“You help other poor little boys in hospitals,” said Roger; “you go to see Tommy Skelling.”
“Well, I can’t go to see you,” said Patty, laughing; “but I’ll tell you what I will do; I’ll make a scrap-book for you, or a peanut doll, whichever you’d rather have.”
“I think I’ll take the scrap-book,” said Roger, with the air of one making an important decision. “You see I might be tempted to eat up the peanut doll.”
“That’s so; well, I’ll promise to make you a nice little scrap-book and send it to you next week. And I hope you’ll get along all right, and, honestly, I think you will.”
“I think so, too,” said Roger, cheerfully; and then the carriage returned and Patty went home.
That evening she told her father all about the Farringtons.
“It was so funny, papa,” she said, “to be visiting in one of those grand millionaire houses. Why, it’s like those that are pictured in the magazines, you know. And I thought that those people were always ostentatious and purse-proud and generally snippy to us poorer classes. But the Farringtons aren’t that way a bit. They’re refined and gentle and awfully kind. They have some queer ways, and somehow they seem a little discontented—not entirely happy, you know—but very pleasant and sweet to us girls. But aren’t Elise’s parents good to her to give her all that pleasure? The Casino, I mean.”
“The Casino is truly a splendid thing,” said Mr. Fairfield, “but do you think it necessarily shows that Mr. and Mrs. Farrington are more fond of their children than other people are?”
Patty thought a while, quite seriously; then she said: “I believe I see what you mean. You mean that Mr. Farrington is fond of his children, just as other fathers are; but that he happens to have money enough to give them bigger things. Because I know, Papa Fairfield, that if you had millions of dollars, you’d be plenty fond enough of me to give me a dozen Casinos, wouldn’t you?”
“Two dozen, if you wanted them, Puss, and if I could afford them. Yes, that’s what I mean, Patty, and it’s the old question of proportion. From what I know in a general way of Mr. Farrington and from what you tell me of their home life, I believe they have a good sense of proportion and are consequently people who are pleasant to know. But, my child, you must look out for your own sense of proportion. Remember Elise is a rich girl and lives in luxury, but you are not; and while we are in fairly comfortable circumstances, I want you to realise the difference and not feel envious of her, or discontented because you can’t live as she does.”