curiosity,
+stepmothery, for it won't be gratified."
+
+Nan laughed and went away, and Patty proceeded to select certain very
+pretty embroidered doilies and centrepieces,--two of each.
+
+These she laid carefully in a flat box, which she tied up into a neat
+parcel. Then she put on her plainest cloth suit, and a small, dark hat,
+and was ready to start.
+
+"Nan," she said, looking in at the library door, "what time do you want
+the motor?"
+
+"Oh, about eleven or twelve. Keep it as long as you like."
+
+"It's only ten now. I'll be back in less than an hour, I'm sure.
+Good-by."
+
+"Good-by," returned Nan. "Good luck to you!"
+
+She thought Patty's scheme ridiculous, but harmless, for she knew the
+girl well enough to know she wouldn't do anything that might lead her
+into an unpleasant position; but she feared that her boundless enthusiasm
+would urge her on beyond the bounds of her nervous strength.
+
+Though soundly healthy, Patty was high-strung, and stopped at no amount
+of exertion to attain a desired end. More than once this nervous energy
+of hers had caused physical collapse, which was what Nan feared for her
+now.
+
+But Patty feared nothing for herself, and going out to the waiting
+motor-car, she gave the chauffeur an address down in the lower part of
+Broadway.
+
+It was so unusual, that Miller hesitated a moment and then said,
+deferentially: "This is 'way downtown, Miss Patty; are you sure the
+number is right?"
+
+"Yes; that's all right," she returned, smiling; "go ahead."
+
+So he went ahead, and after a long ride southward, the car stopped in the
+crowded mercantile portion of lower Broadway.
+
+Patty got out, and looked a little apprehensively at the unfamiliar
+surroundings. "Wait for me," she said to Miller, and then turned
+determinedly to the door.
+
+Yes, the number was right. There was the sign, "Monongahela Art
+Embroidery Company," on the window. Patty opened the big door, and went
+in.
+
+She had fancied it would be like the shops to which she was accustomed,
+where polite floor-walkers stepped up and asked her wishes, but it was
+not at all like that.
+
+It was more like a large warehouse. Partitions that rose only part way to
+the ceiling divided off small rooms or departments, all of which were
+piled high with boxes or crates. The aisles between these were narrow,
+and the whole place was rather dark. Moreover, there seemed to be nobody
+about.
+
+Patty sat down in a chair and waited a few moments, but no one appeared,
+so she got up again.
+
+"Here's where I need my pluck," she said to herself, not frightened, but
+wondering at the situation. "I'll go ahead, but I feel like Alice in
+Wonderland. I know I'll fall into a treacle well."
+
+She traversed half the length of the long building, when she saw a man,
+writing in one of the small compartments.
+
+He looked up at her, and then, apparently without interest in her
+presence there, resumed his work.
+
+Patty was a little annoyed at what she thought discourtesy, and said:
+
+"I've come to answer your advertisement."
+
+"Fourth floor," said the man, indicating the direction by pointing his
+penholder across the room, but not looking up.
+
+"Thank you," said Patty, in a tone intended to rebuke his own lack of
+manners.
+
+But he only went on writing, and she turned to look for the elevator.
+
+She could see none, however, so she walked on, thinking how like a maze
+was this succession of small rooms and little cross aisles. When she saw
+another man writing in another coop, she said politely:
+
+"Will you please direct me to the elevator?"
+
+"What?" said the man, looking at her.
+
+Patty repeated her request.
+
+"Ain't none," he said. "Want work?"
+
+Though unpolished, he was not rude, and after a moment's hesitation,
+Patty said, "Yes, I do."
+
+"Have to hoof it, then. Three flights up; Department G."
+
+"All right," said Patty, whose spirits always rose when she encountered
+difficulties. She saw the staircase, now; a rough, wooden structure of
+unplaned boards, and no balusters. But she trudged up the long flight
+hopefully.
+
+The next floor seemed to be full of whirring looms, and the noise was, as
+Patty described it afterward, like the buzzing of a billion bees! But,
+asking no further directions, she ascended the next staircase and the
+next, until she found herself on the fourth floor.
+
+Several people were bustling about here, all seeming to be very busy and
+preoccupied.
+
+"Where is Department G?" she inquired of a man hurrying by.
+
+"Ask at the desk," he replied, without pausing.
+
+This was ambiguous, as there were more than a score of desks about, each
+tenanted by a busy man, more often than not accompanied by a
+stenographer.
+
+"Oh, dear, what a place!" thought Patty. No one would attend to her
+wants; no one seemed to notice her. She believed she could stand there
+all day if she chose, without being spoken to.
+
+Clearly, she must take the initiative.
+
+She saw a pleasant-faced woman at a desk, and decided to address her.
+
+"Where is Department G, please?" she asked.
+
+"G?" said the woman, looking blank.
+
+"Yes, G. The man downstairs told me it was on the fourth floor. Isn't
+this the fourth floor?"
+
+"Yes, it is."
+
+"Then, where is Department G?"
+
+"G?"
+
+"Yes, _G_!"
+
+"I don't know, I'm sure."
+
+"Who does know?"
+
+"I don't know."
+
+The absurdity of this conversation made Patty smile, which seemed to
+irritate the other.
+
+"I can't help it if I don't know," she snapped out. "I'm new here,
+myself; only came yesterday. I don't know where G is, I'm sure."
+
+"Excuse me," said Patty, sorry that she had smiled, and she turned away.
+
+She caught a red-headed boy, as he passed, whistling, and said:
+
+"Do _you_ know where Department G is?"
+
+"Sure!" said the boy, grinning at her. "Sashay straight acrost de room.
+Pipe de guy wit' de goggles?"
+
+"Thank you," said Patty, restraining her desire to smile at the funny
+little chap.
+
+She went over to the desk indicated. The man seated there looked at her
+over his glasses, and said:
+
+"To embroider?"
+
+"Yes," said Patty.
+
+"Take a chair. Wait a few moments. I'm busy."
+
+Relieved at having reached her goal, Patty sat down in the chair
+indicated and waited. She waited five minutes and then ten, and then
+fifteen.
+
+The man was busy; there was no doubt of that. He dashed off memoranda,
+gave them to messengers, telephoned, whisked drawers open and shut, and
+seemed to be in a very whirl of business.
+
+As there was no indication of a cessation, Patty grew impatient, at last,
+and said:
+
+"Can you attend to my business soon? If not, I'll call some other day."
+
+"Yes," said the man, passing his hand across his brow a little wearily.
+He looked tired, and overworked, and Patty felt sorry for him.
+
+But he whirled round in his office chair and asked her quite civilly what
+she wanted.
+
+"You advertised for embroiderers," began Patty, feeling rather small and
+worthless, "so I came----"
+
+"Yes, yes," said the man, as she paused. "Can you embroider? We use only
+the best. Have you samples of your work?"
+
+"I have," said Patty, beginning to untie her box.
+
+But her fingers trembled, and she couldn't unknot the cord.
+
+The man took it from her, not rudely, but as if every moment were
+precious. Deftly he opened the parcel, and gave a quick glance at Patty's
+exquisite needlework on the doilies and centrepieces she had brought.
+
+"Do it yourself?" he asked, already closing the box again.
+
+"Yes, of course," said Patty, indignant at the implication.
+
+"No offence; that's all right. Your work goes. Report at Department B.
+Good-day."
+
+He handed her the box, whirled round to his desk, and was immediately at
+his work again.
+
+Patty realised she was dismissed, and, taking her box, she started for
+the stairs.
+
+She passed the red-headed boy again, and feeling almost as if she were
+meeting an old friend in a strange land, she said: "Where is Department
+B?"
+
+"Caught on, didjer?" he grinned. "Good fer youse! B, first floor,--that
+way."
+
+He pointed a grimy finger in the direction she should take, and went on,
+whistling. Down the three flights of stairs went Patty, and thanks to the
+clarity of the red-headed one's direction, she soon found Department B.
+
+This was in charge of a sharp-faced woman, rather past middle age.
+
+"Sent by Mr. Myers?" she inquired, looking at Patty coldly.
+
+"I was sent by the man in Department G," returned Patty. "He said my work
+would do, and that I was to report to you."
+
+"All right; how much do you want?" said the woman.
+
+"How much do you pay?" returned Patty.
+
+"Don't be impertinent, miss! I mean how much work do you want?"
+
+"Oh," said Patty, who was quite innocent of any intent to offend. "Why, I
+want enough to last a week."
+
+"Well, that depends on how fast you work," said the woman, speaking with
+some asperity. "Come now, do you want a dozen, or two dozen, or what?"
+
+Patty was strongly tempted to say: "What, thank you!" but she refrained,
+knowing it was no occasion for foolery.
+
+"I don't know till I see them," she replied. "Are they elaborate pieces?"
+
+"Here they are," said the woman, taking some pieces of work from a box.
+Her tone seemed to imply that she was conferring an enormous favour on
+Patty by showing them.
+
+They were rather large centrepieces, all of the same pattern, which was
+stamped, but not embroidered.
+
+"There's a lot of work on those," remarked Patty.
+
+"Oh, you _are_ green!" said the woman. She jerked out another similar
+centrepiece, on which a small section, perhaps one-eighth of the whole,
+was worked in silks.
+
+"This is what you're to do," she explained, in a tired, cross voice. "You
+work this corner, and that's all."
+
+"Who works the rest?" asked Patty, amazed at this plan.
+
+"Why, the buyer. We sell these to the shops; they sell them to people who
+use this finished corner as a guide to do the rest of the piece. Can't
+you understand?"
+
+"Yes, I can, now that you explain it," returned Patty. "Then if I take a
+dozen, I'm to work just that little corner on each one; is that it?"
+
+"That's it," said the woman, wearily, as if she were making the
+explanation for the thousandth time,--as she probably was.
+
+"You can take this as a guide for yourself," she went on, a little more
+kindly, "and here's the silks. Did you say a dozen?"
+
+"Wait a minute," said Patty; "how much do you pay?"
+
+"Five dollars."
+
+"Apiece, I suppose. Yes, I'll take a dozen." The woman gave a hard little
+laugh.
+
+"Five dollars apiece!" she said. "Not much! We pay five dollars a dozen."
+
+"A dozen? Five dollars for all that work! Why, each of those corners is
+as much work as a whole doily."
+
+"Yes, just about; do you work fast?"
+
+"Yes; pretty fast."
+
+Patty was doing some mental calculation. Three dozen of those pieces
+meant an interminable lot of work. But it also meant fifteen dollars, and
+Patty's spirit was now fully roused.
+
+"I'll take three dozen," she said, decidedly; "and I'll bring them back,
+finished, a week from to-day."
+
+"My, you must be a swift worker," said the woman, in a disinterested
+voice.
+
+She was already sorting out silks, as with a practised hand, and making
+all into a parcel.
+
+Patty was about to offer her a visiting card, as she assumed she must
+give her address, when the woman said:
+
+"Eighteen dollars, please."
+
+"What?" said Patty. "What for?"
+
+"Security. You don't suppose we let everybody walk off with our
+materials, and never come back, do you?"
+
+"Do you doubt my honesty?" said Patty, haughtily.
+
+"Don't doubt anybody's honesty," was the reply. "Some folks don't have
+any to doubt. But it's the rule of the house. Six dollars a dozen is the
+deposit price for that pattern."
+
+"But eighteen dollars is more than you're going to pay me for the work,"
+said Patty.
+
+"Yes," said the woman, "but can't you understand? This is a deposit to
+protect ourselves if you never return, or if you spoil the work. If you
+bring it back in satisfactory condition, at the appointed time, we return
+your deposit, and pay you the price agreed upon for the work."
+
+"Oh, I see," said Patty, taking out her purse. "And it does seem fair.
+But isn't it hard for poor girls to put up that deposit?"
+
+"Yes, it is." The woman's face softened a little. "But they get it
+back,--if they do the work right."
+
+"And suppose I bring it back unfinished, or only part done?"
+
+"If what you do is done right, you'll get paid. And if the pieces you
+don't do are unsoiled and in good condition, we redeem them. But if you
+care for steady work here, you'd better not take more'n you can
+accomplish."
+
+"Thank you," said Patty, slowly. "I'll keep the three dozen.
+Good-morning."
+
+"Good-day," said the woman, curtly, and turned away with a tired sigh.
+
+Patty went out to the street, and found Miller looking exceedingly
+anxious about the prolonged absence of his young mistress.
+
+A look of relief overspread his face as she appeared, and when she got
+into the car and said: "Home, Miller," he started with an air of decided
+satisfaction.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+EMBROIDERED BLOSSOMS
+
+
+It was after twelve o'clock when Patty reached home, and she found Nan,
+with her wraps on, rather anxiously awaiting her.
+
+"Patty! Wherever have you been all this time?" she cried, as Patty came
+in with her big bundle.
+
+"Laying the foundations of my great career; and, oh, Nan, it was pretty
+awful! I'm in for it, I can tell you!"
+
+"What a goose you are!" But Nan smiled affectionately at the rosy,
+excited face of her stepdaughter.
+
+"Well, I'm going out on a short errand, Patty. I'll be home to luncheon
+at one, and then you must tell me all about it."
+
+Patty ran up to her own room, and, flinging off her hat and coat, sat
+down to open her bundle of work.
+
+It was appalling. The portion to be embroidered looked larger than it had
+done in the shop, and the pattern was one of the most intricate and
+elaborate she had ever seen.
+
+"Thank goodness, they're all alike," thought poor Patty. "After I do one,
+the others will be easier."
+
+She flew for her embroidery hoops and work-basket, and began at once on
+one of the centrepieces.
+
+The pattern was a floral design, tied with bow-knots and interlaced with
+a conventional lattice-work. The shading of the blossoms was complicated,
+and showed many shades of each colour. The bow-knots were of a solid
+colour, but required close, fine stitches of a tedious nature, while the
+lattice-work part seemed to present an interminable task.
+
+Patty was a skilful embroiderer, and realised at her first glance that
+she had a fearful amount of work before her.
+
+But as yet she was undismayed, and cheerfully started in on the flowers.
+
+She selected the right silks, cut the skeins neatly, and put them in
+thread papers.
+
+"For," she thought, "if I allow my silks to get tangled or mixed up, it
+will delay me, of course."
+
+At one o'clock, Nan came to her room.
+
+"Didn't you hear the luncheon gong?" she said.
+
+"No," replied Patty, looking up. "Is it one o'clock already?"
+
+"For goodness', gracious' sake, Patty! What _are_ you doing? Is _that_
+your 'occupation'?"
+
+"Yes," said Patty, proudly displaying a wild rose, beautifully worked,
+and carefully tinted. "Don't I do it nicely?"
+
+"Indeed you do! Your embroidery is always exquisite. But are you going to
+work that whole centrepiece?"
+
+"No, only a section,--see, just this much."
+
+Patty indicated the portion she was to work, but she didn't say that she
+had thirty-five more, carefully laid away in a box, to do within the
+week.
+
+"Well," agreed Nan, "that's not such a terrific task. But will they give
+you fifteen dollars for that piece?"
+
+"No," said Patty, smiling a little grimly; "but there are others."
+
+"Oho! A lot of them! A dozen, I suppose. They always give out work by
+dozens. Well, girlie, I don't want to be discouraging, but you can't do a
+dozen in a week. Come on down to luncheon."
+
+At the table, Patty gave Nan a graphic description of her morning's
+experiences.
+
+Though more or less shocked at the whole performance, Nan couldn't help
+laughing at Patty's dramatic recital, and the way in which she mimicked
+the various people.
+
+"And yet, Nan," she said, "it's really pathetic; they all seemed so busy
+and so tired. The woman who gave me the work was like a machine,--as if
+she just fed out centrepieces to people who came for them. I'm sure she
+hasn't smiled for fourteen years. The only gay one in the place was the
+red-headed boy; and he talked such fearful slang it cured me of ever
+using it again! Father will be glad of that, anyway. Hereafter I shall
+converse in Henry James diction. Why, Nan, he said, 'Pipe de guy wit' de
+goggles'!"
+
+"What did he mean?" asked Nan, puzzled.
+
+"Oh, he meant, 'observe the gentleman wearing spectacles.'"
+
+"How did you know?"
+
+"Intuition, I suppose. And then, he pointed to the man in question."
+
+"Patty, you'll get more slangy still, if you go among such people."
+
+"No, I won't. There's no cure like an awful example. Watch the elegance
+of my conversation from now on. And besides, Nan, you mustn't act as if I
+associated with them socially. I assure you I was quite the haughty lady.
+But that slangy boy was an angel unawares. I'd probably be there yet but
+for his kindly aid."
+
+"Well, I suppose you'll have to carry this absurd scheme through. And,
+Patty, I'll help you in any way I can. Don't you want me to wind silks,
+or something?"
+
+"No, ducky stepmother of mine. The only way you can help is to head off
+callers. I can do the work if I can keep at it. But if the girls come
+bothering round, I'll never get it done. Now, this afternoon, I want to
+do a lot, so if any one asks for me, won't you gently but firmly refuse
+to let them see me? Make yourself so entertaining that they'll forget my
+existence."
+
+"I'll try," said Nan, dubiously; "but if it's Elise or Clementine,
+they'll insist on seeing you."
+
+"Let 'em insist. Tell 'em I have a sick headache,--for I feel sure I
+shall before the afternoon's over."
+
+"Now, Patty, I won't have that sort of thing! You may work an hour or so,
+then you must rest, or go for a drive, or chat with the girls, or
+something."
+
+"I will, other days, Nan. But to-day I want to put in the solid afternoon
+working, so I'll know how much I can accomplish."
+
+"Have you really a dozen of those things to do, Patty?"
+
+"Yes, I have." Patty didn't dare say she had three dozen. "And if I do
+well this afternoon, I can calculate how long the work will take. Oh,
+Nan, I do want to succeed. It isn't only the work, you know, it's the
+principle. I hate to be baffled; and I _won't_ be!"
+
+A stubborn look came into Patty's pretty eyes,--a look which Nan knew
+well. A look which meant that the indomitable will might be broken but
+not bent, and that Patty would persevere in her chosen course until she
+conquered or was herself defeated.
+
+So, after luncheon, she returned to her task, a little less certain of
+success than she had been, but no less persevering.
+
+The work was agreeable to her. She loved to embroider, and the dainty
+design and exquisite colouring appealed to her aesthetic sense.
+
+Had it been only one centrepiece, and had she not felt hurried, it would
+have been a happy outlook.
+
+But as she carefully matched the shades of silk to the sample piece, she
+found that it took a great deal of time to get the tints exactly right.
+
+"But that's only for the first one," she thought hopefully; "for all the
+others, I shall know just which silks to use. I'll lay them in order, so
+there'll be no doubt about it."
+
+Her habits of method and system stood her in good stead now, and her
+skeins, carefully marked, were laid in order on her little work-table.
+
+But though her fingers fairly flew, the pattern progressed slowly. She
+even allowed herself to leave long stitches on the wrong side,--a thing
+she never did in her own embroidery. She tried to do all the petals of
+one tint at once, to avoid delay of changing the silks. She used every
+effort to make "her head save her hands," but the result was that both
+head and hands became heated and nervous.
+
+"This won't do," she said to herself, as the silk frazzled between her
+trembling fingers. "If I get nervous, I'll never accomplish anything!"
+
+She forced herself to be calm, and to move more slowly, but the mental
+strain of hurry, and the physical strain of eyes and muscles, made her
+jerky, and the stitches began to be less true and correct.
+
+"I'll be sensible," she thought; "I'll take ten minutes off and relax."
+
+She went downstairs, singing, and trying to assume a careless demeanour.
+
+Going into Nan's sitting-room, she said:
+
+"Work's going on finely. I came down for a glass of water, and to rest a
+minute. Any one been here?"
+
+"No," said Nan, pleasantly, pretending not to notice Patty's flushed
+cheeks and tired eyes. Really, she had several times stolen on tiptoe to
+Patty's door, and anxiously looked at her bending over her work. But
+Patty didn't know this, and wise Nan concluded the time to speak was not
+yet.
+
+"No, no one came in to disturb you, which is fortunate. You're sensible,
+dear, to rest a bit. Jane will bring you some water. Polly want a
+cracker?"
+
+"No, thank you; I'm not hungry. Nan, that's awfully fine work."
+
+"Yes, I know it, Patsy. But remember, you don't _have_ to do it. Give the
+thing a fair trial, and if it doesn't go easily, give it up and try
+something else."
+
+"It goes easily enough; it isn't that. But you know yourself, you can't
+do really good embroidery if you do it too rapidly."
+
+"'Deed you can't! But you do such wonderfully perfect work, that I should
+think you could afford to slight it a little, and still have it better
+than other people's."
+
+"Nan, you're such a comfort!" cried Patty, jumping up to embrace her
+stepmother. "You always say just the very right thing. Now, I'm going
+back to work. I feel all rested now, and I'm sure I can finish a lot
+to-day. Why, Nan Fairfield! for goodness' sake! Is it really four
+o'clock?"
+
+Patty had just noticed the time, and was aghast! Two solid hours she had
+worked, and only a small portion of one piece was done! She hadn't
+dreamed the time had flown so, and thought it about three o'clock.
+
+Slightly disheartened at this discovery, she went back to work. At first,
+the silks went smoothly enough, then hurry and close application brought
+on the fidgets again.
+
+Before five o'clock, she had to turn on the electric lights, and then, to
+her dismay, the tints of the silks changed, and she couldn't tell yellow
+from pink; or green from gray.
+
+"Well," she thought, "I'll work the bow-knots. They're of one solid
+colour, and it's straight sailing."
+
+Straight sailing it was,--but very tedious. An untrue stitch spoiled the
+smooth continuance of the embroidery that was to represent tied ribbon
+bows. An untrue stitch--and she made several--had to be picked out and
+done over, and this often meant frayed silk, or an unsightly needle hole
+in the linen.
+
+Long before Patty thought it was time, the dressing-gong for dinner
+sounded.
+
+She jumped, greatly surprised at the flight of time, but also relieved,
+that now she _must_ lay aside her work. She longed to throw herself down
+on her couch and rest, but there was no time for that.
+
+However, after she bathed and dressed, she felt refreshed, and it was a
+bright, merry-faced Patty who danced downstairs to greet her father.
+
+If he thought her cheeks unusually pink, or her eyes nervously bright, he
+made no allusion to it.
+
+"Well, Puss, how goes the 'occupation'?" he said, patting her shoulder.
+
+"It's progressing, father," she replied, "but if you'd just as leave, we
+won't talk about it to-night. I'll tell you all about it, after I finish
+it."
+
+"All right, Pattykins; we business people never like to 'talk shop.'"
+
+And then Mr. Fairfield, who had been somewhat enlightened by Nan as to
+how matters stood, chatted gaily of other things, and Patty forgot her
+troublesome work, and was quite her own gay, saucy self again.
+
+Kenneth dropped in in the evening, to bring a song which he had promised
+Patty. They tried it over together, and then Patty said:
+
+"Would you mind, Ken, if I ask you not to stay any longer, to-night? I've
+something I want to do, and----"
+
+"Mind? Of course not. I rather fancy we're good enough friends not to
+misunderstand each other. If you'll let me come and make up my time some
+other night, I'll skip out now, so quick you can't see me fly!"
+
+"All right," said Patty, smiling at his hearty, chummy manner. "I do wish
+you would. I'm not often busy, as you know."
+
+"'Course I know it. Good-night, lady, I'm going to leave you now," and
+with a hearty handshake and a merry smile, Kenneth went away, and Patty
+went to her own room.
+
+"I can work on that bow-knot part, to-night," she said to herself; "and
+then to-morrow, I'll get up early and do the rest of the flowers before
+breakfast."
+
+Her task had begun to look hopeless, but she was not yet ready to admit
+it, and she assured herself that, of course, the others would go much
+more rapidly than the first.
+
+She took down her hair and braided it into a long pigtail; then she put
+on a comfortable kimono and sat down to work.
+
+She stitched, and she stitched, and she stitched, at the monotonous over
+and over bow-knots. Doggedly she kept on, though her shoulders ached, her
+eyes smarted, and her fingers trembled.
+
+With a kind of whimsical pathos, she repeated to herself Hood's "Song of
+the Shirt," and said, under her breath, "'Stitch, stitch, stitch, till
+the cock is crowing aloof,' or whatever it is!"
+
+Then she saw by her watch that it was eleven o'clock.
+
+"I'll just finish this bow," she thought, "and then, I'll stop."
+
+But before the bow was finished, there was a tap at her door.
+
+"Who's there?" said Patty, in a voice which carried no invitation to
+enter.
+
+"It's us," said Nan, firmly, if ungrammatically, "and we're coming in!"
+
+Mr. and Mrs. Fairfield entered, and Patty, trying to make the best of it,
+looked up and smiled.
+
+"How do you do?" she said. "Take seats, won't you? I'm just amusing
+myself, you see."
+
+But the tired voice had a quiver in it, for all at once Patty saw that
+she had failed. She had worked hard all the afternoon and evening, and
+had not finished one of her thirty-six pieces! It was this discovery that
+upset her, rather than the unexpected visit from her parents.
+
+"Girlie, this won't do," began her father, in his kindest tones.
+
+"I know it!" cried Patty, throwing down her work, and flinging herself
+into her father's arms. "I can't do it, daddy, I can't! I haven't done
+one yet, and I never can do thirty-six!"
+
+"Thirty-six!" exclaimed Nan. "Patty, are you crazy?"
+
+"I think I must have been," said Patty, laughing a little hysterically,
+as she took the great pile of centrepieces from a wardrobe, and threw
+them into Nan's lap.
+
+"But,--but you said a dozen!" said Nan, bewildered.
+
+"Oh, no, I didn't," returned Patty. "_You_ said, did I bring a dozen, and
+I said yes. Also, I brought two dozen more."
+
+"To do in a week!" said Nan, in an awe struck voice.
+
+"Yes, to do in a week!" said Patty, mimicking Nan's tones; and then they
+both laughed.
+
+But Mr. Fairfield didn't laugh. His limited knowledge of embroidery made
+him ignorant of how much work "three dozen" might mean, but he knew the
+effect it had already had on Patty, and he knew it was time to interfere.
+
+"My child----" he began, but Patty interrupted him.
+
+"Don't waste words, daddy, dear," she said. "It's all over. I've tried
+and failed; but remember, this is only my first attempt."
+
+The fact that she realised her failure was in a way a relief, for the
+strain of effort was over, and she could now see the absurdity of the
+task she had undertaken.
+
+She had reached what some one has called "the peace of defeat," and her
+spirits reacted as after an escape from peril.
+
+"I must have been crazy, Nan," she said, sitting down beside her on the
+couch. "Just think; I've worked about six hours, and I've done about half
+of one piece. And I brought thirty-six!"
+
+This statement of the case gave Mr. Fairfield a clearer idea, and he
+laughed, too.
+
+"No, Patty; I think I need say nothing more. I see you know when you're
+beaten, and I fancy you won't touch needle to that pile of work again! I
+hope you can settle matters with your 'employer'; if not, I'll help you
+out. But I want to congratulate you on your pluck and perseverance, even
+if,--well, even if they were----"
+
+"Crazy," supplemented Patty.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+SLIPS AND SLEEVES
+
+
+The next morning Nan went with Patty to take the centrepieces back to the
+embroidery company.
+
+"I shall really like to see that woman," said Nan, as they reached the
+shop.
+
+"I'm sorry for her," said Patty; "she's so pathetically weary and
+hopeless-looking."
+
+So she was, and when Nan saw her, she felt sorry for her, too.
+
+"Couldn't work as fast as you thought?" she said to Patty, not unkindly,
+but with the hard smile that seemed to be permanently fastened to her
+face.
+
+"No, I couldn't," confessed Patty. "I only worked part of one piece. I've
+brought all the rest back, in good order, and I want you to redeem them."
+
+In her mechanical way, the woman took the untouched centrepieces, looked
+at them critically, and laid them aside. Then she took up the piece Patty
+had worked on.
+
+"I'll have to deduct for this," she said; "a dollar and a half."
+
+"What do you mean?" asked Nan, angry at what she considered gross
+injustice. "Miss Fairfield does not ask payment; she is giving you all
+that work."
+
+"She has spoiled this piece for our use. She works nicely enough, but no
+two people work exactly alike, so no one else could now take this and
+complete the corner. So, you see the piece is valueless, and we must
+charge for it. Moreover, I should have to deduct fifty cents if it had
+been finished, because long stitches show on the wrong side."
+
+"And you don't allow that?" said Nan.
+
+"Never. We deduct for that, or for soiling the work, or for using wrong
+colours."
+
+"Well," said Patty, "return me as much of my deposit as is due me, and
+we'll consider the incident closed."
+
+Stolidly, the woman opened a drawer, counted out sixteen dollars and a
+half, and gave it to Patty, who said good-day, and stalked out of the
+shop.
+
+Nan followed, and when they were seated in the motor-car, both broke into
+peals of laughter.
+
+"Oh, Patty," cried Nan, "what a financier you are! You nearly killed
+yourself working yesterday, and now you've paid a dollar and a half for
+the privilege!"
+
+"Pooh!" said Patty. "Nothing of the sort. I paid a dollar and a half for
+some valuable experience, and I think I got it cheap enough!"
+
+"Yes, I suppose you did. Well, what are you going to do next? For I know
+you well enough to know you're not going to give up your scheme
+entirely."
+
+"Indeed I'm not! But to-day I'm going to frivol. I worked hard enough
+yesterday to deserve a rest, and I'm going to take it. Come on, let's go
+somewhere nice to luncheon, and then go to a matinee; it's Wednesday."
+
+"Very well; I think you do need recreation. I'll take you to Cherry's for
+luncheon, and then we'll go to see a comic opera, or some light comedy."
+
+"You're a great comfort, Nan," said Patty. "You always do just the right
+thing. But you needn't think you can divert my mind to the extent of
+making me give up this plan of mine. For I won't do that."
+
+"I know you won't. But next time do try something easier."
+
+"I shall. I've already made up my mind what it's to be; and truly, it's
+dead easy."
+
+"I thought your red-headed friend cured you of using slang," said Nan,
+smiling.
+
+"I thought so, too," said Patty, with an air of innocent surprise. "Isn't
+it queer how one can be mistaken?"
+
+True to her determination, Patty started out again the following morning
+to get an "occupation," as they all termed it.
+
+Again Miller was amazed at the address given him, but he said nothing,
+and proceeded to drive Patty to it.
+
+It was even less attractive than the former shop, being nothing more or
+less than an establishment where "white work" was given out.
+
+"How many?" asked the woman in charge, and, profiting by past experience,
+Patty said:
+
+"One dozen."
+
+The woman took her name and address, in a quick, business-like way.
+
+"One dollar a dozen," she said. "Must be returned within the week.
+Deductions made for all imperfections."
+
+She handed Patty a large bundle done up in newspaper, and, with flaming
+cheeks, Patty walked out of the shop.
+
+"Home, Miller," she said, and though the man was too well trained to look
+surprised, he couldn't keep an expression of astonishment out of his eyes
+when he saw Patty's burden.
+
+On the way home she opened the parcel.
+
+There were in it twelve infants' slips, of rather coarse muslin. They
+were cut out, but not basted.
+
+Patty looked a little doubtful, then she thought:
+
+"Oh, pshaw! It's very different from that fine embroidery. I can swish
+these through the sewing-machine in no time at all."
+
+Reaching home, she threw the lap-robe over her bundle, and hurried into
+the house with it.
+
+"Patty," called Nan, as she whisked upstairs to her own room, "come here,
+won't you?"
+
+"Yes, in a minute," Patty called back, flying on upstairs, and depositing
+the bundle in a wardrobe.
+
+She locked the door, and hid the key, then went demurely downstairs.
+
+"Occupation all right?" asked Nan, smiling.
+
+"Yes," said Patty, jauntily. "Good work this time; not so fine and
+fussy."
+
+"Well; I only wanted to tell you that Elise telephoned, and wants you to
+go to a concert with her this afternoon. I forget where it is; she said
+for you to call her up as soon as you came home."
+
+"All right, I will," said Patty, and she went to the telephone at once.
+
+"It's a lovely concert, Nan," she said, as she returned. "Jigamarigski is
+going to sing, and afterward I'm to go home with Elise to dinner, and
+they'll bring me home. What shall I wear?"
+
+"Wear your light green cloth suit, and your furs," said Nan, after a
+moment's consideration. "And your big white beaver hat. It's too dressy
+an affair for your black hat."
+
+Apparently the "occupation" was forgotten, for during luncheon time,
+Patty chatted about the concert and other matters, and at two o'clock she
+went away.
+
+"You look lovely," said Nan, as, in her pretty cloth suit, and white hat
+and furs, Patty came to say good-by.
+
+The concert proved most enjoyable. Dinner at the Farringtons' was equally
+so, and when Patty reached home at about nine o'clock, she had much to
+tell Nan and her father, who were always glad to hear of her social
+pleasures.
+
+"And the occupation?" asked Mr. Fairfield. "How is it progressing?"
+
+"Nicely, thank you," returned Patty. "I've picked an easy one this time.
+One has to learn, you know."
+
+Smiling, she went to her room that night, determined to attack the work
+next morning and hurry it through.
+
+But next morning came a note from Clementine, asking Patty to go to the
+photographer's with her at ten, and as Patty had promised to do this when
+called on, she didn't like to refuse.
+
+"And, anyway," she thought, "a week is a week. Whatever day I begin this
+new work, I shall have a week from that day to earn the fifteen dollars
+in."
+
+Then, that afternoon was so fine, she went for a motor-ride with Nan.
+
+And the next day, some guests came to luncheon, and naturally, Patty
+couldn't absent herself without explanation.
+
+And then came Sunday. And so it was Monday morning before Patty began her
+new work.
+
+"Excuse me to any one who comes, Nan," she said, as she left the
+breakfast table. "I have to work to-day, and I mustn't be interrupted."
+
+"Very well," said Nan. "I think, myself, it's time you began, if you're
+going to accomplish anything."
+
+Armed with her pile of work, and her basket of sewing materials, Patty
+went up to the fourth floor, where a small room was set apart as a
+sewing-room. It was rarely used, save by the maids, for Nan was not fond
+of sewing; but there was a good sewing-machine there, and ample light and
+space.
+
+Full of enthusiasm, Patty seated herself at the sewing-machine, and
+picked up the cut-out work.
+
+"I'll be very systematic," she thought. "I'll do all the side seams
+first; then all the hems; then I'll stitch up all the little sleeves at
+once."
+
+The plan worked well. The simple little garments had but two seams, and
+setting the machine stitch rather long, Patty whizzed the little white
+slips through, one after the other, singing in time to her treadle.
+
+"Oh, it's too easy!" she thought, as in a short time the twenty-four
+seams were neatly stitched.
+
+"Now, for the hems."
+
+These were a little more troublesome, as they had to be folded and
+basted; but still, it was an easy task, and Patty worked away like a busy
+bee.
+
+"Now for the babykins' sleeves," she said, but just then the luncheon
+gong sounded.
+
+"Not really!" cried Patty, aloud, as she glanced at her watch.
+
+But in very truth it was one o'clock, and it was a thoughtful Patty who
+walked slowly downstairs.
+
+"Nan," she exclaimed, "the trouble with an occupation is, that there's
+not time enough in a day, or a half-day, to do anything."
+
+Nan nodded her head sagaciously.
+
+"I've always noticed that," she said. "It's only when you're playing,
+that there's any time. If you try to work, there's no time at all."
+
+"Not a bit!" echoed Patty, "and what there is, glides through your
+fingers before you know it."
+
+She hurried through her luncheon, and returned to the sewing-room. She
+was not tired, but there was a great deal yet to do.
+
+The tiny sleeves she put through the machine, one after another, until
+she had twenty-four in a long chain, linked by a single stitch.
+
+"Oh, method and system accomplish wonders," she thought, as she snipped
+the sleeves apart, and rapidly folded hems round the little wrists.
+
+But even with method and system, twenty-four is a large number, and as
+Patty turned the last hem, twilight fell, and she turned on the lights.
+
+"Goodness, gracious!" she thought. "I've yet all these sleeves to set,
+and stitch in, and the fronts to finish off; and a buttonhole to work in
+each neckband."
+
+But it was only half-past four, and by half-past six they were all
+finished but the buttonholes.
+
+And Patty was nearly finished, too!
+
+She had not realised how physically tired she was. Running the
+sewing-machine all day was an unusual exertion, and when she reached her
+own room, with her arms full of the little white garments, she threw them
+on the bed, and threw herself on the couch, weary in every bone and
+muscle.
+
+"Well, what luck?" said Nan, appearing at Patty's doorway, herself all
+dressed for dinner.
+
+"Oh, Nan," cried Patty, laughing, "me legs is broke; and me arms is
+broke; and me back is broke. But I'm not nervous or worried, and I'm
+going to win out this time! But, Nan, I just _can't_ go down to dinner.
+Send Jane up with a tray,--there's a dear. And tell father I'm all right,
+but I don't care to mingle in society to-night."
+
+"Well, I'm glad you're in good spirits," said Nan, half annoyed, half
+laughing, as she saw the pile of white work on the bed.
+
+"Run along, Nan, there's a good lady," said Patty, jumping up, and urging
+Nan out the door. "Skippy-skip, before father comes up to learn the
+latest news from the seat of war. Tell him everything is all right, and
+I'm earning my living with neatness and despatch, only working girls
+simply can't get into chiffons and dine with the 'quality.'"
+
+Reassured by Patty's gay air, Nan went downstairs, laughing, and told her
+husband that she believed Patty would yet accomplish her project.
+
+"These experiences will do her no harm," said Mr. Fairfield, after
+hearing Nan's story. "So long as she doesn't get nervous or mentally
+upset, we'll let her go on with her experiment. She's a peculiar nature,
+and has a wonderful amount of will-power for one so young."
+
+"I've always heard you were called stubborn," said Nan, smiling, "though
+I've never seen it specially exemplified in your case."
+
+"One doesn't need to be stubborn with such an angelic disposition as
+yours in the house," he returned, and Nan smiled happily, for she knew
+the words were lovingly in earnest.
+
+Meantime, Patty was sitting luxuriously in a big easy-chair, eating her
+dinner from the tray Jane had brought her.
+
+"This is rather fun," she thought; "and my, but running a sewing-machine
+does give one an appetite! I could eat two trays-full, I verily believe.
+Thank goodness, I've no more stitching to do."
+
+Having despatched her dinner, perhaps a trifle hastily, Patty reluctantly
+left her big easy-chair for a small rocker by the drop-light.
+
+She wearily picked up a little gown, cut a buttonhole at the throat, and
+proceeded to work it. As she was so skilful at embroidery, of course this
+was easy work; but Patty was tired, and her fingers almost refused to
+push the needle through the cloth. About ten o'clock Nan came upstairs.
+
+Patty was just sewing on the last button, the buttonholes being all done.
+
+This fact made her jubilant.
+
+"Nan!" she cried; "what _do_ you think! I've made a whole dozen of these
+baby-slips to-day!"
+
+"Patty! You don't mean it! Why, my dear child, how could you?"
+
+"On the machine. And they're done neatly, aren't they?"
+
+"Yes, they are, indeed. But Patty----"
+
+"What?"
+
+"I hate to tell you,--but----"
+
+"Oh, what is it, Nan? Is the material wrong side out?"
+
+"No, you goosie, there's no right or wrong side to cotton cloth, but----"
+
+"Well, tell me!"
+
+"Every one of these little sleeves is made upside down!"
+
+"Oh, Nan! It can't be!"
+
+"Yes, they are, dearie. See, this wider part should have been at the
+top."
+
+"Oh, Nan, what shall I do? I thought they were sort of flowing sleeves,
+you know. Kimono-shaped ones, I mean."
+
+"No; they're set wrong. Oh, Patty, why didn't you let me help you? But
+you told me to keep away."
+
+"Yes, I know I did. Now, I've spoiled the whole dozen! I like them just
+as well that way, myself, but I know they'll 'deduct' for it."
+
+"Patty, I don't think you ought to do 'white work' anyway. How much are
+they going to pay you?"
+
+"A dollar a dozen."
+
+"And you've done a dozen in a day. That won't bring you fifteen dollars
+in a week."
+
+"Well, I thought the second dozen would go faster, and it probably will.
+And, of course, I shan't make that mistake with the sleeves again. Truly,
+Nan, it's a heap easier than embroidery."
+
+"Well, don't worry over it to-night," said Nan, kissing her. "Take a hot
+bath and hop into bed. Perhaps you have found the right work after all."
+
+Nan didn't really think she had, but Patty had begun to look worried, and
+Nan feared she wouldn't be able to sleep.
+
+But sleep she did, from sheer physical exhaustion.
+
+And woke next morning, almost unable to move! Every muscle in her body
+was lame from her strenuous machine work. She couldn't rise from her bed,
+and could scarcely raise her head from the pillow.
+
+When Catherine, Nan's maid, came to her room, Patty said, faintly:
+
+"Ask Mrs. Fairfield to come up, please."
+
+Nan came, and Patty looked at her comically, as she said:
+
+"Nan, I'm vanquished, but not subdued. I'm just one mass of lameness and
+ache, but if you think I've given up my plan, you're greatly mistaken.
+However, I'm through with 'white work,' and I've sewed my last sew on a
+machine."
+
+"Why, Patty girl, you're really ill," said Nan, sympathetically.
+
+"No, I'm not! I'm perfectly well. Just a trifle lame from over-exercise
+yesterday. I'll stay in bed to-day, and Nan, dear, if you love me, take
+those slips back to the kind lady who let me have them to play with. Make
+her pay you a dollar for the dozen, and don't let her deduct more than a
+dollar for the upside-downness of the sleeves. Tell her they're prettier
+that way, anyway. And, Catharine, do please rub me with some healing
+lotion or something,--for I'm as lame as a jelly-fish!"
+
+"Patty," said Nan, solemnly, "the occasion requires strong language. So I
+will remark in all seriousness, that, you do beat all!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+THE CLEVER GOLDFISH
+
+
+FINANCIALLY, Patty came out just even on her 'white work,' for though the
+woman paid Nan the dollar for the dozen finished garments, she deducted
+the same amount for the wrongly placed sleeves.
+
+She also grumbled at the long machine stitch Patty had used, but Nan's
+patience was exhausted, and giving the woman a calm stare, she walked out
+of the shop.
+
+"It's perfectly awful," she said to Patty, when relating her adventure,
+"to think of the poor girls who are really trying to earn their living by
+white work. It's all very well for you, who are only experimenting, but
+suppose a real worker gets all her pay deducted!"
+
+"There's hardly enough pay to pay for deducting it, anyway," said Patty.
+"Oh, Nan, it is dreadful! I suppose lots of poor girls who feel as tired
+and lame as I do this morning, have to go straight back to their
+sewing-machine and run it all day."
+
+"Of course they do; and often they're of delicate constitutions, and
+insufficiently nourished."
+
+"It makes me feel awful. Things are unevenly divided in this world,
+aren't they, Nan?"
+
+"They are, my dear; but as that problem has baffled wiser heads than
+yours, it's useless for you to worry over it. You can't reform the
+world."
+
+"No; and I don't intend to try. But I can do something to help. I know I
+can. That's where people show their lack of a sense of proportion. I know
+I can't do anything for the world, as a world, but if I can help in a few
+individual cases, that will be my share. For instance, if I can help this
+Christine Farley to an art education, and so to a successful career, why
+that's so much to the good. And though father has set me a hard task to
+bring it about, I'm going to do it yet."
+
+"Your father wouldn't have set you such a task if you hadn't declared it
+was no task at all! You said you could earn your living easily in a dozen
+different ways. Already you've discarded two."
+
+"That leaves me ten!" said Patty, airily. "Ten ways of earning a living
+is a fair show. I can discard nine more and still have a chance."
+
+"All right, Patsy. I'm glad you're not disheartened. And I suppose you
+are learning something of the conditions of our social economy."
+
+"Gracious, Nan! How you _do_ talk! Are you quite sure you know what you
+mean?"
+
+"No, but I thought you would," said Nan, and with that parting shot, she
+left the room.
+
+It was late in the afternoon before Patty dawdled downstairs.
+
+Her shoulders and the back of her neck still ached, but otherwise she
+felt all right again, and her spirits had risen proportionately.
+
+About four o'clock Kenneth called, bringing a mysterious burden, which he
+carried with great care.
+
+He knew of Patty's scheme, and though he appreciated the nobility of her
+endeavour, he could not feel very sanguine hopes of her success.
+
+"You're not cut out for a wage-earner, Patty," he had said to her; "it's
+like a butterfly making bread."
+
+"But I don't want to be a butterfly," Patty had pouted.
+
+"Oh, I don't mean butterfly,--as so many people do,--to represent a
+frivolous, useless person. I have a great respect for butterflies,
+myself. And you radiate the same effect of joy, happiness, gladness, and
+beauty, as a butterfly does when hovering around in the golden sunshine
+of a summer day."
+
+"Why, Ken, I didn't know you were a poet. But you haven't proved your
+case."
+
+"Yes, I have. It's your mission in life to be happy, and so to make
+others happy. This you can do without definite effort, so stick to your
+calling, and let the more prosaic people, the plodders,--earn wages."
+
+"Let me earn the wages of my country, and I care not who makes it smile,"
+Patty had rejoined, and there the subject had dropped.
+
+To-day, when he arrived, carrying what was evidently something fragile,
+Patty greeted him gaily.
+
+"I'm not working to-day," she said; "so you can stay 'most an hour if you
+like."
+
+"Well, I will; and if you'll wait till I set down this precious burden,
+I'll shake hands with you. I come, like the Greeks, bearing gifts."
+
+"A gift? Oh, what is it? I'm crazy to see it."
+
+"Well, it's a gift; but, incidentally, it's a plan for wage-earning. If
+you really want to wage-earn, you may as well do it in an interesting
+way."
+
+"Yes," said Patty, demurely, for she well knew he was up to some sort of
+foolery. "My attempts so far, though absorbing, were not really
+interesting."
+
+"Well, this is!" declared Kenneth, who was carefully taking the tissue
+papers from his gift, which proved to be a glass globe, containing two
+goldfish.
+
+"They are Darby and Juliet," he remarked, as he looked anxiously into the
+bowl. "I am so tired of hackneyed pairs of names, that I've varied these.
+But, won't you send for some more water? I had to bring them with only a
+little, for fear I'd spill it, and they seem to have drunk it nearly all
+up."
+
+"Nonsense! they don't drink the water; they only swim in it."
+
+"That's the trouble. There isn't enough for them to swim in. And yet
+there's too much for them to drink."
+
+Patty rang for Jane, who then brought them a pitcher of ice water.
+
+Kenneth poured it in, but at the sudden cold deluge, Darby and Juliet
+began to behave in an extraordinary manner. They flew madly round and
+round the bowl, hitting each other, and breathing in gasps.
+
+"The water's too cold," cried Patty.
+
+"Of course it is," said Kenneth; "get some hot water, won't you?"
+
+Patty ran herself for the hot water, and returned with a pitcher full.
+
+"Don't you want a little mustard?" she said, giggling. "I know they've
+taken cold. A hot mustard foot-bath is fine for colds."
+
+"And that is very odd, because they haven't any feet," quoted Kenneth, as
+he poured the hot water in very slowly.
+
+"Do you want a bath thermometer?" went on Patty.
+
+"No; when they stop wriggling it's warm enough. There, now they're all
+right."
+
+Kenneth set down the hot water pitcher and looked with pride on the two
+fish, who had certainly stopped wriggling.
+
+"They're awful quiet," said Patty. "Are you sure they're all right? I
+think you've boiled them."
+
+"Nothing of the sort. They like warmth, only it makes them sort of----"
+
+"Dormant," suggested Patty.
+
+"Yes, clever child, dormant. And now while they sleep, I'll tell you my
+plan. You see, these are extra intelligent goldfish,--especially Juliet,
+the one with a black spot on her shoulder. Well, you've only to train
+them a bit, and then give exhibitions of your trained goldfish! You've no
+idea what a hit it will make."
