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