“No, that isn’t quite the true version of what happened. Now, I’ll tell you.”
“No, don’t. I can’t bear to talk over the telephone. Come and see me, and bring that child along. I want to see it.”
Mrs. Van Reypen’s wish was usually looked upon as a command, and the next afternoon Patty started off with Milly to call on her elderly friend.
“What a baby! Oh, what a baby!” was the greeting the child received, for Mrs. Van Reypen was most enthusiastic. “Why didn’t you keep her yourself? How can you let her go? I never saw such a lovely baby!”
“She is,” agreed Patty, smiling, as Milly curtsied to Mrs. Van Reypen over and over again. “But I couldn’t keep her. I don’t want the care and responsibility of a kiddy. Would you have liked to take her?”
“I believe I would, if you had offered me the chance. But no, I am too old to train a baby now. Do you know, though, Patty, the care of orphan children has always appealed to me as one of the best of philanthropies. I sometimes think even yet I will start a home for such little waifs. I mean a real homelike sort of a place,—not the institution usually founded for such a purpose.”
“It would be a splendid thing, Lady Van. Go ahead, and do it. I will help you, if I can.”
“Would you, Patty? Would you give of your time and interest to help establish the thing, and be one of the workers for it?”
“Yes, I would. I don’t want the entire responsibility of little Milly, but I am glad I’ve found a good home for her. And if there are other similar little unfortunates, and of course there are, I’d be more than willing to help you in a project to make them happy and cared for.”
“Well, I’ll remember that, and I think I’ll set about planning for it. I’m getting older all the time, and what I do, ought to be begun soon. Patty, you are very dear to me,—you know that?”