+
+"Kenneth, you're a genius!" cried Patty, meeting his fun halfway. "It's
+lots easier than white work. Come on, help me train them, won't you? How
+do we begin?"
+
+"They're still sleepy," said Kenneth, looking at the inert fish. "They
+need stirring up."
+
+"I'll get a spoon," said Patty, promptly.
+
+"No, just waggle the water with your finger. They'll come up."
+
+Patty waggled the water with her finger, but Darby only blinked at her,
+while Juliet flounced petulantly.
+
+"She's high-strung," observed Kenneth, "and a trifle bad-tempered. But
+she won't stand scolding. Let's take her out and pet her a little."
+
+"How do you get her out? With a hook and line?"
+
+"No, silly! You must be kind to them. Here, puss, puss, puss! Come,
+Jooly-ooly-et! Come!"
+
+But Juliet haughtily ignored the invitation and huddled in the bottom of
+the bowl.
+
+"Try this," said Patty, running to the dining-room, and returning with a
+silver fish server.
+
+This worked beautifully, and Kenneth scooped up Juliet, who lay quietly
+on the broad silver blade, blinking at them reproachfully.
+
+"She's hungry, Ken; see how she opens and shuts her mouth."
+
+"No; she's trying to talk. I told you she was clever. I daresay you can
+teach her to sing. She looks just as you do when you take a high note."
+
+"You horrid boy! But she does, really. Anyway, let's feed them. What do
+they eat?"
+
+"I brought their food with me; it's some patent stuff, very well
+advertised. Here, Julie!"
+
+Gently slipping Juliet back into the water, Ken scattered some food on
+the surface.
+
+Both fish rose to the occasion and greedily ate the floating particles.
+
+"That's the trouble," said Ken. "They have no judgment. They overeat, and
+then they die of apoplexy. And, too, if they eat too much, you can't
+train them to stand on their tails and beg."
+
+"Oh, will they learn to do that? And what else can we teach them?"
+
+"Oh, anything acrobatic; trapeze work and that. But they're sleepy now;
+you fed them too much for just an afternoon tea. Let's leave them to
+their nap, and train them after they wake up."
+
+"All right; let's sit down and talk seriously."
+
+"Patty, you're always ready to talk seriously of late. That's why I
+brought you some Nonsense Fish, to lighten your mood a little."
+
+"Don't you worry about my mood, Ken; it's light enough. But I want you to
+help me earn my living for a week. Will you?"
+
+"That I will not! I'll be no party to your foolishness."
+
+"Now, Ken," went on Patty, for she knew his "bark was worse than his
+bite," "I don't want you to do anything much. But, in your law office,
+where you're studying, aren't there some papers I can copy, or something
+like that?"
+
+"Patty, you're a back number. That 'copying' that you mean is all out of
+date. In these days of typewriters and manifold thigamajigs, we lawyers
+don't have much copying done by hand. Except, perhaps, engrossing. Can
+you do that?"
+
+"How prettily you say 'we lawyers,'" teased Patty.
+
+"Of course I do. I'm getting in practice against the time it'll be true.
+But if you really want to copy, buy a nice Spencerian Copy-book, and fill
+up its pages. It'll be about as valuable as any other work of the sort."
+
+"Ken, you're horrid. So unsympathetic."
+
+"I'm crool only to be kind! You must know, Patty, that copying is out of
+the question."
+
+"Well, never mind then; let's talk of something else."
+
+"'Let's sit upon the ground and tell strange stories of the death of
+kings.'"
+
+"Oh, Ken, that reminds me. You know my crystal ball?"
+
+"I do indeed; I selected it with utmost care."
+
+"Yes, it's a gem. Perfectly flawless. Well, I'll get it, and see if we
+can see things in it."
+
+Patty ran for her crystal, and returning to the library held it up to the
+fading sunlight, and tried to look into it.
+
+"That isn't the way, Patty; you have to lay it on black velvet, or
+something dark."
+
+"Oh, do you? Well, here's a dark mat on this table. Try that."
+
+They gazed intently into the ball, and though they could see nothing,
+Patty felt a weird sense of uncanniness.
+
+Ken laughed when she declared this, and said:
+
+"Nothing in the world but suggestion. You think a Japanese crystal
+_ought_ to make you feel supernatural, and so you imagine it does. But it
+doesn't any such nonsense. Now, I'll tell you why I like them. Only
+because they're so flawlessly perfect. In shape, colour, texture,--if you
+can call it texture,--but I mean material or substance. There isn't an
+attribute that they possess, except in perfection. That's a great thing,
+Patty; and you can't say it of anything else."
+
+"The stars," said Patty, trying to look wise.
+
+"Oh, pshaw! I mean things made by man."
+
+"Great pictures," she suggested.
+
+"Their perfection is a matter of opinion. One man deems a picture
+perfect, another man does not. But a crystal ball is indubitably
+perfect."
+
+"Indubitably is an awful big word," said Patty. "I'm afraid of it."
+
+"Never mind," said Kenneth, kindly, "I won't let it hurt you."
+
+Then the doorbell rang, and in a moment in came Elise and Roger.
+
+"Hello, Ken," said Elise. "We came for Patty to go skating. Will you go,
+too?"
+
+"I can't go to-day," said Patty, "I'm too tired. And it's too late,
+anyway. You stay here, and we'll have tea."
+
+"All right, I don't care," said Elise, taking off her furs.
+
+The quartette gathered round the library fire, and Jane brought in the
+tea things.
+
+Patty made tea very prettily, for she excelled in domestic accomplishments,
+and as she handed Kenneth his cup, she said, roguishly, "There's a perfect
+cup of tea, I can assure you."
+
+"Perfect tea, all right," returned Ken, sipping it, "but a cup of tea
+can't be a perfect thing, as it hasn't complete symmetry of form."
+
+"What are you two talking about?" demanded Elise, who didn't want Ken and
+Patty to have secrets from which she was excluded.
+
+"Speaking of crystal balls," said Patty, "I'll show you one, Elise; a big
+one, too! Get Darby and Juliet, won't you please, Ken?"
+
+Kenneth obligingly brought the glass globe in from the dining-room, where
+they had left the goldfish to be by themselves.
+
+"How jolly!" cried Elise. "And what lovely goldfish! These are the real
+Japanese ones, aren't they?"
+
+"Yes," said Patty, smiling at Ken. "Being Japanese, they're perfect of
+their kind. Make them stand on their tails and beg, Kenneth."
+
+"Oh, will they do that?" said Elise.
+
+"Only on Wednesdays and Saturdays," said Kenneth, gravely. "And on
+Fridays they sing. To-day is their rest day."
+
+"They look morbid," said Roger. "Shall I jolly them up a bit?"
+
+"Let's give them tea," said Elise, tilting her spoon until a few drops
+fell into the water.
+
+"You'll make them nervous," warned Patty, "and Juliet is high-strung,
+anyway."
+
+Then Nan came in from her afternoon's round of calls, and then Mr.
+Fairfield arrived, and they too were called upon to make friends with
+Darby and Juliet.
+
+"Goldfish always make me think of a story about Whistler," said Mr.
+Fairfield. "It seems, Whistler once had a room in a house in Florence,
+directly over a person who had some pet goldfish in a bowl. Every
+pleasant day the bowl was set out on the balcony, which was exactly
+beneath Whistler's balcony. For days he resisted the temptation to fish
+for them with a bent pin and a string; but at last he succumbed to his
+angling instincts, and caught them all. Then, remorseful at what he had
+done, he fried them to a fine golden brown, and returned them to their
+owner on a platter."
+
+"Ugh!" cried Nan, "what a horrid story! Why do they always tack
+unpleasant stories on poor old Whistler? Now, I know a lovely story about
+a goldfish, which I will relate. It is said to be the composition of a
+small Boston schoolchild.
+
+                 "'Oh, Robin, lovely goldfish!
+                   Who teached you how to fly?
+                 Who sticked the fur upon your breast?
+                   'Twas God, 'twas God what done it.'
+
+Isn't that lovely?"
+
+"It is, indeed," agreed Kenneth. "If that's Boston precocity, it's more
+attractive than I thought."
+
+"But it doesn't rhyme," said Elise.
+
+"No," said Patty; "that's the beauty of it. It's blank verse, as the
+greatest poetry often is. Don't go yet, Elise. Stay to dinner, can't
+you?"
+
+"No, I can't stay to-night, Patty, dear. Will you go skating to-morrow?"
+
+Patty hesitated. She wanted to go, but also she wanted to get at that
+"occupation" of hers, for she had a new one in view.
+
+She was about to say she would go skating, however, when she saw a
+twinkle in her father's eye that made her change her mind.
+
+"Can't, Elise," she said. "I've an engagement to-morrow. Will telephone
+you some day when I can go."
+
+"Well, don't wait too long; the ice will be all gone."
+
+Then the young people went away, and Patty went thoughtfully upstairs to
+her room to dress for dinner.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+A BUSY MORNING
+
+
+The next morning, Patty came down to breakfast, wearing a plain street
+costume, a small, but very well made hat, and a look of determination.
+
+"Fresh start?" said her father, smiling kindly at her.
+
+"Yes," she replied; "and this time I conquer. I see success already
+perching on my banners."
+
+"Well, I don't then!" declared Nan. "I see you coming home, not with your
+shield, but on it."
+
+"Now, don't be a wet blanket and throw cold water on my plans," said
+Patty, a little mixed in her metaphor, but smiling placidly at her
+stepmother. "This time it's really a most sensible undertaking that I'm
+going to undertake."
+
+"Sounds as if you were going into the undertaking business," said her
+father, "but I assume you don't mean that."
+
+"No, I go into a pleasanter atmosphere than that suggests, and one in
+which I feel sure I can accomplish good work."
+
+"Well, Patty," said Mr. Fairfield, "it's lucky you're of a sanguine
+temperament. I'm glad to see you're not disheartened by failure."
+
+"Not I! To me a failure only means a more vigorous attempt next time.
+Now, Nan, I shall be away all day,--until about five o'clock. Won't you
+play with Darby and Juliet a little, so they won't get lonesome?"
+
+"Oh, yes; I'll amuse them. But, Patty, where are you going?"
+
+"Never mind, pretty stepmothery; don't ask questions, for they won't be
+answered. If all goes well, I'll tell you on my return."
+
+Mr. Fairfield looked serious.
+
+"Patty," he said, "you know you're not to do anything unbecoming or
+ridiculous. Don't you go and sell goods behind a counter, or anything
+extreme like that."
+
+"No, sir; I won't. I promise not to put myself in the public eye in any
+such fashion. And you may trust me, father, not to do anything of which
+you'd disapprove, if you knew all about it."
+
+"That's a good Patty-girl! Well, go ahead in your mad career, and if you
+keep your part of the bargain, I'll keep mine."
+
+Patty started off, and this time she gave Miller an address not so far
+away as before. When he brought the motor-car to a standstill, before a
+fashionable millinery shop, he felt none of the surprise that he had when
+he took Patty to what he considered inappropriate places.
+
+"Now, Miller," said Patty, as she got out of the car, "you are not to
+wait for me, but I want you to return here for me at five o'clock."
+
+"Here, Miss Fairfield?"
+
+"Yes; right here. Come exactly at five, and wait for me to come out."
+
+"Yes, Miss Fairfield," said Miller, and Patty turned and entered the
+shop.
+
+"I'm 'most sorry I sent him away," she thought to herself, "for I may not
+want to stay. Well, I can go home in a street-car."
+
+Though Patty's costume was plain and inconspicuous, it bore so evidently
+the stamp of taste and refinement, that the saleswoman who met her
+assumed she had come to buy a hat.
+
+But it was early for fashionable ladies to be out shopping, so the rather
+supercilious young woman greeted Patty with a cautious air of reserve. It
+was so different from the effusive manner usually shown to Nan and Patty
+when they really went shopping, that Patty was secretly much amused. But
+as she was also secretly greatly embarrassed, it was with an uncertain
+air that she said:
+
+"I am not shopping; I wish to see Madame Villard."
+
+"Madame is not here. What can I do for you?"
+
+"I have come in answer to her advertisement for an assistant milliner."
+
+"Oh," said the young woman, raising her eyebrows, and at once showing an
+air of haughty condescension. "You should have asked for the forewoman,
+not Madame."
+
+Patty's sense of humour got the better of her resentment, and it was with
+difficulty she repressed a smile, as she answered:
+
+"Indeed? Well, it is not yet too late to correct my error. Will you show
+me to the forewoman?"
+
+Patty's inflections were not in the least sarcastic, in fact her whole
+manner was gentle and gracious, but something in her tone, perhaps the
+note of amusement, made the saleswoman look at her suddenly and sharply.
+
+But Patty's face was demure and showed only a desire to be conducted to
+the right person.
+
+"Come this way," said the young woman, shortly, and she led Patty,
+between some heavy curtains, to a back room.
+
+"This is our forewoman, Miss O'Flynn," she said, as she ushered Patty
+into her presence.
+
+Miss O'Flynn was an important looking woman who took in every detail of
+Patty's appearance in a series of careful and systematic glances.
+
+She seemed puzzled at what she saw, and said, inquiringly:
+
+"Miss----?"
+
+"Miss Fairfield," said Patty, pleasantly, "and I have come in answer to
+your advertisement."
+
+"For assistant milliner? You."
+
+Miss O'Flynn was surprised out of her usual calm by the amazing
+proposition of the young stranger.
+
+"Yes," said Patty, quite calm herself. "I can trim hats very prettily."
+
+"Did you trim the one you have on?"
+
+"Well, no," admitted Patty. "I brought this from Paris. But I am sure I
+can trim hats to suit you. May I try?"
+
+"What experience have you had?"
+
+"Well,--not any professional experience. You see, it is only recently
+that I have desired to earn my own living."
+
+"Oh,--sudden reverses," murmured Miss O'Flynn, thinking she had solved
+the problem. "Well, my dear, you have evidently been brought up a lady,
+so it will be hard for you to find work. I am sorry to say I cannot
+employ you, as I engage only skilled workwomen."
+
+"But trimming hats doesn't require professional skill," said Patty. "Only
+good taste and a,--a sort of knack at bows and things."
+
+Miss O'Flynn laughed.
+
+"Everything requires professional skill," she returned. "A course of
+training is necessary for any position."
+
+"But if you'd try me," said Patty, quite unconscious that her tone was
+pleading. "Just give me a day's trial, and if I don't make good, you
+needn't pay me anything."
+
+Miss O'Flynn was more puzzled than ever. Insistent though Patty was, it
+didn't seem to her the insistence of a poor girl wanting to earn her
+bread; it was more like the determination of a wilful child to attain its
+desire.
+
+So, moved rather by curiosity to see how it would turn out, than a belief
+in Patty's ability, she said, coldly:
+
+"I will do as you ask. You may go to the workroom for to-day; but on the
+understanding that unless you show unusual skill or aptitude to learn,
+you are not to be paid anything, nor are you to come to-morrow."
+
+"All right," said Patty, smiling jubilantly at having received her
+opportunity, at least.
+
+Miss O'Flynn took her to a workroom, where several girls were busily
+engaged in various sorts of millinery work.
+
+"Sit here, Miss Fairfield," and Miss O'Flynn indicated a chair at one end
+of a long table. "You may line this hat."
+
+Then she gave Patty an elaborate velvet hat, trimmed with feathers, and
+materials for sewing. She also gave her white silk for the lining of the
+hat, and a piece stamped with gilt letters, which Patty knew must be
+placed inside the crown.
+
+It all seemed easy,--too easy, in fact, for Patty aspired to making
+velvet rosettes, and placing ostrich plumes.
+
+But she knew she was being tested, and she set to work at her task with
+energy.
+
+Though she had never lined a hat before, she knew in a general way how it
+should be done, and she tried to go about it with an air of experience.
+The other girls at the table cast furtive glances at her.
+
+Though they were not rude, they showed that air of hostile criticism, so
+often shown by habitues to a newcomer, though based on nothing but
+prejudiced curiosity.
+
+But as Patty began to cut the lining, she saw involuntary smiles spring
+to their faces. She knew that she must be cutting it wrongly, but it
+seemed to her the only way to cut it, so she went on.
+
+The girls began to nudge each other, and to smile more openly, and, to
+her own chagrin, Patty felt her cheeks growing red with embarrassment.
+
+She was tempted to speak pleasantly to them, and ask what her mistake
+was, but a strange notion of honesty forbade this.
+
+She had said at home that she believed it would be possible for her to
+earn her living without special instruction, and it seemed to her, that
+if she now asked for advice it would be like getting special training,
+though in a small degree.
+
+So she went calmly on with her work; cut and fitted the hat lining, and
+carefully sewed it in the hat.
+
+Remembering that the stitch she used on her "white work" had been
+criticised as too long, she now was careful to take very short stitches,
+and she used her utmost endeavour to make her work neat and dainty.
+
+Miss O'Flynn passed her chair two or three times while the work was in
+progress, but she made no comment of any sort.
+
+It was perhaps eleven o'clock when Patty completed the task. Next time
+Miss O'Flynn came by her she handed her the hat with an unmistakable air
+of triumph.
+
+"I've done it," Patty thought to herself, exultantly. "I've lined that
+hat, and, if I do say it that shouldn't, it's done perfectly; neat,
+smooth, and correct in every particular."
+
+While Patty was indulging in these self-congratulatory thoughts, Miss
+O'Flynn took the hat from her hand. She gave it a quick glance, then she
+looked at Patty.
+
+Had Patty looked more meek, had she seemed to await Miss O'Flynn's
+opinion of her work, the result might have been different.
+
+But Patty's expression was so plainly that of a conquering hero, she
+showed so palpably her pride in her own achievement, that Miss O'Flynn's
+eyes narrowed, and her face hardened. Without a word to Patty, she handed
+the hat to a sad-eyed young woman at another table, and said:
+
+"Line this hat, Miss Harrigan."
+
+"Yes, ma'am," said the girl; and even as Patty watched her, she began to
+snip deftly at Patty's small, careful stitches, and in a few moments the
+lining was out, and the girl was shaping and cutting a new one, with a
+quick, sure touch, and with not so much as a glance in Patty's direction.
+
+The other girls,--the ones at Patty's table,--looked horrified, but they
+did not look openly at Patty. Furtively, they darted glances at her from
+beneath half-closed lids, and then as furtively glanced at each other.
+
+It all struck Patty humorously. To have her careful work discarded and
+snipped out, to be replaced by "skilled labour," seemed so funny that she
+wanted to laugh aloud.
+
+But she was also deeply chagrined at her failure, and so it was an
+uncertain attitude of mind that showed upon her face as Miss O'Flynn
+again approached her.
+
+Without making any reference to the work she had already done, Miss
+O'Flynn gave Patty a hat frame and some thick, soft satin.
+
+"Cover the frame neatly, Miss Fairfield," was all she said, and walked
+away.
+
+Patty understood.
+
+It was her own independent and assured attitude that had led Miss O'Flynn
+to pursue this course. She didn't for a moment think that all beginners
+were treated like this. But she had asked to be given a fair trial--and
+she was getting it.
+
+Moreover, she half suspected that Miss O'Flynn knew she was not really
+under the necessity of earning her own living.
+
+Though wearing her plainest clothes, all the details of her costume
+betokened an affluence that couldn't be concealed.
+
+Astute Patty began to think that Miss O'Flynn saw through her, and that
+she was cleverly getting even with her.
+
+However, she took the hat frame and the satin, and set to work in
+thorough earnest. Though not poor, she could not have tried any harder to
+succeed had she been in direst want.
+
+But as to her work, she was very much at sea.
+
+She knew she had to get the satin on to the frame, without crease or
+wrinkle. She knew exactly how it ought to look when done, for she had a
+hat of that sort herself, and the material covered the foundation as
+creaselessly as paint.
+
+"I'm sure it only needs gumption," thought Patty, hopefully. "Here's my
+real chance to prove that it doesn't need a series of lessons to get some
+satin smoothly on a crinoline frame. If I do it neatly, she won't ask
+some other girl to do it over."
+
+Paying no attention to the covert glances of her companions, Patty set to
+work. She cut carefully, she fitted neatly; she pinned and she basted;
+she smoothed and she patted; and finally she sewed, with tiny, close
+stitches, placed evenly and with great precision.
+
+So absorbed did she become in her task that she failed to notice the
+departure of the others at noon. Alone she sat there at the table,
+snipping, sewing, pinning, and patting the somewhat refractory satin.
+
+It was almost one o'clock when she finished, and looked up suddenly to
+see Miss O'Flynn standing watching her.
+
+"Why are you doing this?" she said to Patty, as she took the hat from the
+girl's hands.
+
+Patty sat up, all at once, conscious of great pain in the back of her
+neck, from her continued cramped position at work.
+
+"Because I want to earn money," replied Patty, not pertly, but in a tone
+of obstinate intent. "Is it done right?"
+
+Miss O'Flynn looked at Patty, with an air of kindliness and willingness
+to help her.
+
+"Tell me all about it," she said.
+
+But Patty was in no mood for confidences, and with a shade of hauteur in
+her manner, she said again: "Is it done right? Does it suit you?"
+
+At Patty's rejection of her advances, Miss O'Flynn also became reserved
+again, and said, simply: "I cannot use it."
+
+"Why not?" demanded Patty. "It is covered smoothly and neatly. It shows
+no crease nor fold."
+
+"It is not right," said Miss O'Flynn. "It is not done right, because you
+do not know how to do it. You have never been taught how to cover hats or
+how to line them; consequently you cannot do them right."
+
+The other girls had gone to luncheon, so the two were alone in the room.
+Patty knew that Miss O'Flynn was telling her the truth, and yet she
+resented it. A red spot burned in each cheek as she answered:
+
+"But the hat is covered perfectly. What matter, then, whether I have been
+taught or not?"
+
+"Excuse me, it is _not_ covered perfectly. The stitches are too
+small----"
+
+"Too small!" exclaimed Patty. "Why, I didn't know stitches could be too
+_small_!"
+
+The other smiled. "That is my argument," she said. "You _don't know_. Of
+course stitches should be small for ordinary sewing, and for many sorts
+of work. But not for millinery. Here long stitches are wanted, but they
+must be rightly set,--not careless long stitches."
+
+"Why?" said Patty, somewhat subdued now.
+
+"Because a better effect can be produced with long stitches. You see,
+your stitches are small and true, but every one shows. With a skilful
+long stitch, no stitch is seen at all. It is what we call a blind stitch,
+and can only be successfully done by skilled workers, who have been
+taught, and who have also had practice."
+
+Patty was silent a moment, then she said:
+
+"Miss O'Flynn, we agreed that I was to have a day's trial."
+
+"Yes, Miss Fairfield; I will stand by my word."
+
+"Then may I select my own work for the afternoon?"
+
+"Yes," said Miss O'Flynn, wondering whether, after all, this pretty,
+young girl could be a harmless lunatic.
+
+"Then I want to trim hats. Make bows, you know; sew on flowers or
+feathers; or adjust lace. May I do such things as that?"
+
+Miss O'Flynn hesitated.
+
+"Yes," she said, finally; "if you will be careful not to injure the
+materials. You see, if your work should have to be done over, I don't
+want the materials spoiled."
+
+"I promise," said Patty, slowly.
+
+"But, first, will you not go out for your lunch?"
+
+"No, thank you; I'm not hungry. Please bring me my work at once."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+THREE HATS
+
+
+But Miss O'Flynn sent Patty a cup of hot bouillon, and some biscuit,
+which she ate right there at her work-table.
+
+And it was a kindly act, for, though Patty didn't realise it, she was
+really faint for want of food and also for fresh air.
+
+The room, though large, had many occupants, and now the girls began to
+come back from their luncheon, and their chatter made Patty's head ache.
+
+But she was doing some deep thinking. Her theories about unskilled labour
+had received a hard blow; and she was beginning to think her millinery
+efforts were not going to be successful.
+
+"But I've a chance yet," she thought, as Miss O'Flynn came, bringing two
+hats, and a large box of handsome trimmings.
+
+The other girls stared at this, for they knew that Patty's morning
+efforts had been far from successful.
