“But you were away from it for a year.”
“Oh, that’s different! Travelling or visiting is one thing, but working for your living is quite another! Oh, don’t lose all your fortune, will you, father? I don’t want to have to go out into the cold world and earn my own support.”
“Then it isn’t as easy as you thought it was?”
“Oh, dear no! It isn’t easy at all! It’s dreadful! Every way I tried was worse than every other. But I succeeded, didn’t I?”
“Yes, you did. You fulfilled your part of the contract, and when the time comes I’m ready to fulfil mine.”
“We’ll have to see Mr. Hepworth about that,” replied Patty.
Then Kenneth and the two Farringtons came, and the wonderful fifteen dollars had to be shown to them, and they had to be told all about Patty’s harrowing experiences.
“I’ll never again express an opinion on matters I don’t know anything about,” declared Patty. “Just think! I only said I thought it would be easy to earn fifteen dollars a week, and look what I’ve been through in consequence! But I’ve won at last!”
“Plucky Patty!” said Kenneth, appreciatively. “I knew you’d win if it took all summer!”
“But it wasn’t a complete triumph,” confessed Patty, “for she wouldn’t have kept me another week. She practically discharged me to-day.”