It was all of great interest to Patty, who dearly loved home-making, and who saw great possibilities for the unusual combination of American cosiness in a Paris house.
Mrs. Farrington was delighted when she discovered Patty's capabilities in domestic matters, and declared that she would not wish for a better assistant.
It was Patty's deft fingers that transformed stiff and formal rooms into apartments of real comfort and homelikeness. It was very often Patty's taste that selected simple decorations or ornaments which toned down the gorgeousness of the original scheme.
The two girls' own rooms were greatly successful.
Patty had bought a number of pictures and statuettes and various Parisian ornaments, which she was delighted to arrange in a room of her very own. She helped Elise with hers, too, for though Elise had good taste and a fine appreciation of the fitness of things, she had not Patty's capability of execution and facility of arrangement.
As they sat for the first time around their own family dinner table, Mr. Farrington exclaimed, "Now this is what I call comfortable! It's unpretentious, but it's way ahead of that gorgeously dressed-up hotel, which made one feel, though well taken care of, like a traveller and a wayfarer. But I expect you were sorry to leave it, eh, Patty?"
"No I wasn't," said Patty; "I liked it tremendously for a time, as it was a novel experience for me; but I'm quite as pleased as you are, Mr. Farrington, to be in a home once more."
"And the next thing to do," said Mrs. Farrington, "is to get masters for you girls."
"Shall we go to school, mother?" asked Elise.
"No, I think not. I don't like the idea of your going to a French school, and, too, I think you'd enjoy it better, to study a little at home. You needn't have a great variety of lessons. I think if you study the French language and French history, it will be enough for you in the way of school books. Then Patty ought to take singing lessons, and if Elise wants to learn to paint pictures, she will probably never get a better opportunity to do so."