+
+But Patty only smiled at them in a pleasant, but impersonal manner, as
+she took up her new work.
+
+Her confidence returned. She knew she could do what she was now about to
+attempt, for, added to her natural taste and love of colour, she had been
+critically interested in hats while in Paris, and while visiting her
+friend, Lady Kitty, who was especially extravagant in her millinery
+purchases.
+
+After a period of thought, Patty decided on her scheme of trimming for
+the two hats before her, and then set blithely to work.
+
+One was to be a simple style of decoration, the other, much more
+complicated. Taking up the elaborate one first, Patty went at it with
+energy, and with an assured touch, for she had the effect definitely
+pictured in her imagination and was sure she could materialise it.
+
+And she did. After about two hours' hard work, Patty achieved a triumph.
+She held up the finished hat, and every girl at the table uttered an
+"ah!" of admiration at the beautiful sight.
+
+Without response, other than a quiet smile, Patty took up the second hat.
+This was simple, but daring in its very simplicity. A black velvet
+Gainsborough, with broad, rolling brim. Patty turned it smartly up, at
+one side, and fastened it with a rosette of dull blue velvet and a silver
+buckle. Just then, Miss O'Flynn came in.
+
+"Where did that hat come from?" she said, pointing to Patty's finished
+confection.
+
+"I trimmed it," said Patty, nonchalantly. "Have you some silver hatpins,
+Miss O'Flynn?"
+
+"You trimmed it!" exclaimed the forewoman, ignoring Patty's question, and
+taking up the trimmed hat.
+
+"Yes; do you like it?"
+
+"It's a marvel! It looks like a French hat. How did you know enough to
+trim it like this?"
+
+"I thought it would look well that way."
+
+"But these twists of velvet; they have a touch!"
+
+"Yes?" said Patty, inwardly exultant, but outwardly calm.
+
+"And now," she went on, "this hat is of another type."
+
+"It's not finished?" asked Miss O'Flynn, eyeing the hat in uncertainty,
+"and yet,--any other trimming would spoil its lines."
+
+"Just so," said Patty, placidly. "You see, all it needs now, is two large
+silver hatpins, like this,--see."
+
+Patty pulled two hatpins from her own hat, which she still had on, and
+placed them carefully in the hat she held in her hand.
+
+"These pins are too small,--but you see what I mean."
+
+Miss O'Flynn did see. She saw that two larger pins would finish the hat
+with just the right touch, while any other decoration would spoil it.
+
+She looked at Patty curiously.
+
+"You're a genius, Miss Fairfield," she said. "Will you trim another hat?"
+
+"Yes," said Patty, looking at her watch. "It's only four o'clock. May I
+have an evening hat, please?"
+
+"You may have whatever you like. Come and select for yourself."
+
+Patty went to the cases, and chose a large white beaver, with soft, broad
+brim.
+
+"I will make you a picture hat, to put in your window," she said,
+smiling.
+
+She selected some trimmings and returned to her seat at the table.
+
+It was rather more than half an hour later when she showed Miss O'Flynn
+her work.
+
+"There's not much work on it," Patty said, slowly. "I spent the time
+thinking it out."
+
+There was not much work on it, to be sure; and yet it was a hat of great
+distinction.
+
+The white brim rolled slightly back, and where it touched the low crown
+it met two immense roses, one black and one of palest pink. Two slight
+sprays of foliage, made of black velvet leaves, nestled between the
+roses, and completed the trimming.
+
+The roses were of abnormal size and great beauty, but it was the mode of
+their adjustment that secured the extremely _chic_ effect.
+
+Miss O'Flynn's eyes sparkled.
+
+"It's a masterpiece," she said, clasping her hands in admiration. "You
+have trimmed hats before, Miss Fairfield?"
+
+"No," said Patty, "but I always knew I could do it."
+
+"Yes, you can," said Miss O'Flynn. "Will you come now, and talk to
+Madame?"
+
+Ushered into the presence of Madame Villard, Patty suddenly experienced a
+revulsion of feeling.
+
+Her triumph over Miss O'Flynn seemed small and petty. She was conscious
+of a revolt against the whole atmosphere of the place. The suavity of
+Miss O'Flynn's manner, the artificial grandeur of Madame Villard, filled
+her with aversion, and she wanted only to get away, and get back to her
+own home.
+
+Not for any amount per week would she come again to this dreadful place.
+
+She knew it was unreasonable; she knew that if she were to earn her
+living it could not be in a sheltered, luxurious home, but must,
+perforce, be in some unattractive workroom.
+
+"But rather a department store," thought poor Patty, "than in this place,
+with these overdressed, overmannered women, who ape fine ladies'
+manners."
+
+Patty was overwrought and nervous. Her long, hard day had worn her out,
+and it was no wonder she felt a distaste for the whole thing.
+
+"You are certainly clever," said Madame Villard, patronisingly, as she
+looked at the hats Miss O'Flynn held up for her inspection. "I am glad to
+offer you a permanent position here. You will have to learn the rudiments
+of the work, as the most gifted genius should always be familiar with the
+foundations of his own art. Will you agree to come to me every day?"
+
+Patty hesitated. She hated the thought of coming every day, even if but
+for a week. And yet, here was the opportunity she was in search of.
+Trimming hats was easy enough work; probably they wouldn't make her learn
+lining and covering at once.
+
+Then the thought occurred to her that it wouldn't be honest to pretend
+she was coming regularly, when she meant to do so only for a week.
+
+"Suppose I try it for a week," she suggested. "Then if either of us
+wishes to do so, we can terminate the contract."
+
+"Very well," said Madame, who thought to herself she could make this
+young genius trim a great many hats in a week. "Do you agree to that?"
+
+"At what salary?" asked Patty, faintly, for she felt as if she were
+condemning herself to a week of torture.
+
+"Well," said Madame Villard, "as you are so ignorant of the work, I ought
+not to give you any recompense at all; but as you evince such an aptitude
+for trimming I am willing to say, five dollars a week."
+
+"Five dollars a week," repeated Patty, slowly. "You ought to be ashamed
+of yourself!"
+
+Patty did not mean to be rude or impertinent. Indeed, for the moment she
+was not even thinking of herself. She was thinking how a poor girl, who
+had her living to earn, would feel at an offer of five dollars for six
+long days of work in that dreadful atmosphere.
+
+"I beg your pardon," she said, mechanically, and she said it more because
+of Madame Villard's look of amazement, than because of any regret at her
+own blunt speech. "I shouldn't have spoken so frankly. But the
+compensation you offer is utterly inadequate."
+
+Patty glanced at her watch, and then began drawing on her gloves with an
+air of finality.
+
+"But wait,--wait, Miss Fairfield," exclaimed the Madame, who had no wish
+to let her new-found genius thus slip away from her. "I like your work. I
+may say I think it shows touches of real talent. Also, you have unusually
+good taste. In view of these things, I will overlook still further your
+ignorance of the details of the work, and I will give you seven dollars a
+week."
+
+"Madame," said Patty, "I am inexperienced in the matter of wages, but I
+feel sure that you either employ inferior workwomen or that you underpay
+them. I don't know which, but I assure you that I could not think of
+accepting your offer of seven dollars a week."
+
+"Would you come for ten?" asked Madame Villard, eagerly.
+
+"No," said Patty, shortly.
+
+"For twelve, then? This is my ultimate offer, and you would do well to
+consider it carefully. I have never paid so much to any workwoman, and I
+offer it to you only because I chance to like your style of work."
+
+"And that is your ultimate offer?" said Patty, looking at her squarely.
+
+"Yes, and I am foolish to offer that; but, as we agreed, it is only for
+one week, and so----"
+
+"Spare your arguments, madame; I do not accept your proposal. Twelve
+dollars a week is not enough. And now, I will bid you good-afternoon. Am
+I entitled to pay for my day's work?"
+
+With Patty's final refusal, the manner of Madame Villard had changed. No
+longer placating and bland, she frowned angrily as she said:
+
+"Pay, indeed! You should be charged for the materials you spoiled in your
+morning's work."
+
+"But in the afternoon," said Patty, "I trimmed three hats that will bring
+you big profits."
+
+"Nothing of the sort," snapped Madame. "The hats you trimmed are nothing
+of any moment. Any of my girls could have done as well."
+
+"Then why don't you pay them twelve dollars a week?" cried Patty, whose
+harassed nerves were making her irritable. "I will call our financial
+account even, but if any of your workwomen can trim hats that you like as
+well as those that I trimmed, I trust you will give them the salary you
+offered me. Good-afternoon."
+
+Patty bowed politely, and then, with a more kindly bow and smile to Miss
+O'Flynn, she went through the draperies, through the front salesroom, and
+out at the front door. The milliner and her forewoman followed her with a
+dignified slowness, but reached the window in time to see Patty get into
+an elaborately-appointed motor-car which rolled rapidly away.
+
+"She's one of those society women who spy out what wages we pay," said
+Madame Villard, with conviction.
+
+"She's not old enough for that," returned Miss O'Flynn, "but she's not
+looking for real work, either. I can't make her out."
+
+"Well, we have three stunning hats, anyway. Put them in the window
+to-morrow. And you may as well put Paris labels inside; they have an air
+of the real thing."
+
+That evening Patty regaled her parents with a truthful account of her
+day.
+
+"I'm 'foiled again'!" she said, laughing. "But the whole performance was
+so funny I must tell you about it."
+
+"Couldn't you have coaxed fifteen dollars a week out of her?" asked Mr.
+Fairfield, after Patty had told how Madame Villard's price had gradually
+increased.
+
+"Oh, father, I was so afraid she _would_ say fifteen! Then I should have
+felt that I ought to go to her for a week; for I may not get another such
+chance. But I couldn't live in that place a week, I _know_ I couldn't!"
+
+"Why?" asked Nan, curiously.
+
+"I don't know exactly why," returned Patty, thoughtfully. "But it's
+mostly because it's all so artificial and untrue. Miss O'Flynn talks as
+if she were a superior being; Madame Villard talks as if she were a Royal
+personage. They talk about their customers and each other in a sort of
+make-believe grandiose way, that is as sickening as it is absurd. I don't
+know how to express it, but I'd rather work in a place where everybody is
+real, and claims only such honour and glory as absolutely belong to them.
+I hate pretence!"
+
+"Good little Patty!" said her father, heartily; "I'm glad you do. Oh, I
+tell you, my girl, you'll learn some valuable lessons, even if you don't
+achieve your fifteen dollars."
+
+"But I shall do that, too, father. You needn't think I'm conquered yet.
+Pooh! What's three failures to a determined nature like mine?"
+
+"What, indeed!" laughed Mr. Fairfield. "Go ahead, my plucky little
+heroine; you'll strike it right yet."
+
+"I'm sure I shall," declared Patty, with such a self-satisfied air of
+complacency that both her hearers laughed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE THURSDAY CLUB
+
+
+As Patty was temporarily out of an "occupation," she went skating the
+next day with the Farringtons and Kenneth. Indeed, the four were so often
+together that they began to call themselves the Quartette.
+
+After a jolly skate, which made their cheeks rosy, they all went back to
+Patty's, as they usually did after skating.
+
+"I think you might come to my house, sometimes," said Elise.
+
+"Oh, I have to go to Patty's to look after the goldfish," said Kenneth.
+"I thought Darby swam lame, the last time I saw him. Does he, Patty?"
+
+"No, not now. But Juliet has a cold, and I'm afraid of rheumatism setting
+in."
+
+"No," said Kenneth; "she's too young for rheumatism. But she may have
+'housemaid's knee.' You must be very careful about draughts."
+
+The goldfish were a never-failing source of fun for the Quartette. The
+fish themselves were quiet, inoffensive little creatures, but the ready
+imagination of the young people invested them with all sorts of strange
+qualities, both physical and mental.
+
+"Juliet's still sulky about that thimble," said Roger, as they all looked
+into the fishes' globe. "I gave her Patty's thimble yesterday to wear for
+a hat, and it didn't suit her at all."
+
+"I should say not!" cried Patty. "She thought it was a helmet. You must
+take her for Joan of Arc."
+
+"She didn't wear a helmet," said Elise, laughing.
+
+"Well, she wore armour. They belong together. Anyway, Juliet doesn't know
+but that Joan of Arc wore a helmet."
+
+"Oh, is that what made her so sulky?" said Roger. "Nice disposition, I
+must say."
+
+"She's nervous," put in Kenneth, "and a little morbid, poor thing. Patty,
+I think a little iron in the water would do her good."
+
+"Send for a flatiron, Patty," said Roger. "I know it would help her, if
+you set it carefully on top of her."
+
+"I won't do it!" said Patty. "Poor Juliet is flat enough now. She doesn't
+eat enough to keep a bird alive. Let's go away and leave her to sleep.
+That will fatten her, maybe."
+
+"Lullaby, Julie, in the fish-bowl," sang Roger.
+
+"When the wind blows, the billows will roll," continued Elise, fanning
+the water in the globe with a newspaper.
+
+"When the bowl breaks, the fishes will fall," contributed Patty, and Ken
+wound up by singing:
+
+"And the Cat will eat Juliet, Darby, and all!"
+
+"Oh, horrible!" cried Patty. "Indeed she won't! My beautiful pets shall
+never meet that cruel fate."
+
+Leaving Juliet to her much needed nap, they all strolled into the
+library.
+
+"Let's be a club," said Elise. "Just us four, you know."
+
+"All right," said Patty, who loved clubs. "What sort of a club?"
+
+"Musical," said Elise. "We all sing."
+
+"Musical clubs are foolish," said Roger. "Let's be a dramatic club."
+
+"Dramatic clubs are too much work," said Patty; "and four isn't enough
+for that, anyway. Let's do good."
+
+"Oh, Patty," groaned Kenneth, "you're getting so eleemosynary there's no
+fun in you!"
+
+"Mercy, gracious!" cried Patty. "_What_ was that fearful word you said,
+Ken? No! don't say it over again! I can't stand all of it at once!"
+
+"Well, we have to stand you!" grumbled Kenneth, "and you're _that_ all
+the time, now. What foolishness are you going to fly at next, trying to
+earn a dishonest penny?"
+
+"I'm thinking of going out as a cook," said Patty, her eyes twinkling.
+"Cooking is the only thing I really know how to do. But I can do that."
+
+"You'll be fine as cook," said Roger. "May I come round Thursday
+afternoons and take you out?"
+
+"I s'pose I'll only have every other Thursday," said Patty, demurely.
+
+"And the other Thursday you won't be there! But what about this club
+we're organising?"
+
+"Make it musical," said Kenneth, "and then while one of us is playing or
+singing some classical selection, the others can indulge in merry
+conversation."
+
+"You may as well make it the Patty Club," said Elise, "as I suppose it
+will always meet here."
+
+Though not really jealous of her friend's popularity, Elise always
+resented the fact that the young people would rather be at Patty's than
+at her own home.
+
+The reason was, that the Fairfield house, though handsomely appointed,
+was not so formally grand as the Farringtons', and there was always an
+atmosphere of cordiality and hospitality at Patty's, while at Elise's it
+was oppressively formal and dignified.
+
+"Oh, pshaw," said Patty, ignoring Elise's unkind intent; "I won't have
+you always here. We'll take turns, of course."
+
+"All right," said Elise; "every other week at my house and every other
+week here. But don't you think we ought to have more than four members?"
+
+"No, I don't," declared Kenneth, promptly. "And we don't want any musical
+nonsense, or any dramatic foolishness, either. Let's just have fun; if
+it's pleasant weather, we'll go skating, or sleighing, or motoring, or
+whatever you like; if it isn't, we'll stay indoors, or go to a matinee
+or concert, or something like that."
+
+"Lovely!" cried Elise. "But if we're to go to matinees, we'll have to
+meet Saturdays."
+
+"Or Wednesdays," amended Patty. "Let's meet Wednesdays. I 'most always
+have engagements on Saturdays."
+
+"All right; shall we call it the Wednesday Club, then?"
+
+"No, Elise," said Roger, gravely. "That's too obvious; we will call it
+the Thursday Club, because we meet on Wednesday; see?"
+
+"No, I don't see," said Elise, looking puzzled.
+
+"Why," explained Roger, "you see we'll spend all day Thursday thinking
+over the good time we had on Wednesday!"
+
+"But that isn't the real reason," said Patty, giggling. "The real reason
+we call it the Thursday Club is because it meets on Wednesday!"
+
+"That's it, Patsy!" said Ken, approvingly, for he and Patty had the same
+love for nonsense, though more practical Elise couldn't always understand
+it.
+
+"Well, then, the Thursday Club will meet here next Wednesday," said
+Patty; "unless I am otherwise engaged."
+
+For she just happened to think, that on that day she might be again
+attempting to earn her fifteen dollars.
+
+"What's the Thursday Club? Mayn't I belong?" said a pleasant voice, and
+Mr. Hepworth came in.
+
+"Oh, how do you do?" cried Patty, jumping up, and offering both hands.
+"I'm so glad to see you. Do sit down."
+
+"I came round," said Mr. Hepworth, after greeting the others, "in hopes I
+could corral a cup of tea. I thought you ran a five-o'clock tea-room."
+
+"We do," said Patty, ringing a bell nearby. "That is, we always have tea
+when Nan is home; and we can just as well have it when she isn't."
+
+"I suppose you young people don't care for tea," went on Mr. Hepworth,
+looking a little enviously at the merry group, who, indeed, didn't care
+whether they had tea or not.
+
+"Oh, yes, we do," said Patty. "We love it. But we,--we just forgot it. We
+were so engrossed in organising a club."
+
+But the others did not follow up this conversational beginning, and even
+before the tea was brought, Elise said she must go.
+
+"Nonsense!" said Patty; "don't go yet."
+
+But Elise was decided, so away she went, and of course, Roger went too.
+
+"And I'm going," said Kenneth, as Patty, having followed Elise out into
+the hall, he joined them there.
+
+"Oh; don't you go, Ken," said Patty.
+
+"Yes, I'd rather. When Hepworth comes you get so grown-up all of a
+sudden. With your 'Oh, how do you do?' and your _tea_."
+
+Kenneth mimicked Patty's voice, which did sound different when she spoke
+to Mr. Hepworth.
+
+"Ken, you're very unjust," said Patty, her cheeks flushing; "of course I
+have to give Mr. Hepworth tea when he asks for it; and if I seem more
+'grown-up' with him, it's because he's so much older than you are."
+
+"He is, indeed! About twelve years older! Too old to be your friend. He
+ought to be calling on Mrs. Fairfield."
+
+"He is. He calls on us both. I think you're very silly!"
+
+This conversation had been in undertones, while Elise was donning her hat
+and furs, and great was her curiosity when Patty turned from Kenneth,
+with an offended or hurt expression on her face.
+
+"What's the matter with you two?" she asked, bluntly.
+
+"Nothing," said Ken, looking humble. "Patty's been begging me to be more
+polite to the goldfish."
+
+"Nonsense!" laughed Patty; "your manners are above reproach, Ken."
+
+"Thanks, fair lady," he replied, with a Chesterfieldian bow, and then the
+three went away.
+
+"Did I drive off your young friends, Patty?" said Mr. Hepworth, as she
+returned to the library, where Jane was already setting forth the tea
+things.
+
+Patty was nonplussed. He certainly had driven them away, but she couldn't
+exactly tell him so.
+
+"You needn't answer," he said, laughing at her dismayed expression. "I am
+sorry they don't like me, but until you show that you don't, I shall
+continue to come here."
+
+"I hope you will," said Patty, earnestly. "It isn't that they don't like
+you, Mr. Hepworth; it's that they think you don't like them."
+
+"What?"
+
+"Oh, I don't mean exactly that; but they think that you think they're
+children,--almost, and you're bored by them."
+
+"I'm not bored by you, and you're a child,--almost."
+
+"Well, I don't know how it is," said Patty, throwing off all
+responsibility in the matter; "but I like them and I like you, and yet,
+I'd rather have you at different times."
+
+"Which do you like better?" asked Mr. Hepworth. He knew it was a foolish
+question, but it was uttered almost involuntarily.
+
+"Them!" said Patty, but she gave him such a roguish smile as she said it,
+that he almost thought she meant the opposite.
+
+"Still," she went on, with what was palpably a mock regret, "I shall have
+to put up with you for the present; so be as young as you can. How many
+lumps, please?"
+
+"Two; you see I can be very young."
+
+"Yes," said Patty, approvingly; "it is young to take two lumps. But now
+tell me something about Miss Farley. Have you heard from her or of her
+lately?"
+
+"Yes, I have," said Mr. Hepworth, as he stirred his tea. "That is, I've
+heard of her. My friend, down in Virginia, who knows Miss Farley, has
+sent me another of her sketches, and it proves more positively than ever
+that the girl has real genius. But, Patty, I want you to give up this
+scheme of yours to help her. It was good of your father to make the offer
+he did, but I don't want you racing around to these dreadful places
+looking for work. I'm going to get some other people interested in Miss
+Farley, and I'm sure her art education can be managed in some way. I'd
+willingly subscribe the whole sum needed, myself, but it would be
+impossible to arrange it that way. She'd never accept it, if she knew;
+and it's difficult to deceive her."
+
+Patty looked serious.
+
+"I don't wonder you think I can't do what I set out to do," she said
+slowly, "for I've made so many ridiculous failures already. But please
+don't lose faith in me, yet. Give me one or two more chances."
+
+Mr. Hepworth looked kindly into Patty's earnest eyes.
+
+"Don't take this thing too seriously," he said.
+
+"But I want to take it seriously. You think I'm a child,--a butterfly. I
+assure you I am neither."
+
+"I think you're adorable, whatever you are!" was on the tip of Gilbert
+Hepworth's tongue; but he did not say it.
+
+Though he cared more for Patty than for anything on earth, he had vowed
+to himself the girl should never know it. He was thirty-five, and Patty
+but eighteen, and he knew that was too great a discrepancy in years for
+him ever to hope to win her affections.
+
+So he contented himself with an occasional evening call, or once in a
+while dropping in at tea time, resolved never to show to Patty herself
+the high regard he had for her.
+
+She had told him of her various unsuccessful attempts at "earning her
+living," and he deeply regretted that he had been the means of bringing
+about the situation.
+
+He did not share Mr. Fairfield's opinion that the experience was a good
+one for Patty, and would broaden her views of humanity in general, and
+teach her a few worth-while lessons.
+
+"Please give up the notion," he urged, after they had talked the matter
+over.
+
+"Indeed I won't," returned Patty. "At least, not until I've proved to my
+own satisfaction that my theories are wrong. And I don't think yet that
+they are. I still believe I can earn fifteen dollars a week, without
+having had special training for any work. Surely I ought to have time to
+prove myself right."
+
+"Yes, you ought to have time," said Mr. Hepworth, gently, "but you ought
+not to do it at all. It's an absurd proposition, the whole thing. And as
+I, unfortunately, brought it about, I want to ask you, please, to drop
+it."
+
+"No, sir!" said Patty, gravely, but wagging a roguish forefinger at him;
+"people can't undo their mistakes so easily. If, as you say, you brought
+about this painful situation, then you must sit patiently by and watch me
+as I flounder about in the various sloughs of despond."
+
+"Oh, Patty, don't! Please drop it all,--for my sake!"
+
+Patty looked up in surprise at his earnest tones, but she only laughed
+gaily, and said:
+
+"Nixy! Not I! Not by no means! But I'll give in to this extent. I'll
+agree not to make more than three more attempts. If I can't succeed in
+three more efforts, I'll give up the game, and confess myself a butterfly
+and an idiot."
+
+"The only symptoms of idiocy are shown in your making three more
+attempts," said Mr. Hepworth, who was almost angry at Patty's
+persistence.
+
+"Oh, pooh! I probably shan't make three more! I just somehow feel sure
+I'll succeed the very next time."
+
+"A sanguine idiot is the most hopeless sort," said Mr. Hepworth, with a
+resigned air. "May I ask what you intend to attempt next?"
+
+"You may ask, but you can't be answered, for I don't yet know, myself.
+I've two or three tempting plans, but I don't know which to choose. I've
+thought of taking a place as cook."
