Patty's Success Part 41

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 cus.h.i.+ons 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 n.o.body 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.