son, 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'