! 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 per