+
+"Patty! don't you dare do such a thing! To think of you in a
+kitchen,--under orders! Oh, child, how _can_ you?"
+
+Patty laughed outright at Mr. Hepworth's dismay.
+
+"Cheer up!" she cried; "I didn't mean it! But you think skilled labour is
+necessary, and truly, I'm skilled in cooking. I really am."
+
+"Yes, chafing-dish trifles; and fancy desserts."
+
+"Well, those are good things for a cook to know."
+
+"Patty, promise me you won't take any sort of a servant's position."
+
+"Oh, I can't promise that. I fancy I'd make a rather good lady's-maid or
+parlour-maid. But I promise you I won't be a cook. Much as I like to fuss
+with a chafing-dish, I shouldn't like to be kept in a kitchen and boil
+and roast things all the time."
+
+"I should say not! Well, since I can't persuade you to give up your
+foolish notion, do go on, and get through with your three attempts as
+soon as possible. Remember, you've promised not more than three."
+
+"I promise," said Patty, with much solemnity, and then Nan and Mr.
+Fairfield came in.
+
+Mr. Hepworth appealed at once to Mr. Fairfield, telling him what he had
+already told Patty.
+
+"Nonsense, Hepworth," said Patty's father, "I'm glad you started the ball
+rolling. It hasn't done Patty a bit of harm, so far, and it will be an
+experience she'll always remember. Let her go ahead; she can't succeed,
+but she can have the satisfaction of knowing she tried."
+
+"I'm not so sure she can't succeed," said Nan, standing up for Patty, who
+looked a little crestfallen at the remarks of her father.
+
+"Good for you, Nan!" cried Patty; "I'll justify your faith in me yet. I
+know Mr. Hepworth thinks I'm good for nothing, but Daddy ought to know me
+better."
+
+Mr. Hepworth seemed not to notice this petulant outburst, and only said:
+
+"Remember, you've promised to withdraw from the arena after three more
+conflicts."
+
+"They won't be conflicts," said Patty, "and there won't be but one,
+anyway!"
+
+"So much the better," said Mr. Hepworth, calmly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+MRS. VAN REYPEN
+
+
+It was about a week later. Nothing further had been said or done in the
+matter of Patty's "occupation," and Mr. and Mrs. Fairfield wondered what
+plan was slowly brewing under the mop of golden curls.
+
+Mr. Hepworth began to hope his words had had an effect after all, and was
+about to lay the case of Miss Farley before some other true and tried
+friends.
+
+But he had practically promised Patty to give her time for three more
+attempts; so he waited.
+
+One day Patty came into the house just in time for luncheon.
+
+"Nan," she said, as they sat down at the table, "I've struck it right
+this time!"
+
+"_In_-deed!" said Nan, raising her eyebrows, quizzically.
+
+"Yes, I have! You needn't laugh like that."
+
+"I didn't laugh."
+
+"Yes, you did,--behind your eyes, but I saw you! Now, as I tell you, this
+time conquers!"
+
+"Good for you, Patsy! Let me congratulate you. Let me do it now, lest I
+shouldn't be able to do it later."
+
+"Huh! I thought you had faith in me."
+
+"And so I have, Patty girl," said Nan, growing serious all at once. "I
+truly have. Also, I'll help you, if I can."
+
+"That's just it, Nan. You can help me this time, and I'm going to tell
+you all about it, before I start in."
+
+"Going to tell me now?"
+
+"Yes, because I go this afternoon."
+
+"Go where?"
+
+"That's just it. I go to take a position as a companion to an elderly
+lady. And I shall stay a week. I'll take some clothes in a suitcase, or
+small trunk, and after I'm gone, you must tell father, and make it all
+right with him."
+
+"But, Patty, he said at the outset, you must be home by five o'clock
+every day, whatever you were doing."
+
+"Yes; but that referred to occupations by the day. Now, that I've decided
+to take this sort of a position, which is really more appropriate to a
+lady of my 'social standing,' you must explain to him that I can't come
+home at five o'clock, because I have to stay all the time, nights and
+all."
+
+"Patty, you're crazy!"
+
+"No, I'm not. I'm determined; I'm even stubborn, if you like; but I'm
+_going_! So, that's settled. Now, you said you'd help me. Are you going
+to back out?"
+
+"No; I'm not. But I can't approve of it."
+
+"Oh, you can, if you try hard enough. Just think how much properer it is
+for me to be companion to a lovely lady in her own house, than to be
+racing around lower Broadway for patchwork!"
+
+"That's so," said Nan, and then she realised that if she knew where Patty
+was going, they could go and bring her home at any time, if Mr. Fairfield
+wished.
+
+"Well," she went on, "who's your lovely lady?"
+
+"Mrs. Van Reypen."
+
+"Patty Fairfield! Not _the_ Mrs. Van Reypen?"
+
+"Yes, the very one! Isn't it gay? She's a bit eccentric, and she
+advertised for a companion, saying the application must be a written one.
+So I pranced up to her house this morning, and secured the position."
+
+"But she said to apply by letter."
+
+"Yes; that's why I went myself! I sent up my card, and a message that I
+had come in answer to her advertisement. She sent back word that I could
+go home and write to her. I said I'd write then and there. So I helped
+myself to her library desk, and wrote out a regular application. In less
+than five minutes, I was summoned to her august presence, and after
+looking me over, she engaged me at once. How's that for quick action?"
+
+"But does she know who you are?"
+
+"Why, she knows my name, and that's all."
+
+"But she's a,--why, she's sort of an institution."
+
+"Yes; I know she's a public benefactor, and all that. But, really, she's
+very interesting; though, I fancy she has a quick temper. However, we've
+made the agreement for a week. Then if either of us wants to back out,
+we're at liberty to do so."
+
+"She was willing to arrange it that way?"
+
+"She insisted on it. She never takes anybody until after a week's trial."
+
+"What are your duties?"
+
+"Oh, almost nothing. I'm not a social secretary, or anything like that.
+Merely a companion, to be with her, and read to her occasionally, or
+perhaps sing to her, and go to drive with her,--and that's about all."
+
+"No one else in the family?"
+
+"I don't think so. She didn't speak of any one, except her secretary and
+servants. She's rather old-fashioned, and the house is dear. All crystal
+chandeliers, and old frescoed walls and ceilings, and elaborate
+door-frames. Why, Nan, it'll be fun to be there a week, and it's
+so,--well, so safe and pleasant, you know, and so correct and seemly.
+Why, if I really had to earn my own living, I couldn't do better than to
+be companion to Mrs. Van Reypen."
+
+"No; I suppose not. What is the salary?"
+
+"Ah, that's the beauty of it! It's just fifteen dollars a week. And as I
+get 'board and lodging' beside, I'm really doing better than I agreed
+to."
+
+"I don't like it, Patty," said Nan, after a few moments' thought. "But
+it's better, in some ways, than the other things you've done. Go on, and
+I'll truly do all I can to talk your father into letting you stay there a
+week; but if he won't consent, I can't help it."
+
+"Why, of course he'll consent, Nan, if you put it to him right. You can
+make him see anything as you see it, if you try. You know you can."
+
+"Well, go ahead. I suppose a week will pass; and anyway, you'll probably
+come flying home after a couple of days."
+
+"No; I'm going to stay the week, if it finishes me. I'm tired of defeats;
+this time I conquer. You may help me pack, if you like."
+
+"You won't need many frocks, will you?" said Nan, as they went up to
+Patty's room.
+
+"No; just some light, dressy things for evening,--she's rather
+formal,--and some plain morning gowns."
+
+Nan helped Patty with her selection, and a small trunk was filled with
+what they considered an appropriate wardrobe for a companion.
+
+At about four o'clock Patty started, in the motor-car.
+
+Mrs. Van Reypen received her pleasantly, and as they sat chatting over a
+cup of tea, Patty felt more like an honoured guest than a subordinate.
+
+Then Mrs. Van Reypen dismissed her, saying:
+
+"Go to your room now, my dear, and occupy yourself as you choose until
+dinner-time. Dinner is at seven. There will be no guests, but you will
+wear a light, pretty gown, if you please. I am punctilious in such
+matters."
+
+Patty went to her room, greatly pleased with the turn events had taken.
+She wished she could telephone home how pleasantly she was getting along;
+but she thought wiser not to do that so soon.
+
+As it neared dinner-time, she put on one of her prettiest dresses, a
+light blue chiffon, with a touch of silver embroidery round the half-low
+throat and short sleeves.
+
+A few minutes before seven, she went slowly down the dark, old staircase,
+with its massive newels and balusters.
+
+As she reached the middle steps, she observed an attractive, but
+bored-looking young man in the hall.
+
+He had not noticed her light steps, and Patty paused a moment to look at
+him. As she stood, wondering who he might be, he chanced to turn, and saw
+her.
+
+The young man ran his eyes swiftly, from the cloud of blue chiffon, up to
+the smiling face, with its crown of massed golden hair, which a saucy bow
+of blue ribbon did its best to hold in place.
+
+His face promptly lost its bored expression, and with his hands still in
+his pockets, he involuntarily breathed a long, low whistle.
+
+The sound seemed to bring back his lost wits, and quickly drawing his
+hands into view, he stepped forward, saying:
+
+"I beg your pardon for that unconventional note of admiration, but I
+trust you will accept it as the tribute for which it was meant."
+
+This was an easy opening, and Patty was quite ready to respond gaily,
+when she suddenly remembered her position in the house and wondered if a
+companion ought to speak to a strange young man in the same language a
+young person in society might use.
+
+"Thank you," she said, uncertainly, and her shy hesitation completely
+captured the heart of Philip Van Reypen.
+
+"Come on down; I won't eat you," he said, reassuringly. "You are, I
+assume, a guest of my aunt's."
+
+"I am Mrs. Van Reypen's companion," said Patty, but though she made the
+announcement demurely enough, the funny side of it all struck her so
+forcibly that she had difficulty to keep the corners of her mouth from
+showing her amusement.
+
+"By Jove!" exclaimed the young man, "Aunty Van always is lucky! Now, I'm
+her nephew."
+
+"Does that prove her good luck?" said Patty, unable to be prim in the
+face of this light gaiety.
+
+"Yes, indeed! Come on down, and get acquainted, and you'll agree with
+me."
+
+"I don't believe I ought to," said Patty, hesitatingly placing one little
+satin-slippered foot on the next step below, and then pausing again. "You
+see, I've never been a companion before, but I don't think it's right for
+me to precede Mrs. Van Reypen into the drawing-room."
+
+"Ah, well, perhaps not. Stay on the stairs, then, if you think that's the
+proper place. I daresay it is,--I never was a companion, either; so I'm
+not sure. But sit down, won't you? I'll sit here, if I may."
+
+Young Van Reypen dropped onto a stair a few steps below Patty, who sat
+down, too, feeling decidedly at her ease, for, upon occasion, a staircase
+was one of her favourite haunts.
+
+"It's like a party," she said, smiling. "I love to sit on a staircase at
+a party, don't you?"
+
+And so provocative of sociability did the staircase prove, that when Mrs.
+Van Reypen came down, in all the glory of her black velvet and old lace,
+she nearly tumbled over two chatting young people, who seemed to be very
+good friends.
+
+"Philip! You here?" she exclaimed, and a casual observer would have said
+she was not too well pleased.
+
+"Yes, Aunty Van; aren't you as glad to see me as I am to see you? I've
+been making Miss Fairfield's acquaintance. You may introduce us if you
+like, but it isn't really necessary."
+
+"So it seems," said the old lady, drily; "but as I have some regard for
+the conventions, I will present to you, Miss Fairfield, my scape-grace
+and ne'er-do-well nephew, Philip Van Reypen."
+
+"What an awful reputation to live up to," said Patty, smiling at the
+debonair Philip, who quite looked the part his aunt assigned to him.
+
+"Awful, but not at all difficult," he responded, gaily, and Patty
+followed as he escorted his aunt to the dining-room.
+
+The little dinner-party was a gay one; Mrs. Van Reypen became mildly
+amiable under the influence of the young people's merry chatter, and
+Patty felt that so far, at least, a companion's lot was not such a very
+unhappy one.
+
+After dinner, however, the young man was sent peremptorily away. He
+begged to stay, but his aunt ordered him off, declaring that she had seen
+enough of him, and he was not to return for a week at least. Philip went
+away, sulkily, declaring that he would call the very next morning to
+inquire after his aunt's health.
+
+"I trust you are not flirtatiously inclined, Miss Fairfield," said Mrs.
+Van Reypen, as the two sat alone in the large and rather sombre
+drawing-room.
+
+"I am not," said Patty, honestly. "I like gay and merry conversation, but
+as your companion, I consider myself entirely at your orders, and have no
+mind to chatter if you do not wish me to do so."
+
+"That is right," said Mrs. Van Reypen, approvingly. "You cannot have many
+friends in your present position, of course. And you must not feel
+flattered at Mr. Philip's apparent admiration of you. He is a most
+impressionable youth, and is caught by every new face he sees."
+
+Patty smiled at the idea of her being unduly impressed by Mr. Van
+Reypen's glances. She had given him no thought, save as a good-natured,
+well-bred young man.
+
+But she pleasantly assured Mrs. Van Reypen that she would give her nephew
+no further consideration, and though Mrs. Van Reypen looked sharply at
+Patty's face, she saw only an honest desire to please her employer.
+
+The evening was long and uninteresting.
+
+At Mrs. Van Reypen's request, Patty read to her, and then sang for her.
+
+But the lady was critical, and declared that the reading was too fast,
+and the singing too loud, so that when at last it was bedtime, Patty
+wondered whether she was giving satisfaction or not.
+
+But she was engaged for a week, anyway, and whether satisfactory or not,
+Mrs. Van Reypen must keep her for that length of time, and that was all
+Patty wanted.
+
+She woke next morning with a pang of homesickness. It was a bit forlorn,
+to wake up as a hired companion, instead of as a beloved daughter in her
+own father's house.
+
+But resolutely putting aside such thoughts, she forced herself to think
+of her good fortune in securing her present position.
+
+"I'm glad I'm here!" she assured herself, as she dashed cold water into
+her suspiciously reddened eyes. "I know I shall have all sorts of odd and
+interesting adventures here; and I'm determined to be happy whatever
+happens. And, anyway, it will be over soon. A week isn't long."
+
+Putting on a trim morning dress, of soft old rose cashmere, with a fine
+embroidered white yoke, she went sedately down to the breakfast room. She
+had been told to come to breakfast at nine o'clock, and the clock struck
+the hour just as she crossed the threshold.
+
+Instead of her employer, she was astounded to see Philip Van Reypen
+calmly seated at the table.
+
+"Jolly to see you again!" he cried, as he jumped up to greet her. "Just
+thought I'd run in for a bite of breakfast, and to inquire how Aunty
+Van's cold is."
+
+"I didn't know she had a cold," said Patty, primly, trying to act as she
+thought a companion ought to act.
+
+"Neither did I," said the irrepressible Philip. "But I didn't know but
+she might have caught one in the night. A germ flying in at the window,
+or something."
+
+Mindful of Mrs. Van Reypen's admonitions, Patty tried not to appear
+interested in the young man's remarks, but it was impossible to ignore
+the fact that he was interested in her.
+
+She responded to his gay banter in monosyllables, and kept her dancing
+eyes veiled by their own long-fringed lids, but this only served to pique
+Philip's curiosity.
+
+"I've a notion to spend the day here, with Aunty Van," he said, and then
+Patty glanced up at him in positive alarm.
+
+"Don't!" she cried, and her face betokened a genuine distress.
+
+"Why not?" said the surprised young man; "have you learned to dislike me
+so cordially already?"
+
+Amiable Patty couldn't stand for this misinterpretation of her attitude,
+and her involuntary, smiling glance was a sufficient disclaimer.
+
+But she was saved the necessity of a verbal reply, for just at that
+moment Mrs. Van Reypen came into the room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+PERSISTENT PHILIP
+
+
+"Why, Philip!" Mrs. Van Reypen exclaimed; "you are indeed growing
+attentive to your aged aunt!"
+
+"Middle-aged aunt!" he returned, gallantly; "and belonging to the early
+middle-ages at that! I told you I should call this morning, and I'd like
+another egg, please, aunty."
+
+"You may have all the eggs you want, but I am not at all pleased with
+your presence here after I expressly forbade it."
+
+"Oh, it isn't a crime to call on one's own aunt, is it?"
+
+"It's extremely rude. I have a busy day before me, and I don't want a
+bothersome nephew around."
+
+Mrs. Van Reypen was exceedingly fond of Philip, and loved to have him at
+her house, but it was easy to be seen, now, that she considered him far
+too much interested in pretty Patty.
+
+And partly because he was interested, and partly to tease his
+long-suffering aunt, the young man declared his intention of spending the
+day with them.
+
+"I can't have you, Philip," said Mrs. Van Reypen, decidedly. "I want you
+to go away immediately after breakfast."
+
+"Just my luck!" grumbled her nephew. "I never can do anything I want to.
+Well, I'll go downtown, but I'll be back here to luncheon."
+
+"Don't talk nonsense," said Mrs. Van Reypen, shortly; "you'll do nothing
+of the sort."
+
+The rest of the meal was not very enjoyable. Mrs. Van Reypen was clearly
+displeased at her nephew's presence; Patty did not think it wise to take
+any active part in the conversation; and, though Philip was in gay
+spirits, it was not easy to be merry alone.
+
+Patty couldn't help smiling at his audacious speeches, but she kept her
+eyes down on her plate, and endeavoured to ignore the young man's
+presence, for she knew this was what Mrs. Reypen wished her to do.
+
+"Now you may go," said the hostess, as Philip finished his egg. "I'd like
+to enjoy a cup of coffee in peace."
+
+"Oh, I'm peaceful!" declared Philip, crossing his hands on his breast and
+rolling up his eyes with an angelic expression.
+
+"Good-by, Philip," said his aunt, so icily that the young man rose from
+the table and stalked out of the room.
+
+"Now," said Mrs. Van Reypen, "we are rid of him."
+
+But in a few moments the smiling face again appeared at the door.
+
+"I forgot to say good-by to Miss Fairfield," he announced, cheerfully.
+"Mayn't I do that, aunty?"
+
+Mrs. Van Reypen gave an annoyed "Humph!" and Patty, taking her cue, bowed
+very coldly, and said "Good-morning, Mr. Van Reypen" in an utterly
+impersonal tone.
+
+Philip chuckled, and went away, slamming the street door behind him, as a
+final annoyance to his aunt.
+
+"You mustn't think him a rude boy, Miss Fairfield," she said. "But he
+delights to tease me, and unless I am positively cross to him he never
+lets up. But he is really devoted to me, and, I assure you, he scarcely
+noted your presence at all."
+
+"Of course not," said Patty, with great difficulty restraining a burst of
+laughter. "No one could dream of Mr. Philip Van Reypen observing a
+companion." Patty did not mean this for sarcasm; she desired only to set
+Mrs. Van Reypen's mind at rest, and then the subject of Philip was
+dropped.
+
+Soon after breakfast Mrs. Van Reypen conducted Patty to a pleasant
+morning room, and asked her to read the newspaper aloud.
+
+"And do try to read slower," she added. "I hate rapid gabbling."
+
+Patty had resolved not to take offence at the brusque remarks, which she
+knew would be hurled at her, so, somewhat meekly, she took up the paper
+and began.
+
+It was a trying task. If she read an account of anything unpleasant she
+was peremptorily stopped; if the news was dry or prosy, that was also cut
+off short.
+
+"Read me the fashion notes," said Mrs. Van Reypen, at last.
+
+So Patty read a whole page about the latest modes, and her hearer was
+greatly interested.
+
+She then told Patty of some new gowns she was having made, and seemed
+pleased at Patty's intelligent comments on them.
+
+"Why, you have good taste!" she exclaimed, as if making a surprising
+discovery. "I will take you with me this afternoon when I go to Madame
+Leval's to try on my gowns."
+
+"Very well," said Patty. "And now, Mrs. Van Reypen, I'm sure there's
+nothing more of interest in the paper; what shall I do next?"
+
+"Heavens! Miss Fairfield, don't ask such a question as that! You are here
+to entertain me. I am not to provide amusement for you! Why do you
+suppose I have you here, if not to make my time pass pleasantly?"
+
+Patty was bewildered at this outburst. Though she knew her duties would
+be light, she supposed they would be clearly defined, and not left to her
+own invention.
+
+But she was anxious to please, and she said, pleasantly:
+
+"I think that's really what I meant, but I didn't express myself very
+well. And, you see, I don't yet quite know your tastes. Do you like fancy
+work? I know a lovely new crochet stitch I could show you."
+
+"No; I hate crocheting. The wool gets all snarled up, and the pattern
+gets wrong every few stitches."
+
+"Then we'll dismiss that. Do you like to play cards? I know cribbage, and
+some other games that two can play."
+
+"No; I detest cards. I think it is very foolish to sit and fumble with
+bits of painted pasteboard!"
+
+Poor Patty was at her wits' end. She had not expected to be a
+professional entertainer, and she didn't know what to suggest next.
+
+She felt sure Mrs. Van Reypen wouldn't care to listen to any more reading
+just then. She hesitated to propose music, as it had not been very
+successful the night before. On a sudden impulse, she said:
+
+"Do you like to see dancing? I can do some pretty fancy dances."
+
+It seemed an absurd thing to say, but Patty had ransacked her brain to
+think what professional entertainers did, and that was all she could
+think of, except recitations, and those she hated herself.
+
+"Yes, I do!" cried Mrs. Van Reypen, so emphatically that Patty jumped. "I
+love to see dancing! If you can do it, which I doubt, I wish you would
+dance for me. And this evening we'll go to see that new dancer that the
+town is wild over. If you really can dance, you'll appreciate it as I do.
+To me dancing is a fine art, and should be considered so--but it rarely
+is. Do you require music?"
+
+"Of course, I prefer it, but I can dance without."
+
+"We'll try it without, first; then, if I wish to, I'll ask Delia, my
+parlour-maid, to play for you. She plays fairly well. Or, if it suits me,
+I may play myself."
+
+Patty made no response to these suggestions, but followed Mrs. Van Reypen
+to the great drawing-room, at one end of which was a grand piano.
+
+"Try it without music, first," was the order, and Patty walked to the
+other end of the long room, while Mrs. Van Reypen seated herself on a
+sofa. Serenely conscious of her proficiency in the art, Patty felt no
+embarrassment, and, swaying gently, as if listening to rhythm, she began
+a pretty little fancy dance that she had learned some years ago.
+
+She danced beautifully, and she loved to dance, so she made a most
+effective picture, as she pirouetted back and forth, or from side to side
+of the long room.
+
+"Beautiful!" said Mrs. Van Reypen, as Patty paused in front of her and
+bowed. "You are a charming dancer. I don't know when I've enjoyed
+anything so much. Are you tired? Will you dance again?"
+
+"I'm not at all tired," said Patty. "I like to dance, and I'm very glad
+it pleases you."
+
+"Can you do a minuet?" asked the old lady, after Patty had finished
+another dance, a gay little Spanish fandango.
+
+"Yes; but I like music for that."
+
+"Good! I will play myself." With great dignity, Mrs. Van Reypen rose and
+walked to the piano.
+
+Patty adjusted the music-stool for her, and she ran her delicate old
+fingers lightly over the keys.
+
+"I'm sadly out of practice," she said, "but I can play a tinkling minuet
+and you may dance to it."
+
+She began a melodious little air, and Patty, after listening a moment,
+nodded her head, and ran to take her place.
+
+Mrs. Van Reypen was so seated at the piano that she could watch Patty's
+dance, and in a moment the two were in harmony, and Patty was gliding and
+bowing in a charming minuet, while Mrs. Van Reypen played in perfect
+sympathy.
+
+The dance was nearly over when Patty discovered the smiling face of Mr.
+Philip Van Reypen in the doorway.
+
+His aunt could not see him, and Patty saw only his reflection in the
+mirror. He gave her a pleading glance, and put his finger on his lip,
+entreating her silence.
+
+So she went on, without seeming to see him. But she wondered what his
+aunt would say after the dance was over.
+
+Indeed, the funny side of the situation struck her so forcibly that she
+unconsciously smiled broadly at her own thoughts.
+
+"That's right," said Mrs. Van Reypen, as the dancing and music both came
+to an end; "I am glad to see you smile as you dance. I have seen some
+dancers who look positively agonised as they do difficult steps."
+
+Patty smiled again, remembering that she had had a reason to smile as she
+danced, and she wondered why Philip didn't appear.
+
+But he didn't, and, except that she had seen him so clearly in the
+mirror, and he had asked her, silently but unmistakably, not to divulge
+the fact of his presence, she would have thought she only imagined him
+there in the doorway.
+
+"You dance wonderfully well," went on Mrs. Van Reypen. "You have had very
+good training. I shall be glad to have you dance for me often. But--and
+please remember this--never when any one else is here. I wish you to
+dance for me only. If I have guests, or if my nephew is here, you are not
+to dance."
+
+This was almost too much for Patty's gravity. For she well knew the old
+lady was foolishly alarmed lest her nephew should fall in love with a
+humble "companion," and, knowing that the said nephew had gleefully
+watched the dance, it was difficult not to show her amusement.
+
+But she only said, "I will remember, Mrs. Van Reypen." She couldn't tell
+of the intruder after his frantic appeal to her for silence, so she
+determined to ignore the episode.
+
+"Now, you may do as you like until luncheon time," said Mrs. Van Reypen,
+"for I shall go to my room and lie down for a rest. My maid will attend
+me, so I will bid you adieu until one o'clock. Wander round the house if
+you choose. You will find much to interest you."
+
+"Right you are!" thought Patty to herself. "I don't believe I'd have to
+wander far to find a jolly comrade to interest me!" But she well knew if
+Mr. Philip Van Reypen was still in the house, and if she should encounter
+him and chat with him, it would greatly enrage the old lady.
+
+"And," thought Patty, "since I've made good with my dancing it's a shame
+to spoil my record by talking to Sir Philip. But he is pleasant."
+
+Determined to do her duty, she went straight to her own room, though
+tempted to "wander round the house."
+
+And sure enough, though she didn't know it, Mr. Van Reypen was watching
+her from behind the drawing-room draperies. His face fell as he saw her
+go up the stairs, and, though he waited some time, she did not return.
+
+"Saucy Puss!" he thought. "But I'll have a chat with her yet."
+
+Going to the library he scribbled a note, and sent it by a servant to
+Miss Fairfield's room. The note said:
+
+  "Do come down and talk to a lonely, neglected waif, if only for a
+  few minutes.
+
+                                                          "P. V. R."
+
+Patty laughed as she read it, but she only said to the maid who brought
+it:
+
+"Please say to Mr. Van Reypen that there is no answer."
+
+The maid departed, but, in less than ten minutes, returned with another
+note:
+
+  "You're afraid of Aunty Van! Come on. I will protect you. Just for
+  a few moments' chat on the stairs.
+
+                                                          "P. V. R."
+
+Again Patty sent the message, "There is no answer."
+
+Soon came a third note:
+
+  "I think you are horrid! And you don't dance prettily at all!"
+
+"Oho!" thought Patty. "Getting saucy, is he?"
+
+She made no response whatever to the maid this time, but she was not
+greatly surprised when another note came:
+
+  "If you don't come down, I'm going out to drown myself. P."
+
+Patty began to be annoyed. The servants must think all this very strange,
+and yet surely she could not help it.
+
+"Wait a moment, Delia," she said. "Please say to Mr. Van Reypen that I
+will see him in the library, at once."
+
+After a moment she followed the maid downstairs, and went straight to the
+library, where the young man awaited her. His face lighted up with
+gladness, as he held out his hand.
+
+"Forgive me if I was impertinent," he said, with such a charming air of
+apology that Patty had to smile.
+
+"I forgive the impertinence," she returned, "but you are making real
+trouble for me."
+
+"What do you mean?" he cried, looking dismayed.
+
+"I mean that I am your aunt's companion, and trying to earn my living
+thereby. Now if you persist in secretly coming to the house,--pardon me
+if I am frank,--and if you persist in sending foolish notes to me, your
+aunt will not let me stay here, and I shall lose a good position through
+your unkindness."
+
+Patty was very much in earnest, and her words were sincere, but her
+innate sense of humour couldn't fail to see the ridiculous side of it
+all, and the corners of her mouth dimpled though she kept her eyes
+resolutely cast down.
+
+"It's a shame the way she keeps you tied to her apron string," he blurted
+out, uncertain whether Patty was coquetting, or really distressed.
+
+"Not at all," she replied. "I'm here to attend on her pleasure, and my
+place is by her side whenever she wants me there."
+
+"How can any one help wanting you there?" broke out Philip, so
+explosively that Patty, instead of being offended, burst into a ringing
+laugh.
+
+"Oh, you are too funny!" she exclaimed. "Mrs. Van Reypen said you were
+given to saying things like that to everybody."
+
+"I don't say them to everybody!"
+
+"Yes, you do; your aunt says so. But now that you've said it to me, won't
+you go away and stay away?"
+
+"How long?"
+
+Patty thought quickly. "Till next Friday--a week from to-day."
+
+"Oh, you want to get acclimatised, all by yourself!"
+
+"Yes," said Patty, demurely, "I do. And if you'll only keep away,--you
+know your aunt asked you not to come back for a week,--if you'll keep
+away till next Friday, I'll never ask you another favour."
+
+"Huh! that's no inducement. I love to have you ask me favours."
+
+"Well, then, I never shall if you don't grant this first one."
+
+"And if I do?"
+
+"If you do I'll promise you almost anything you ask."
+
+"That's a large order! Well, if I stay away from this house until you get
+solid with Aunty Van----"
+
+"I said a week."
+
+"Well, to-day's Friday. If I stay away a week will you persuade aunty to
+invite me to dinner next Friday night?"
+
+"I will."
+
+"Can you persuade her to do that?"
+
+"I'm sure I can by that time."
+
+Patty's eyes were dancing. She had come to Mrs. Van Reypen's on Thursday.
+She would, therefore, leave on Thursday, and she was sure that lady would
+have no objections to inviting her nephew to dinner after her
+"companion's" departure.
+
+"Are you going to stay?" demanded Philip suspiciously.
+
+"I'm here a week on trial," said Patty, demurely. "Your aunt needn't keep
+me longer if I don't suit her. And I know I won't suit her if she thinks
+I receive notes from her nephew."
+
+"Oh, I see! You're here a week on trial, and if I am chummy with you
+Aunty Van won't keep you! Oh, yes! Why, of course! To be sure! Well, Miss
+Fairfield, I make this sacrifice for your benefit. I will keep away from
+here during your trial week. Then, in return, you promise to use your
+influence to get me an invitation to dine here next Friday."
+
+"I do," returned Patty. "But do you need an invitation to a house where
+you seem to feel so much at home?"
+
+"Only when you're in it," declared the young man, frankly. "I think Aunty
+Van fears I mean to kidnap you. I don't."
+
+"I'm sure you don't," said Patty, flashing a smile at him. "I think we
+could be good friends, and I hope we shall be. But not until after next
+Friday."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+AN INVITATION DECLINED
+
+
+Philip Van Reypen went away, and his aunt never knew that he had been to
+her house on that occasion.
+
+"I'm glad that boy has sense enough to keep away when I tell him to," she
+remarked at luncheon, and Patty hastily took a sip of water to hide her
+uncontrollable smile.
+
+"Yes, he seems to obey you," she said, by way of being agreeable.
+
+"He does. He's a good boy, but too impressionable. He's captivated by
+every girl he meets, so I warn you again, Miss Fairfield, not to notice
+his pretended interest in you."
+
+Patty tossed her head a little haughtily.
+
+"Do not be alarmed, Mrs. Van Reypen," she said, "I have no interest
+whatever in your nephew."
+
+She was a little annoyed at the absurd speeches of the old lady, and
+determined to put a stop to them.
+
+"I should hope not," was the reply. "A person in your position should not
+aspire to association with young gentlemen like my nephew."
+
+Patty was really angry at this, but her common sense came to her aid. If
+she elected to play the part of a dependent, she must accept the
+consequences. But she allowed herself a pointed rejoinder.
+
+"Perhaps not," she said. "Yet I suppose a companion of Mrs. Van Reypen's
+would meet only the best people."
+
+"That, of course. But you cannot meet them as an equal."
+
+"No," agreed Patty, meekly. Then to herself she said: "Only a week of
+this! Only six days now."
+
+That afternoon they went to the dressmaker's.
+
+Patty put on a smart tailored costume, and almost regretted that she had
+left her white furs at home. But she and Nan had agreed that they were
+too elaborate for her use as a companion, so she wore a small neckpiece
+and muff of chinchilla. But it suited well her dark-blue cloth suit and
+plain but chic black velvet hat.
+
+The dressmaker, an ultra-fashionable modiste, looked at Patty with
+interest, recognising in her costume the work of adept hands.
+
+Moreover, Patty's praise and criticism of Mrs. Van Reypen's new gowns
+showed her to be a young woman of taste and knowledge in such matters.
+
+Both the modiste and her aristocratic patron were a little puzzled at
+Patty's attitude, which, though modest and deferential, was yet sure and
+true in its judgments and opinions.
+
+At last, when Mrs. Van Reypen was undergoing some tedious fitting, Patty
+had an inspiration.
+
+"May I be excused long enough to telephone?" she asked.
+
+"Certainly," said Mrs. Van Reypen, who was in high good humour, because
+of her new finery. "Take all the time you like."
+
+Patty had noticed a telephone booth in the hall, and, shutting herself in
+it, she called up Nan.
+
+By good fortune Nan was at home, and answered at once.
+
+"Oh!" began Patty, giggling, "I've so much to tell you, and it's all so
+funny, I can't say a word. We're at the dressmaker's now, and I took this
+chance to call you up, because I won't be overheard. Oh, Nan, it's great
+fun!"
+
+"Tell me the principal facts, Patty. And stop giggling. Is she kind to
+you? Is she patronising? Have you a pleasant room? Do you want to come
+home? Are you happy there?"
+
+"Oh, Nan, wait a minute, for goodness' sake! Yes, she's patronising--she
+won't let me speak to her grand nephew. Oh--I don't mean her grand
+nephew! I mean her grand, gorgeous, extraordinary nephew. But I don't
+care; I've no desire to speak to him."
+
+"Does he live there?"
+
+"No; and never mind about him, anyway. How are you all? Is father well?
+Oh, Nan, it seems as if I'd been away from home a year! And what do you
+think? I have to dance for her to amuse her!"
+
+"Patty! Not really? Well, you can do that all right."
+
+"Sure I can! Oh, she's a peach! Don't reprove my slang, Nan; I have to be
+so precise when I'm on duty. Well, I must say good-by now. I'll write you
+a long letter as soon as I get a chance. To-night we're going to see
+Mlle. Thingamajig dance, and to-morrow night, to the opera. So you see
+I'm not dull."
+
+"Oh, Patty, I wish you'd drop it all and come home! I don't like it, and
+Fred doesn't either."
+
+"Tra-la-la! 'Twill all be over soon! Only six days more. Expect me home
+next Thursday afternoon. Love to all. Good-by. Patty!"
+
+Patty hung up the receiver, for she knew if she talked any longer she'd
+get homesick. The sound of Nan's familiar voice made her long for her
+home and her people. But Patty was plucky, and, also, she was doggedly
+determined to succeed this time.
+
+So she went back to Mrs. Van Reypen with a placid countenance, and sat
+for an hour or more complimenting and admiring the costumes in process of
+construction.
+
+Somehow the afternoon dragged itself away, and the evening, at the
+theatre, passed pleasantly enough.
+
+But the succeeding days went slowly.
+
+Mrs. Van Reypen was difficult to please. She was fretty, irritable,
+inconsequent, and unjust.
+
+What suited her one day displeased her highly the next.
+
+So long as Patty praised, complimented, and flattered her all went fairly
+well.
+
+But if Patty inadvertently disagreed with her, or expressed a contrary
+opinion, there was a scene.
+
+And again, if Patty seemed especially meek and mild Mrs. Van Reypen would
+say:
+
+"Don't sit there and assent to everything I say! Do have some mind of
+your own! Express an honest opinion, even though it may differ from
+mine."
+
+Then, if Patty did this, it would bring down vials of wrath on her
+inoffensive head. Often she was at her wits' end to know what to say. But
+her sense of humour never deserted her, and if she said something,
+feeling sure she was going to get sorely berated for saying it, she was
+able to smile inwardly when the scathing retort was uttered.
+
+Sunday was an especially hard day. It was stormy, so they could not go
+out.
+
+So Mrs. Van Reypen bade Patty read sermons to her.
+
+When Patty did so she either fell asleep and then, waking suddenly,
+declared that Patty had been skipping, or else she argued contrary to the
+doctrines expressed in the sermons and expected Patty to combat her
+arguments.
+
+"I'm tired of hearing you read," she said, at last. "You do read
+abominably. First you go along in staccato jerks, then you drone in a
+monotone. Philip is a fine reader. I love to hear Philip read. I wish
+he'd come in to-day. I wonder why he doesn't? Probably because you're
+here. He must have taken a violent dislike to you, Miss Fairfield."
+
+"Do you think so?" said Patty, almost choking with suppressed laughter at
+this version of Philip's attitude toward her.
+
+"Yes, I'm sure he did. For usually he likes my companions--especially if
+they're pretty. And you're pretty, Miss Fairfield. Not the type I admire
+myself,--I prefer brunettes,--but still you are pretty in your own way."
+
+"Thank you," said Patty, meekly.
+
+"And you're especially pretty when you dance. I wish you could dance for
+me now; but, of course, I wouldn't let you dance on Sunday. That's the
+worst of Sundays. There's so little one can do."
+
+"Shall I sing hymns to you?" inquired Patty, gently, for she really felt
+sorry for the discontented old lady.
+
+"Yes, if you like," was the not very gracious rejoinder, and, without
+accompaniment, Patty sang the old, well-known hymns in her true, sweet
+voice.
+
+The twilight was falling, and, as Patty's soothing music continued, Mrs.
+Van Reypen fell asleep in her chair.
+
+Exhausted by a really difficult day Patty also dropped into a doze, and
+the two slept peacefully in their chairs in front of the dying embers of
+the wood fire.
+
+It was thus that Philip Van Reypen found them as he came softly in at
+five o'clock.
+
+"Well, I'll be excused," he said, to himself, "if I ever saw anything to
+beat that!"
+
+His gaze had wandered from his sleeping aunt to Patty, now sound asleep
+in a big armchair.
+
+The crimson velvet made a perfect background for her golden curls, a bit
+tumbled by her afternoon exertions at being entertaining.
+
+Her posture was one of graceful relaxation, and pretty Patty had never
+looked prettier than she did then, asleep in the faint firelight.
+
+"By Jove!" exclaimed the young man, but not aloud, "if that isn't the
+prettiest sight ever. I believe there's a tradition that one may kiss a
+lady whom one finds asleep in her chair, but I won't. She's a dear little
+girl, and she shan't be teased."
+
+Then Mr. Philip Van Reypen deliberately, and noiselessly, lifted another
+large armchair and, carefully disposing his own goodly proportioned frame
+within it, proceeded to fall asleep himself--or if not really asleep, he
+gave an exceedingly good imitation of it.
+
+Patty woke first. As she slowly opened her eyes she saw Philip dimly
+through the now rapidly gathering dusk.
+
+Quick as a flash she took in the situation, and shut her eyes again,
+though not until Philip had seen her from beneath his own quivering lids.
+
+After a time she peeped again.
+
+"Why play hide-and-seek?" he whispered.
+
+"What about your promise?" she returned, also under her breath.
+
+"Had to come. Aunty telephoned for me."
+
+"Oh!"
+
+Then Mrs. Van Reypen awoke.
+
+"Who's here?" she cried out. "Oh, Philip, you!"
+
+She heartily kissed her nephew, and then rang for lights and tea.
+
+"Miss Fairfield," she said, not untimidly, but with decision, "you are
+weary and I'm not surprised at it. Go to your room and rest until dinner
+time! I will send your tea to you there."
+
+"Yes, Mrs. Van Reypen," said Patty, demurely, and, with a slight
+impersonal bow to Philip, she left the room.
+
+"Oh, I say! Aunty Van!" exclaimed the young man, as Patty disappeared,
+"don't send her away."
+
+"Be quiet, Philip," said his aunt. "You know you don't like her, and she
+needs a rest."
+
+"Don't like her!" echoed Philip. "Does a cat like cream? Aunty Van,
+what's the matter with you, anyway? Who is she?"
+
+"She's my companion," was the stern response, "my hired companion, and I
+do not wish you to treat her as an equal."
+
+"Equal! She's superior to anything I've ever seen yet."
+
+"Oh, you rogue! You say that, or its equivalent, about every girl you
+meet."
+
+"Pooh! Nonsense! But I say, aunty, she'll come down to dinner, won't
+she?"
+
+"Yes--I suppose so. But mind now, Philip, you're not to talk to her as if
+she were of your own class."
+
+"No'm; I won't."
+
+Reassured by the knowledge that he should see her again, Philip was most
+affable and agreeable, and chatted with his aunt in a happy frame of
+mind.
+
+Patty, exiled to her own room, decided to write to Nan.
+
+She filled several sheets with accounts of her doings at Mrs. Van
+Reypen's, and gloated over the fact that there were now but four days of
+her week left.
+
+"I shall win this time," she wrote, "and, though life here is not a bed
+of roses, yet it is not so very bad, and when the week is over I shall
+look back at it with lots of funny thoughts. Oh, Nan, prepare a fatted
+calf for Thursday night, for I shall come home a veritable Prodigal Son!
+Of course, I don't mean this literally; we have lovely things to eat
+here, but it's 'hame, hame, fain wad I be.' I won't write again, I'll
+probably get no chance, but send Miller for me at four o'clock on
+Thursday afternoon."
+
+After writing the letter Patty felt less homesick. It seemed, somehow, to
+bring Thursday nearer, to write about it. She began to dress for dinner,
+and, in a spirit of mischief, she took pains to make a most fetching
+toilette.
+
+Her frock was of white mousseline de soie that twinkled into foolish
+little ruffles all round the hem.
+
+More tiny frills gambolled around the low-cut circular neck and nestled
+against Patty's soft, round arms.
+
+Her curly hair was parted, and massed low at the back of her neck, and
+behind one ear she tucked a half-blown pink rosebud.
+
+The long, dreamy day had roused in Patty a contrary wilfulness, and she
+was quite ready for fun if any came her way.
+
+At dinner Mrs. Van Reypen monopolised the conversation. She talked mostly
+to Philip, but occasionally addressed a remark to Patty. She was
+exceedingly polite to her, but made her feel that her share of the
+conversation must be formal and conventional. Then she would chatter to
+her nephew about matters unknown to Patty, and then perhaps again throw
+an observation about the weather at her "companion."
+
+Patty accepted all this willingly enough, but Philip didn't.
+
+He couldn't keep his eyes off Patty, who was looking her very prettiest,
+and whose own eyes, when she raised them, were full of smiles.
+
+But in vain he endeavoured to make her talk to him.
+
+Patty remembered Mrs. Van Reypen's injunctions, and, though her
+bewitching personality made such effort useless, she tried to be
+absolutely and uninterestingly silent.
+
+"Aunty Van," said Philip, at last, giving up his attempts to make Patty
+converse, "let's have a little theatre party to-morrow night. Shall us?
+I'll get a box, and if you and Miss Fairfield will go, I'll be
+delighted."
+
+"I'll go, with pleasure," replied his aunt, "but Miss Fairfield will be
+obliged to decline. She has been out late too often since she has been
+here, and she needs rest. So invite the Delafields instead, and that will
+make a pleasant quartette."
+
+For an instant Patty was furiously angry at this summary disposal of
+herself, but when she saw Philip's face she almost screamed with
+laughter.
+
+Crestfallen faintly expressed his appearance. He was crushed, and looked
+absolutely stunned.
+
+"How he is under his aunt's thumb!" thought Patty, secretly disgusted at
+his lack of self-assertion, but she suddenly changed her mind.
+
+"Thank you, Aunty Van," she heard him saying, in a cool, determined
+voice, "but I prefer to choose my own guests. I do not care to ask the
+Delafields--unless you especially desire it. I am sorry Miss Fairfield
+cannot go, but I trust you will honour me with your presence." Philip had
+scored.
+
+Mrs. Van Reypen well knew if she went alone with her nephew, under such
+conditions, he would be sulky all the evening. Nor could she insist on
+having the Delafields asked after the way he had put it.
+
+She then nobly endeavoured to undo the mischief she had wrought.
+
+"No, Philip, I don't care especially about the Delafields. And if Miss
+Fairfield thinks it will not tire her too much I shall be glad to have
+her accept your kindness."
+
+His kindness, indeed! Patty felt like saying, "Do you know I am Patricia
+Fairfield, and it is I who confer an honour when I accept an invitation?"
+
+It wasn't exactly pride, but Patty had been brought up in an atmosphere
+of somewhat old-fashioned chivalry, and it jarred on her sense of the
+fitness of things to have Philip's invitation to her referred to as a
+"kindness."
+
+So she decided to take a stand herself.
+
+"I thank you for your _kindness_, Mr. Van Reypen," she said, with just
+the slightest emphasis on _kindness_, "but I cannot accept it. I quite
+agree with Mrs. Van Reypen that I need rest."
+
+The speech was absurd on the face of it, for Patty's rosy, dimpled cheeks
+and sparkling eyes betokened no weariness or lassitude.
+
+But Mrs. Van Reypen accepted this evidence of the girl's obedience to her
+wishes, and said:
+
+"You are right, Miss Fairfield, and my nephew will excuse you from his
+party."
+
+Philip sent her a reproachful glance, and Patty dropped her eyes again,
+wishing dinner was over.
+
+At last the ladies left the table, and Philip rose and held aside the
+portiere while his aunt passed through.
+
+As Patty followed, he detained her a moment, and whispered:
+
+"It is cruel of you to punish me for my aunt's unkindness."
+
+"I can't help it," said Patty, and as her troubled eyes met his angry
+ones they both smiled, and peace was restored.
+
+"After Friday," whispered Patty, as she went through the doorway.
+
+"After Friday," he repeated, puzzled by her words, but reassured by her
+smiles.
+
+And then Mrs. Van Reypen sent Patty to her room for the night, and when
+Philip came to the drawing-room he found he was destined to be
+entertained by his aunt alone.
+
+"Of course," said Patty, to her own reflection in her mirror, "a
+companion can't expect to sit with 'the quality,' but it does seem a
+shame to dress up pretty like this and then be sent to bed at nine
+o'clock! Never mind, only three evenings more in this house, and then
+victory for Patty Fairfield!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+THE ROAD TO SUCCESS
+
+
+Patty adhered to her resolution not to go to the theatre on Monday night,
+but when she saw Mrs. Van Reypen and Philip start off she secretly
+regretted her decision.
+
+She loved fun and gaiety, and it suddenly seemed to her that she had been
+foolishly sensitive about Mrs. Van Reypen's attitude toward her.
+
+However, it couldn't be helped now, so she prepared to spend the evening
+reading in the library.
+
+She would have liked to hold a long telephone conversation with Nan and
+her father, but she thought she had better not, for there were so many
+house servants on duty that a maid or a footman would be likely to
+overhear her.
+
+She played the piano and sang a little, then she wandered about the large
+and lonely rooms. Patty was a sociable creature, and had never before
+spent an evening entirely alone, unless when engaged in some important
+and engrossing work.
+
+But after a while the telephone rang, and when the parlour-maid told her
+the call was for her she flew to the instrument with glad anticipation.
+
+"Hello!" she cried, and "Hello!" returned a familiar voice.
+
+"Oh, Ken! of all people. How _did_ you know I was here?"
+
+"Oh, I found it out! How are you? May I come to see you?"
+
+"No, indeed! I'm a companion. I'm not expected to have callers. But I'm
+glad to talk to you this way. I'm alone in the house, except for the
+servants."
+
+"Alone! Then let me come up for a few minutes, and chat."
