“No,” said Patty, suppressing her smiles, “I never have. But I’ve spent a winter in Paris, and I picked up some French notions, I suppose.”
“You certainly did. You are clever with your fingers, I can see that. Can you trim hats?”
“Yes, I can,” said Patty, smiling to herself at the recollection of her experiences with Mme. Villard.
“Humph! You seem pretty sure of yourself. I wish you’d trim one for me, then; but I don’t want you to spoil the materials.”
“I’ll do my best,” said Patty, meekly, and Mrs. Van Reypen instructed her maid to bring out some boxes.
“This,” she said, taking up a finished hat, “is one my milliner has just sent home, and I think it a fright. Now here’s a last year’s hat, but the plumes are lovely. If you could untrim this first one, and transfer these plumes, and then add these roses—what do you think?”
Secretly Patty thought the new hat was lovely just as it was, but her plan that morning was to humour the testy old lady and, if possible, make her forget her neuralgic pains.
So she took the hats, and sat down to rip and retrim them.
Meantime, Mrs. Van Reypen instructed her maid to practise dressing her hair in the fashion Patty had done it.
But the maid was not very deft in the art, and soon Patty heard Mrs. Van Reypen shrilly exclaiming: