“Stupid! Not that way! You have neither taste nor brains! Place the braid higher. No, not so high as that! Oh, you are an idiot!”
Deeming it best not to interfere, Patty went on with her work.
Also, Mrs. Van Reypen went on with her scolding, which so upset the long-suffering maid that she fell to weeping and thereby roused her mistress to still greater ire.
“Crying, are you!” she exclaimed. “If you had such a painful neck and shoulder as I have you well might cry. But to cry about nothing! Bah! Leave me, and do not return until you can be pleasant. Miss Fairfield, will you please finish putting up my hair?”
Patty laid down her work, and did as she was requested. She was sorry for the maid and incensed at Mrs. Van Reypen’s injustice and disagreeableness, but she felt intuitively that it was the best plan to be, herself, kind and affable.
“Oh, yes, I’ll do it!” she said, pleasantly. “Your hat is almost finished, and we can try it on with your hair done this way. I’m sure the effect will be charming.”
Mollified at this, Mrs. Van Reypen smiled benignly on her companion, and also smiled admiringly at her own mirrored reflection.
“Now,” said Patty, as, a little later, she brought the completed hat for inspection, “I will try this on and see how it looks.”
Mrs. Van Reypen seated herself again in front of her dressing mirror, and with gestures worthy of Madame Villard herself, Patty placed the hat on her head.
“It’s most becoming,” began Patty, when Mrs. Van Reypen interrupted her.