+
+"No; Mrs. Van Reypen wouldn't like it, I'm sure. But, oh, Ken, I'm making
+good this time! On Thursday the week will be up, and I'll get my fifteen
+dollars. Isn't that gay?"
+
+"You're a plucky girl, Patty, and I congratulate you. Is it very horrid?"
+
+"No, it isn't exactly horrid, but I'm fearfully homesick. But it's only
+three more days now, and won't I be glad to get home!"
+
+"And we'll be glad to have you. The goldfish are dull and moping, and we
+all want our Patty back again."
+
+"That's nice of you. But, Ken, how did you know where to find me? I made
+Nan and father promise not to tell."
+
+"Well, I may as well confess: I basely worried it out of Miller. I asked
+him where he took you to last Thursday afternoon."
+
+"Oh! I meant to tell him not to tell, but I forgot it. Well, it doesn't
+matter much, as you chanced to strike a time when I'm alone. But don't
+call me up again. I'm not supposed to have any social acquaintances."
+
+"Good for you, Patty! If you play the game, play it well. I expect you're
+a prim, demure companion as ever was."
+
+"Of course I am. And if the lady didn't have such a fishy nephew I'd get
+along beautifully."
+
+"Oho! A nephew, eh? And he's smitten with your charms, as they always are
+in novels."
+
+"Yes," said Patty, in a simpering tone.
+
+"Oh, yes! I can't see you, but I know you have your finger in your mouth
+and your eyes shyly cast down."
+
+"You're _so_ clever!" murmured Patty, giggling. "But now you may go, Ken,
+for I don't want to talk to you any more. Come round Thursday night,
+can't you, and welcome me home?"
+
+"Pooh, you're late with your invitation. Mrs. Fairfield has already
+invited me to dinner that very evening."
+
+"Good! Well, good-by for now. I have reasons for wishing to discontinue
+this conversation."
+
+"And I have reasons for wishing to keep on. If you're tired talking, sing
+to me."
+
+"'Thou art so near and yet so far,'" hummed Patty, in her clear, sweet
+voice.
+
+"No, don't sing. Central will think you're a concert. Well, good-by till
+Thursday."
+
+"Good-by," said Patty, and hung up the receiver.
+
+But she felt much more cheerful at having talked with Kenneth, and the
+coming days seemed easier to bear.
+
+They proved, however, to be quite hard enough.
+
+The very next day, when Patty went down to the breakfast room, determined
+to do her best to please Mrs. Van Reypen, she found that lady suffering
+from an attack of neuralgia.
+
+Though not a serious one, it seriously affected her temper, and she was
+cross and irritable to a degree that Patty had never seen equalled.
+
+She snapped at the servants; she was short of speech to Patty; she found
+fault with everything, from the coffee to the cat.
+
+After breakfast they went to the sunny, pleasant morning room, and Patty
+made up her mind to a hard day.
+
+Then she had an inspiration. She remembered how susceptible Mrs. Van
+Reypen was to flattery, and she determined to see if large doses of it
+wouldn't cure her ill temper.
+
+"How lovely your hair is," said Patty, apropos of nothing. "I do so
+admire white hair, and yours is so abundant and of such fine texture."
+
+As she had hoped, Mrs. Van Reypen smiled in a pleased way.
+
+"Ah, Miss Fairfield, you should have seen it when I was a girl. It was
+phenomenal. But of late years it has come out sadly."
+
+"You still have quantities," said Patty, and very truthfully, too, "and
+its silvery whiteness is so becoming to your complexion."
+
+"Do you think so?" said Mrs. Van Reypen, smiling most amiably. "I think
+it's much wiser not to colour one's hair, for now-a-days so many people
+turn gray quite young."
+
+"Yes, they do. I've several friends with gray hair who are very young
+women indeed."
+
+"Yes," agreed the other, comfortably, "white hair no longer indicates
+that a woman is advanced in years. You speak very sensibly, Miss
+Fairfield."
+
+Patty smiled to herself at the success of her little ruse, "And, after
+all," she thought, "I'm telling her only the truth. Her hair is lovely,
+and she may as well know I appreciate it."
+
+"Have you ever tried," she went on, "wearing it in a coronet braid?"
+
+"No; I've thought I should like to, but I've worn puffs so long I don't
+know how to change."
+
+"Let me do it for you," said Patty. "I'm sure I could dress it to please
+you. At any rate, it would do no harm to try."
+
+So up they went to Mrs. Van Reypen's dressing room, and Patty spent most
+of the morning trying and discussing different modes of hair-dressing.
+
+Mrs. Van Reypen's maid was present, and she admired Patty's cleverness
+and deftness at the work.
+
+"You have a touch," declared Mrs. Van Reypen, as she surveyed herself by
+the aid of a hand-mirror. "You're positively Frenchy in your touch. Where
+did you learn it? Have you ever been a lady's-maid?"
+
+"No," said Patty, suppressing her smiles, "I never have. But I've spent a
+winter in Paris, and I picked up some French notions, I suppose."
+
+"You certainly did. You are clever with your fingers, I can see that. Can
+you trim hats?"
+
+"Yes, I can," said Patty, smiling to herself at the recollection of her
+experiences with Mme. Villard.
+
+"Humph! You seem pretty sure of yourself. I wish you'd trim one for me,
+then; but I don't want you to spoil the materials."
+
+"I'll do my best," said Patty, meekly, and Mrs. Van Reypen instructed her
+maid to bring out some boxes.
+
+"This," she said, taking up a finished hat, "is one my milliner has just
+sent home, and I think it a fright. Now here's a last year's hat, but the
+plumes are lovely. If you could untrim this first one, and transfer these
+plumes, and then add these roses--what do you think?"
+
+Secretly Patty thought the new hat was lovely just as it was, but her
+plan that morning was to humour the testy old lady and, if possible, make
+her forget her neuralgic pains.
+
+So she took the hats, and sat down to rip and retrim them.
+
+Meantime, Mrs. Van Reypen instructed her maid to practise dressing her
+hair in the fashion Patty had done it.
+
+But the maid was not very deft in the art, and soon Patty heard Mrs. Van
+Reypen shrilly exclaiming:
+
+"Stupid! Not that way! You have neither taste nor brains! Place the braid
+higher. No, not so high as that! Oh, you _are_ an idiot!"
+
+Deeming it best not to interfere, Patty went on with her work.
+
+Also, Mrs. Van Reypen went on with her scolding, which so upset the
+long-suffering maid that she fell to weeping and thereby roused her
+mistress to still greater ire.
+
+"Crying, are you!" she exclaimed. "If you had such a painful neck and
+shoulder as I have you well might cry. But to cry about nothing! Bah!
+Leave me, and do not return until you can be pleasant. Miss Fairfield,
+will you please finish putting up my hair?"
+
+Patty laid down her work, and did as she was requested. She was sorry for
+the maid and incensed at Mrs. Van Reypen's injustice and disagreeableness,
+but she felt intuitively that it was the best plan to be, herself, kind
+and affable.
+
+"Oh, yes, I'll do it!" she said, pleasantly. "Your hat is almost
+finished, and we can try it on with your hair done this way. I'm sure the
+effect will be charming."
+
+Mollified at this, Mrs. Van Reypen smiled benignly on her companion, and
+also smiled admiringly at her own mirrored reflection.
+
+"Now," said Patty, as, a little later, she brought the completed hat for
+inspection, "I will try this on and see how it looks."
+
+Mrs. Van Reypen seated herself again in front of her dressing mirror, and
+with gestures worthy of Madame Villard herself, Patty placed the hat on
+her head.
+
+"It's most becoming," began Patty, when Mrs. Van Reypen interrupted her.
+
+"Becoming?" she cried. "It is dreadful! It is _fearful_. It makes me look
+like an old woman!"
+
+With an angry jerk she snatched the offending hat from her head and threw
+it across the room.
+
+Patty was about to give a horrified exclamation when the funny side of it
+struck her, and she burst into laughter. Mrs. Van Reypen was really an
+elderly lady, and her angry surprise at being made to look like one
+seemed very funny to Patty.
+
+But in a moment she understood the case.
+
+She had thought the hat in question of too youthful a type for Mrs. Van
+Reypen, and in retrimming it had made it more subdued and of a quieter,
+more elderly fashion.
+
+But she now realised that she had been expected to make it of even gayer
+effect than it had shown at first. This was an easy matter, and picking
+up the hat she straightened it out, and hastily catching up a bunch of
+pink roses and a glittering buckle, she said:
+
+"Oh, it isn't finished yet; these other trimmings I want to put in place
+while the hat is on your head."
+
+"Oh," said Mrs. Van Reypen, only half-convinced.
+
+But she sat down again, and Patty replaced the hat, and then adjusted the
+roses and the buckle, giving the whole a dainty, pretty effect, which
+though over-youthful, perhaps, was really very becoming to the
+fine-looking old lady.
+
+"Charming!" she exclaimed, letting her recent display of bad temper go
+without apology. "I felt sure you could do it. This afternoon we will go
+out to the shops and buy some materials, and you shall make me another
+hat."
+
+They did so, and, though it meant an afternoon of rather strenuous
+shopping, Patty didn't mind it much, for Mrs. Van Reypen couldn't fly
+into a rage in the presence of the salespeople.
+
+And so the days dragged by. Patty had hard work to keep her own temper
+when her employer was unreasonably cross and snappish, but she stuck to
+her plan of flattering her, and it worked well more often than not.
+
+Nor was she insincere. There were so many admirable qualities and traits
+of Mrs. Van Reypen that she really admired, it was easy enough to tell
+her so, and invariably the lady was pleased.
+
+But she often broke out into foolish, unjustifiable rages, and then Patty
+had to wait meekly until they passed over.
+
+But when, at last, Wednesday evening had gone by, and she went to her
+room, knowing it was the last night she should spend under that roof, she
+was glad indeed.
+
+"Another week of this would give me nervous prostration!" she said to
+herself. "But to-morrow my week is up, and that means Success! I have
+really and truly succeeded in earning my own living for a week, and I'm
+glad and proud of it. I knew I should succeed, but I confess I didn't
+think I'd score so many failures first. But perhaps that makes my success
+all the sweeter. Anyway, I'm jolly glad I'm going home to-morrow. Wow!
+but I'm homesick."
+
+Then she tumbled into bed, and soon forgot her homesickness in a sound,
+dreamless sleep.
+
+Patty had been uncertain whether to tell Mrs. Van Reypen the true story
+of her week of companionship or not; but on Thursday morning she decided
+she would do so.
+
+And, as it chanced, after breakfast Mrs. Van Reypen herself opened the
+way for Patty's confidences.
+
+"Miss Fairfield," she said, as they sat down in the library, "you know
+our trial week is up to-day."
+
+"Yes, Mrs. Van Reypen, and you remember that either of us has the
+privilege of terminating our engagement to-day."
+
+"I do remember, and, though I fear you will be greatly disappointed, I
+must tell you that I have decided that I cannot keep you as my
+companion."
+
+As Patty afterward told Nan, she was "struck all of a heap."
+
+She had been wondering how she should persuade Mrs. Van Reypen to let her
+go, and now the lady was voluntarily dismissing her! It was so sudden and
+so unexpected that Patty showed her surprise by her look of blank
+amazement.
+
+"I knew you'd feel dreadful about it," went on Mrs. Van Reypen, with real
+regret in her tone, "but I cannot help it. You are not, by nature, fitted
+for the position. You are--I don't exactly know how to express it, but
+you are not of a subservient disposition."
+
+"No," said Patty, "I'm not. But I have tried to do as you wanted me to."
+
+"Yes, I could see that. But you are too high-strung to be successful in a
+position of this kind. You should be more deferential in spirit as well
+as in manner. Do I make myself clear?"
+
+"You do, Mrs. Van Reypen," said Patty, smiling; "so clear that I am going
+to tell you the truth about this whole business. I'm not really obliged
+to earn my own living. I have a happy home and loving parents. My father,
+though not a millionaire, is wealthy and generous enough to supply all my
+wants, and the reason I took this position with you is a special and
+peculiar one, which I will tell you about if you care to hear."
+
+"You sly puss!" cried Mrs. Van Reypen, with a smile that indicated relief
+rather than dismay at Patty's revelation. "Then you've been only
+masquerading as a companion?"
+
+"Yes," said Patty, smiling back at her, "that's about the size of it."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+HOME AGAIN
+
+
+After Patty had told Mrs. Van Reypen the whole story of her efforts to
+earn her living for a week, and why she had undertaken such a thing, she
+found herself occupying a changed place in that lady's regard.
+
+"It was fine of you, perfectly fine!" Mrs. Van Reypen declared, "to
+sacrifice yourself, your tastes, and your time for a noble end like
+that."
+
+"Don't praise me more than I deserve," said Patty, smiling. "I did begin
+the game with a charitable motive, but I thought it was going to be easy.
+When I found it difficult I fear I kept on rather from stubbornness than
+anything else."
+
+"I don't call it stubbornness, Miss Fairfield; I call it commendable
+perseverance, and I'm glad you've told me your story. Of course, I
+wouldn't have wished you to tell me at first, for had I known it I
+wouldn't have taken you. But you have honestly tried to do your work
+well, and you succeeded as well as you could. But, as I told you, you are
+not made for that sort of thing. Your disposition is not that of a
+subordinate, and I am glad you do not really have to be one. You have
+earned your salary this week, however, and I gladly pay you the fifteen
+dollars we agreed upon."
+
+Mrs. Van Reypen handed Patty the money, and as the girl took it she said,
+earnestly: "As you may well believe, Mrs. Van Reypen, this money means
+more to me than any I have ever before received in my life. It is the
+first I have ever earned by my own exertions, and, unless I meet with
+reverses of fortune, it will probably be the last. But, more than that,
+it proves my success in the somewhat doubtful enterprise I undertook and
+it assures a chance, at least, of another girl's success in life."
+
+"I am greatly interested in your young art student," went on Mrs. Van
+Reypen. "Can you not bring her to see me when she comes, and perhaps I
+may be of use to her in some friendly way?"
+
+"How good you are!" exclaimed Patty.
+
+She was surprised at the complete change of demeanour in Mrs. Van Reypen,
+though of course she realised it was due to the fact that she was now
+looked upon as a social equal and not a dependent.
+
+"It is all so uncertain yet," Patty went on. "I don't know exactly how we
+are to persuade the girl to come North at all. She is of a proud and
+sensitive nature that would reject anything like charity."
+
+"Well, you will doubtless arrange the matter somehow, and when you do,
+remember that I shall be glad to help in any way I can."
+
+"Thank you very much," said Patty. "It may be that you can indeed help
+us. And now, Mrs. Van Reypen, mayn't I read to you, or something? You
+know my week isn't up until this afternoon."
+
+"Not literally, perhaps; but for the few hours that are left of your stay
+with me I shall look upon you as a guest, not a 'companion.' And as I
+always like to entertain my guests pleasantly, I shall, if you agree,
+telephone for Philip to come to luncheon with us."
+
+The old lady's eyes twinkled at the idea of Philip's surprise at the
+changed conditions, and Patty smiled, too, as she expressed her assent.
+
+When Philip arrived he was, of course, amazed at his aunt's demeanour.
+She not only seemed to approve of Miss Fairfield, but treated her as an
+honoured guest and seemed more than willing that Philip should chat
+socially with her. Soon she explained to him the cause of her sudden
+change of attitude.
+
+Philip laughed heartily. "I suspected something of the sort," he said.
+"Miss Fairfield didn't strike me as being of the 'thankful and willin' to
+please' variety. She tried her best, but her deference was forced and her
+meekness assumed."
+
+"But she did it well," said Mrs. Van Reypen.
+
+"Oh, yes; very well. Still I like her better in her natural role of
+society lady."
+
+"Oh, not that!" protested Patty. "I'm not really a society lady. In fact,
+I'm not 'out' yet. I'm just a New York girl."
+
+"Were you born here?" asked Mrs. Van Reypen.
+
+"No," said Patty, laughing; "I was born South, and I've only lived North
+about five years. One of those I've spent abroad, and one or two outside
+of New York. So when I say I'm a New York girl I only mean that I live
+here now."
+
+"Mayn't I come to see you?" asked Philip. "Where do you live?"
+
+"I live on Seventy-second Street," said Patty, "and you may come to tea
+some Wednesday if you like. That's my mother's 'day,' and I often receive
+with her."
+
+"I see you're well brought up," said Mrs. Van Reypen, nodding her head
+approvingly. "I'm a bit surprised though that your mother allowed you to
+undertake this escapade."
+
+"Well, you see, she's my stepmother--she's only six years older than I
+am. So she hasn't much jurisdiction over me; and as for my father--well,
+really, I ran away!"
+
+The luncheon was a merry feast, for Mrs. Van Reypen made a gala affair of
+it, and, though there were but the three at table, there was extra
+elaboration of viands and decorations.
+
+Philip Van Reypen was in his gayest humour, and his aunt was beaming and
+affable.
+
+So they were really sorry when it was time for Patty to say good-by.
+
+At four o'clock Miller came for her, and when Patty saw the familiar
+motor-car her homesickness came back like a big wave, and with farewells,
+speedy though cordial, she gladly let Philip hand her into the limousine.
+
+"Home, Miller!" she said, with a glad ring in her voice, and then, with a
+final bow and smile to the Van Reypens, she started off.
+
+"Discharged!" she thought, smiling to herself. "Didn't give satisfaction!
+Too high-falutin to be a companion! Huh, Patty Fairfield, I don't think
+you're much of a success!"
+
+She was talking to the reflection of herself in the small mirror opposite
+her face, but the happy and smiling countenance she saw there didn't
+tally with her remarks. "Oh, well," she thought, "I only agreed to earn
+my living for a week, and I've done it--I've done it!"
+
+She opened her purse to make sure the precious fifteen dollars was still
+there, and she looked at it proudly. She had more money than that in
+another part of her purse, but no bills could ever look so valuable as
+the ten and five Mrs. Van Reypen had paid her.
+
+At last she reached home, and as she ran up the steps the door flew open,
+and she saw Nan and her father, with smiling faces, awaiting her.
+
+"Oh, people!" she cried. "Oh, you _dear_ people!"
+
+She flung herself indiscriminately into their open arms, embracing both
+at once.
+
+Then she produced her precious bills, and, waving them aloft, cried:
+
+"I've succeeded! I've really succeeded! Behold the proofs of Patty's
+success!"
+
+"Good for you, girlie!" cried her father. "You have succeeded, indeed!
+But don't you ever dare cut up such a prank again!"
+
+"No, don't!" implored Nan. "I've had the most awful time the whole week!
+Every night Fred vowed he was going to bring you home, and I had to beg
+him not to. I wanted you to win,--and I felt sure you would this
+time,--but you owe it to me. For if I hadn't worked so hard to prevent it
+your father would have gone after you long ago----"
+
+"Good for you, Nan!" cried Patty. "You've been a trump! You've helped me
+through every time, in all my failures and in my one success. Oh, I've so
+much to tell you of my experiences! They were awfully funny."
+
+"They'll keep till later," said Nan. "You must run and dress now; Ken and
+the Farringtons are coming to dinner to help us celebrate your success."
+
+So Patty went dancing away to her own room, singing gaily in her delight
+at being once more at home.
+
+"Oh, you booful room!" she cried, aloud, as she reached her own door.
+"All full of pretty _homey_ things, and fresh flowers, and my own dear
+books and pictures, and--and everything!"
+
+She threw herself on the couch and kissed the very sofa cushions in her
+joy at seeing them again.
+
+Then she made her toilette, and put on one of her prettiest and most
+becoming frocks.
+
+"Oh, daddy, dear," she cried, meeting him in the hall on her way down,
+"it has done me lots of good to be homeless for a week! I appreciate my
+own dear home so much more."
+
+"But you were away from it for a year."
+
+"Oh, that's different! Travelling or visiting is one thing, but working
+for your living is quite another! Oh, _don't_ lose all your fortune, will
+you, father? I don't want to have to go out into the cold world and earn
+my own support."
+
+"Then it isn't as easy as you thought it was?"
+
+"Oh, dear no! It isn't easy at all! It's dreadful! Every way I tried was
+worse than every other. But I succeeded, didn't I?"
+
+"Yes, you did. You fulfilled your part of the contract, and when the time
+comes I'm ready to fulfil mine."
+
+"We'll have to see Mr. Hepworth about that," replied Patty.
+
+Then Kenneth and the two Farringtons came, and the wonderful fifteen
+dollars had to be shown to them, and they had to be told all about
+Patty's harrowing experiences.
+
+"I'll never again express an opinion on matters I don't know anything
+about," declared Patty. "Just think! I only said I thought it would be
+_easy_ to earn fifteen dollars a week, and look what I've been through in
+consequence! But I've won at last!"
+
+"Plucky Patty!" said Kenneth, appreciatively. "I knew you'd win if it
+took all summer!"
+
+"But it wasn't a complete triumph," confessed Patty, "for she wouldn't
+have kept me another week. She practically discharged me to-day."
+
+"Fired?" cried Roger, in glee. "Fired from your last place! Wanted, a
+situation! Oh, Patty, you do beat all!"
+
+Then Patty told them of her own surprise when Mrs. Van Reypen told her
+she would not do as a permanent companion, and they all laughed heartily
+at the funny description she gave of the scene.
+
+"Never mind," said her father, "you fulfilled the conditions. A week was
+the stipulated time, and nothing was said about your outlook for a second
+week."
+
+The next night Mr. Hepworth came, and the whole story was told over again
+to him. He didn't take it so lightly as the young people had done, but
+looked at Patty sympathetically, and said:
+
+"Poor little girl, you did have a hard time, didn't you?"
+
+"Yes, I did," replied Patty, "though nobody else seems to realise that."
+
+The kindness in Mr. Hepworth's glance seemed to bring back to her all
+those long, lonely, weary hours, and she felt grateful that one, at
+least, understood what she had suffered.
+
+"It was worth spending that awful week to achieve your purpose," he went
+on, "but I well know how hard it was for a home-loving girl like you. And
+I fancy it was none too easy to find yourself at the beck and call of
+another woman."
+
+"No, it wasn't," said Patty, surprised at his insight. "How did you know
+that?"
+
+"Because you are an independent young person, and accustomed to ordering
+your own times and seasons. So I'm sure to be obedient to another's
+orders was somewhat galling."
+
+"It was _so_!" and Patty's emphatic nod of her head proved to Mr.
+Hepworth that he had struck a true chord.
+
+"And now," said Mr. Fairfield, "when can I make my offer good? How can we
+induce the rising young artist to come to the metropolis to seek fame and
+fortune?"
+
+"It will be difficult," said Mr. Hepworth, "as she is not only proud and
+sensitive, but very shy. I think if Mrs. Fairfield would write one of her
+kind and tactful letters that Miss Farley would be persuaded by it."
+
+"Why can't I write a kind and tactful letter?" asked Patty. "It's my
+picnic."
+
+"You couldn't write a tactful letter to save your life," said Mr.
+Hepworth, looking at her with a grave smile.
+
+Patty returned his look, and she wondered to herself why she wasn't angry
+with him for making such a speech.
+
+But, as she well knew, when Mr. Hepworth made a seemingly rude speech it
+wasn't really rude, but it was usually true.
+
+She knew herself she couldn't write such a letter as this occasion
+required, and she knew that Nan could. So she smiled meekly at Mr.
+Hepworth, and said:
+
+"No, I couldn't. But Nan can be tactful to beat the band!"
+
+"Oh, Patty!" said her father. "Did you talk like that to Mrs. Van Reypen?
+No wonder she discharged you!"
+
+"No, I didn't, daddy; truly I didn't. I never used a word of slang that
+whole week, except one day when I talked to Nan over the telephone."
+
+"Soon you'll be old enough to begin to think it's time to stop using it
+at all," observed Mr. Hepworth, and again Patty took his mild reproof in
+good part.
+
+"Well, I'll write," said Nan. "Shall I ask Miss Farley to come to visit
+us? Won't she think that rather queer?"
+
+"Don't put it just that way," advised Mr. Hepworth. "Say that you, as a
+friend of mine, are interested in her career. And say that if she will
+come to New York for a week and stay with you, you think you can help her
+make arrangements for a course in the Art School. Your own tact will
+dress up the idea so as to make it palatable to her pride."
+
+"Won't it be fun?" exclaimed Patty. "It will be almost like adopting a
+sister. What is she like, Mr. Hepworth? Like me?"
+
+"She is about as unlike you as it is possible for a girl to be. She is
+very slender, dark, and timid, with the air of a frightened animal."
+
+"I'll scare her to death," declared Patty, with conviction. "I'm sure I
+shall! I don't mean on purpose, but I'm so--so _sudden_, you know."
+
+"Yes, you are," agreed Mr. Hepworth, as he joined in the general
+laughter. "But that 'suddenness' of yours is a quality that I wish Miss
+Farley possessed. It is really a sort of brave impulse and quick
+determination that makes you dash into danger or enterprise of any kind."
+
+"And win!" added Patty saucily.
+
+"Yes, and win--after a time."
+
+"Oh well," she replied, tossing her head, "Mr. Bruce's spider made seven
+attempts before he succeeded. So I think my record's pretty fair."
+
+"I think so, too," said Mr. Hepworth, heartily. "And I congratulate you
+on your plucky perseverance and your indomitable will. You put up a brave
+fight, and you won. I know how you suffered under that petty tyranny, and
+your success in such circumstances was a triumph!"
+
+"Thank you," said Patty, greatly pleased at this sincere praise from one
+whom she so greatly respected. "It would have been harder still if I
+hadn't had a good sense of humour. Lots of times when I wanted to cry I
+laughed instead."
+
+"Hurrah for you, Patty girl!" cried her father. "I'd rather you'd have a
+good sense of humour than a talent for spatter-work!"
+
+"Oh, you back number!" exclaimed Patty. "They don't do spatter-work now,
+daddy."
+
+"Well, china painting--or whatever the present fad is."
+
+But Mr. Hepworth seemed not to place so high a value on a sense of
+humour, for he said, gravely:
+
+"I congratulate you on your steadfastness of purpose, which is one of the
+finest traits of your character."
+
+"Thank you," said Patty, with dancing eyes. "You give it a nice name. But
+it is a family trait with us Fairfields, and has usually been called
+'stubbornness.'"
+
+"Well," supplemented her father, "I'm sure that's just as good a name."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+CHRISTINE COMES
+
+
+With her usual tact and cleverness, Nan managed the whole matter
+successfully. She wrote to the friends of Mr. Hepworth in the South who
+were interested in Miss Farley, and they persuaded the girl to go North
+for a week and see if she could see her way clear to staying there.
+
+As it turned out, Miss Farley had some acquaintances in New York, and
+when their invitation was added to that of Mrs. Fairfield, she decided to
+make the trip.
+
+Patty and Nan made ready for her with great care and kindness. A guest
+room was specially prepared for her use, and Patty adorned it with some
+of her own pet pictures, a few good casts, and certain bits of
+bric-a-brac that she thought would appeal to an "art student."
+
+"If Mr. Hepworth hadn't said the girl had real talent I'd be hopeless of
+the whole thing," said Nan, "for I do think the most futile sort of young
+woman is the one who dabbles in Art, with a big A."
+
+"Oh, Christine Farley isn't that sort," declared Patty. "I don't believe
+she wears her hair tumbling down and a Byron collar with a big, black
+ribbon bow at her throat. I used to see that sort copying in the art
+galleries in Paris, and they _are_ hopeless. But I imagine Miss Farley is
+a tidy little thing and her genius is too real for those near-art
+effects."
+
+"Well, then, I'll put this photograph of the Hermes in here in place of
+this fiddle-de-dee Art Calendar. She'll like it better."
+
+"Of course she will. And I'm going to put a pretty kimono and slippers in
+the wardrobe. Probably she won't have pretty ones, and I know she'll love
+'em."
+
+"If you owned a white elephant, Patty, you'd get a kimono for it,
+wouldn't you?"
+
+"'Course I would. I love kimonos--pretty ones. And besides, it would fit
+an elephant better than a Directoire gown would."
+
+"Patty! What a goose you are! There, now the room looks lovely! The
+flowers are just right--not too many and just in the right places."
+
+"Yes," agreed Patty; "if she doesn't like this room I wash my hands of
+her. But she will."
+
+And she did. When the small, shy Southern girl arrived that afternoon,
+and Patty herself showed her up to her room, she seemed to respond at
+once to the warm cosiness of the place.
+
+"It's just such a room as I've often imagined, but I've never seen," she
+said, smiling round upon the dainty, attractive appointments.
+
+"You dear!" cried Patty, throwing her arms round her guest and kissing
+her.
+
+When she had first met Christine downstairs she was embarrassed herself
+at the Southern girl's painful shyness.
+
+When Miss Farley had tried to speak words of greeting a lump came into
+her throat and she couldn't speak at all.
+
+To put her more at her ease Patty had led her at once upstairs, and now
+the presence of only warm-hearted Patty and the view of the welcoming
+room made her forget her embarrassment and seem more like her natural
+self.
+
+"I cannot thank you," she began. "I am a bit bewildered by it all."
+
+"Of course you are," said Patty, cheerily. "Don't bother about thanks.
+And don't feel shy. Let's pretend we've known each other for years--long
+enough to use first names. May I take your hat off, Christine?"
+
+Tears sprang to Christine Farley's eyes at this whole-souled welcome, and
+she said:
+
+"You make me ashamed of my stupid shyness. Really I'll try to overcome
+it--Patty."
+
+And soon the two girls were chatting cosily and veritably as if they had
+been acquainted a long time.
+
+Presently Nan came in. "If you prefer, Miss Farley," she said, "you
+needn't come down to dinner to-night. I'll have a tray sent up here. I
+know you're tired with your journey."
+
+"No, thank you, Mrs. Fairfield; I'm not tired--and I think I'll go down."
+
+The girl would have greatly preferred to accept the offer of dining in
+her own room, but she felt it her duty to conquer the absurd timidity
+which made her dread facing strangers at dinner.
+
+"I'll be glad if you will," said Nan, simply. "Mr. Fairfield will like to
+welcome you, and Mr. Hepworth will be the only other guest. You are not
+afraid of him?"
+
+"Oh, no," said Christine, her face lighting up at thought of her kind
+friend. "He has been so good to me. His criticisms of my work helped me
+more than any of my teachers'."
+
+"Yes, he is an able artist and a man of true kindness and worth," agreed
+Nan. "Very well, Miss Farley, we dine at seven."
+
+"Now, Nan," began Patty, smiling, "that's the wrong tone. We're going to
+make this girlie feel homelike and comfortable and omit all formality.
+We're going to call her by her first name, and we're going to treat her
+as one of ourselves. Now you just revise that little speech of 'We dine
+at seven, Miss Farley.'"
+
+"All right," said Nan, quickly catching Patty's idea. "I'm glad to revise
+it. How's this? Dinner's at seven, Christine, but you hop into your
+clothes and come on down earlier."
+
+"That's a lot better," said Patty, approvingly patting her stepmother's
+shoulder, while Christine Farley, who was all unaccustomed to this sort
+of raillery, looked on in admiration.
+
+"You see," she said, "I've only very plain clothes. I'm not at all
+familiar with the ways of society, or even of well-to-do people."
+
+"Oh, pooh!" said Patty, emphatically, if not very elegantly. "Don't you
+bother about that in this house. Trot out your frocks and I'll tell you
+what to put on."
+
+After some consideration she selected a frock of that peculiar shade
+known as "ashes of roses." It was of soft merino and made very simply,
+with long, straight lines.
+
+"Do you like that?" said Christine, looking pleased. "That's my newest
+one, and I designed it myself. See, I wear this with it."
+
+She took from her box a dull silver girdle and chatelaine of antique,
+carved silver, and a comb for her hair of similar style.
+
+"Lovely!" cried Patty. "Oh, you're an artist, all right! Dress your hair
+low--in a soft coil; but of course you know how to do that. I'll send
+Louise to hook you up, and I'll come back for you when I'm dressed.
+Good-by for now."
+
+Waving her hand gaily, laughing Patty ran away to her own room, and
+Christine sank down in a big chair to collect her senses.
+
+It was all so new and strange to her. Brought up in the plainest
+circumstances, the warmth and light and fragrance of this home seemed to
+her like fairyland.
+
+And Nan and Patty, in their gay moods and their happy self-assuredness,
+seemed as if of a different race of beings from herself.
+
+"But I'll learn it," she thought, with a determination which she had
+rarely felt and scarce knew she possessed. Her nature was one that needed
+a spur or help from another, and then she was ready to do her part, too.
+
+But she could not take the initiative. And now, realising the
+disinterested kindness of these good people, her sense of gratitude made
+her resolve to meet their kindness with appreciation.
+
+"Yes," she said to herself, as she deftly dressed her hair in front of
+the mirror, "I'll conquer this silly timidity if it kills me! I'll take
+Patty Fairfield for a model, and I'll acquire that very same ease and
+grace that she has."
+
+Christine was imitative by nature, and it seemed to her now that she
+could never feel stupidly embarrassed again.
+
+But after Patty came to take her downstairs, and as they neared the
+drawing-room door, the foolish shyness all returned, and she was white
+and trembling as she crossed the hall.
+
+"Brace up," whispered Patty, understanding, "you're looking lovely,
+Christine. Now be gay and chattery."
+
+"Chattery," indeed! Her tongue seemed paralysed, her very neck felt
+strained and stiff, and she stumbled over the rug in her effort to stop
+trembling. In her own room, alone with Patty and Nan, she had overcome
+this, but now, in the brilliantly lighted drawing-room and the presence
+of other people, the terrible timidity returned, and Christine made a
+most unsuccessful entrance.
+
+But Mr. Fairfield ignored the girl's embarrassment, and said, cordially
+but quietly: "How do you do, Miss Farley? I am very glad to welcome you
+here."
+
+His kind handclasp reassured her even more than his pleasant words, and
+then Mr. Hepworth greeted her.
+
+"You did well to come," he said. "I am glad to see you in New York at
+last."
+
+But Christine couldn't recover herself, and so, as the kindest thing to
+do, the rest rather let her alone and chatted on other subjects.
+
+Gradually she grew less agitated, and as their merry chit-chat waxed gay
+and frivolous, her determination returned, that she, too, would acquire
+this accomplishment.
+
+Then dinner was announced, and, though outwardly calm, the Southern girl
+was inwardly in great trepidation lest she commit some ignorant error in
+etiquette.
+
+But she was of gentle birth and breeding, and innately refined, so she
+knew intuitively regarding all points, save perhaps some modern trifles
+of conventional usage.
+
+Nan, who was watching her, though unobserved, led the conversation around
+to subjects in which Christine might be likely to be interested, and was
+rewarded at last by seeing the girl's face light up with an enjoyment
+unmarred by self-consciousness.
+
+Gradually she was induced to take some part in their talk, and once she
+told an anecdote of her own experience without seeming aware of her
+unusual surroundings.
+
+"She'll do," thought Patty. "It isn't ignorance or inexperience that's
+the greatest trouble; it's just ingrowing shyness, and she's got to get
+over it; I'll see that she does, too!"
+
+Mr. Hepworth read Patty's unspoken thoughts in her eyes and nodded
+approval.
+
+Patty nodded back with a dimpling smile, and Christine, seeing it, vowed
+afresh to gain the ability to do that sort of thing herself.
+
+For all Southern girls have a touch of the coquette in their natures, but
+poor Christine's was nearly choked out by the weeds of timidity and
+self-consciousness.
+
+After dinner it was easier. They went to the cosy library, and the
+atmosphere seemed more informal.
+
+Mr. Hepworth brought up the subject of Miss Farley's work, and she was
+persuaded to fetch some sketches to show them.
+
+Though not able to appreciate the fine points of promise as Mr. Hepworth
+did, they were all greatly pleased with them, and Mr. Fairfield declared
+them wonderful.
+
+In her own field Christine was fearless and quite sure of herself.
+
+She talked intelligently about pictures, and many pleasant plans were
+made for taking her to see several collections then on exhibition, as
+well as to the Metropolitan and other art galleries.
+
+Nan and Patty exchanged pleased glances as Christine talked eagerly, and
+with shining eyes and pink cheeks, about her own aims and ambitions.
+
+Mr. Hepworth was responsive, and advised her on some minor points, but
+the great question of her art education in New York was not touched upon
+that first evening.
+
+Christine had grown almost gay in her chatter, when Kenneth was
+announced. Like a sensitive plant at a human touch, she lost all her
+poise, her face turned white, and her lips quivered as she braced herself
+for the ordeal of meeting a stranger.
+
+"Oh!" thought Patty, almost disgusted at this foolishness, "she is the
+limit!"
+
+But Nan appreciated more truly the real state of the case, and knew that
+Christine had borne just about all she could, and that owing to physical
+fatigue and mental strain her nerves were just about ready to give way.
+
+"How do you do, Kenneth?" said Nan, airily. "Too bad you didn't come
+earlier. I am just taking our little guest away from this admiring crowd,
+who are tiring her all out with their admiration. She may just say
+'howdy' to you, and then I'm going to carry her off. Miss Farley, this is
+our Kenneth--Mr. Harper."
+
+Stimulated by Nan's support and by the sudden chance for release,
+Christine managed to acknowledge the introduction prettily enough, and
+then gladly let Nan take her upstairs to bed.
+
+"I'm sorry I'm so horrid," said the girl, as Nan helped her take off her
+gown.
+
+"Nonsense!" replied Nan, cheerily. "You weren't horrid a bit. You looked
+lovely and behaved like a little lady. Your nerves are overwrought, and I
+don't wonder. Just tumble into bed, dearie, and forget everything in all
+the world, except that you're among warm friends."
+
+Nan had most comforting ways, and soon Christine forgot her troubles in a
+happy sleep.
+
+Meantime, Kenneth was admiring her sketches. "Whew!" he said, "she's a
+genius all right. But such a shy little mouse never can succeed as an
+artist."
+
+"Yes, she will!" declared Patty. "Her shyness will wear off in New York.
+I'm going to eradicate it from her make-up somehow, and then we're going
+to make a famous artist of her."
+
+"You can be a great help to her, Patty," said Mr. Hepworth. "If any one
+makes Christine think she can do things, she can do them."
+
+"Yes, I see that already," agreed Patty, "and I'm going to be the one to
+make her think she can do them."
+
+"Huh!" teased Kenneth. "You think you can make anybody think they think
+anything!"
+
+"Sure!" said Patty, complacently.
+
+"Well, don't teach Miss Farley to talk slang," said Mr. Fairfield,
+laughing, "for it would be too incongruous with that Madonna face of
+hers."
+
+"She is like a Madonna, isn't she?" said Patty, thoughtfully. "I've been
+trying to think what her face reminded me of."
+
+"Yes, she is," said Mr. Hepworth, "and as I feel pretty sure you can't
+teach her to use slang, why don't you take this occasion to discontinue
+the use of it yourself?"
+
+"Can't do it," returned Patty. "There are times in my mad career when
+nothing expresses what I want to say so well as a mild bit of slang. I
+never say anything very dreadful."
+
+"Of course you don't," declared Kenneth, who loved to take Patty's part
+against Mr. Hepworth. "Why, you wouldn't be 'Our Patty' if you used only
+dictionary English. All the slang Miss Farley gets from you will do her
+good rather than harm. She needs it in her make-up."
+
+"I agree with the spirit of that, if not the letter," said Mr. Hepworth,
+kindly; and Patty said:
+
+"Yes, she needs to be jollied; and, you take it from me, she's going to
+get jollied!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+A SATISFACTORY CONCLUSION
+
+
+As Nan had surmised, Christine was worn out by her day of fatigue and
+excitement, and the next morning found her possessed of better mental
+poise and a more placid manner.
+
+And as more days went by the girl improved greatly in demeanour and
+bearing, and lost, to a great degree, her look of startled fear and
+painful self-consciousness. Of course this was not accomplished
+completely, or all at once, but helped by the kind gentleness of Nan and
+affectionate chaffing of Patty, Christine grew more accustomed to the
+pleasant social atmosphere into which she had been so suddenly thrown.
+
+They visited picture galleries and went to the shops, and went driving
+and motoring, and though Christine could not be persuaded to go to
+afternoon teas, or to formal luncheons, yet she enjoyed the pleasures she
+had and grew every day more at her ease in society.
+
+Her own determination helped her greatly. She purposed to yet become as
+unaffected and un-self-conscious as Patty, and, though she knew she could
+never acquire Patty's inborn gaiety of spirit, she resolved to come as
+near to it as she could with her naturally quiet disposition.
+
+The two girls became fast friends, and, after a few days, Patty ventured
+to broach the subject of Christine's career.
+
+To her surprise, Christine was quite ready to talk about it, and asked
+Patty's advice as to ways and means.
+
+"I've already learned," she said, "that I have some talent and that I
+need the instruction and experience that I can get here and cannot get at
+home. When I once make up my mind to a thing I spare no effort to achieve
+it, and now I'm determined to get an art education by some manner or
+means!"
+
+"Hooray for you!" cried Patty, for Christine's cheeks glowed and her eyes
+sparkled with the force of her speech. "That's the way to talk!
+Christine, you do me proud! Now, go on; what have you in mind? Tell your
+Aunt Patty all about it."
+
+Christine smiled at Patty's funny little ways, but she went on bravely:
+
+"I want to stay in New York for a year, at least. I'm afraid of
+it--desperately so. The very sound of the traffic scares me out of my
+wits. But I'm going to conquer that, and I'm going to conquer my shyness
+and timidity and all the foolish things that stand in my way."
+
+"That's the ticket!" cried Patty, clapping her hands. "Good old
+Christine! Go in and win!"
+
+"Wait a bit, Patty. That's all very well so far as determination and will
+are concerned. And I can do it. My will is strong, and I know I'm started
+now on the right track. But--there are many hard facts to face. There's a
+sordid side to the question that can't be solved by will-power and
+determination. Mr. Hepworth thinks I can get a scholarship practically
+without cost; but, in addition to that, I have to pay my board, you know,
+and I have very little money. My dear old father can send me a small
+allowance, but we are a large family, and he is not rich. So I want to
+know if you think I could earn enough by some work outside my classes to
+pay my board--say, about fifteen dollars a week. Do you?"
+
+Patty couldn't help it. This question from Christine was too much!
+
+She was sitting on a couch, and she put her head down into a big, soft
+pillow, and shook with laughter. Did _she_ think a girl could earn
+fifteen dollars a week? _Did_ she, indeed? With a strange sound between a
+gurgle and a choke, she ran out of the room.
+
+Not for worlds would she have Christine think she was laughing at her, so
+in a moment she had straightened her grinning face, smothered her
+giggles, and returned, saying:
+
+"Excuse me, please; I had a sudden choking spell. What were you saying?"
+
+"You poor dear! Mayn't I get you a glass of water?"
+
+"No, thanks; I'm all right now. As to your question--no, Christine, I do
+_not_ think you could earn fifteen dollars a week! No, nor fifteen cents
+a week, while you're occupied with your lessons."
+
+Christine looked aghast. "Oh, Patty!" she said. "Then what am I to do? I
+thought you'd say, yes, I could earn that sum easily."
+
+Again Patty wanted to laugh. A month ago she would have said that very
+thing.
+
+"Christine," she said, gently, "listen to me. We Fairfields and Mr.
+Hepworth all take an interest in you and in your career. We all feel sure
+you will yet be a great artist. Of course, our belief is founded on Mr.
+Hepworth's assertions, but we know he is capable of judging. Now you must
+have that year of study, and by that time Mr. Hepworth feels sure you can
+earn quite a lot of money by illustrating, and whatever he thinks goes!"
+
+"Well," said Christine, as Patty paused, uncertain how to proceed.
+
+"Well, you see," went on Patty, suddenly deciding that the plain,
+outspoken facts were best, "father has offered to pay your board for a
+year at some nice, pleasant boarding-house, and----Mercy! _What's_ the
+matter?"
+
+For Christine had turned first a blazing, fiery red, and then as white as
+chalk, and seemed about to tumble off her chair.
+
+"Brace up there!" cried Patty, shaking her by the shoulder. "Don't you
+faint or do anything silly! I take it all back. Father wouldn't do such a
+thing!"
+
+"You misunderstand!" said Christine, smiling faintly through now rapidly
+falling tears. "I almost fainted from sheer gladness."
+
+"Oh! I thought you were angry and offended and insulted and mad as hops,
+and everything like that!"
+
+"Oh, no!" cried the other. "Why, Patty, it isn't charity; it's great,
+big, splendid kindness, and it's just a loan, you understand. I can pay
+it back in a couple of years after I once begin to earn money. Patty, you
+don't know how sure I am of my own ability now that I understand my
+limitations. I can't explain it, but I see success ahead as surely as I
+see the blue sky out of that window!"
+
+Christine gazed out of the window with rapt eyes, as if she saw visions
+of the fame and glory that were yet to be her portion.
+
+"You duck!" cried Patty, embracing her. "You're just splendiferous!
+That's the loveliest way you could have taken father's offer. He is
+great, big, splendid kindness personified, and I'm so glad you see it."
+
+That evening Mr. Fairfield ratified Patty's statements and definitely
+offered to pay Christine's board bills for a year.
+
+To Patty's surprise, Christine showed no shyness or agitation as she
+answered him.
+
+Only Nan understood that the girl's gratitude was too real and too deep
+for any troublesome self-consciousness to disturb it.
+
+"Mr. Fairfield," she said, "I accept your offer with unspeakable
+thankfulness. It means my whole career, and I assure you I shall reach my
+goal. Of course, it is a financial loan, but after a year I shall be in a
+position to begin to pay it back, and it shall be promptly paid. Do not
+think I have unfounded faith in my success. I know what I already
+possess, and what more I need, and though my progress to fame may be
+slow, and take many long years, yet after a year's tuition I shall be
+able to command a comfortable income in return for my work."
+
+Christine's eyes shone with earnestness and steadfast purpose, and her
+face seemed to be fairly transfigured. Hers was no idle boasting. It was
+clear to be seen she spoke from a positive knowledge of herself, and
+indeed she only corroborated what Mr. Hepworth had said of her.
+
+"Put it that way if you like," said Mr. Fairfield, kindly; "we need not
+talk now about repayment. Just go ahead and find a cosy, pleasant
+abiding-place, and then, ho, for brushes and mahl-stick! And hurrah for
+our artist!"
+
+So genial were his words and manner that Christine caught his spirit of
+vivacity, and responded:
+
+"Hurrah for the Fairfields!"
+
+So it was all settled, and Mr. Hepworth was more than delighted when he
+learned all about it.
+
+Patty gave a little afternoon tea for Christine the last day of her stay,
+and though Christine would have greatly preferred not to be present, she
+yielded to Patty's entreaties and did her best to overcome her shyness
+and be a satisfactory "guest of honour."
+
+"She's a beauty, isn't she?" said Roger to Patty, as they stood looking
+at Christine while the tea was in progress.
+
+"Yes," said Patty, "when she is talking to her own sort of people. See,
+those are really big artists, and she isn't a bit afraid or embarrassed.
+But put some society girls near her and she crumples all up."
+
+"She'll get over it," said Roger; "and I say, Patty, you did a big thing
+getting her here. For of course it's all due to you and your plucky
+perseverance in that foolish scheme of earning your living."
+
+"Huh! it wasn't foolish since it succeeded," said Patty, airily.
+
+"Well, the success isn't foolish, but your first attempts were."
+
+"I don't care; it was good experience. I learned a lot, and I'm not sorry
+for my part of it."
+
+"Not even the part that made you acquainted with me?" said a merry voice,
+and Patty turned to see Philip Van Reypen holding out a hand in greeting.
+
+"No!" cried Patty, as she cordially shook hands with the young man. "No,
+_especially_ not sorry for that part--for that was the Success!"
+
+"I don't want to be over-confident," returned Philip, gaily, "but that
+sounds as if meeting me were the success!"
+
+"That wasn't what I meant," said Patty, smiling and dimpling, "but it
+remains to be seen. Perhaps we can make that a success also."
+
+"Do let us try!" said Philip.
+
+
+
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