CHAPTER XVII
THE ROAD TO SUCCESS
Patty adhered to her resolution not to go to the theatre on Monday night,but when she saw Mrs. Van Reypen and Philip start off she secretlyregretted her decision.
She loved fun and gaiety, and it suddenly seemed to her that she had beenfoolishly sensitive about Mrs. Van Reypen's attitude toward her.
However, it couldn't be helped now, so she prepared to spend the eveningreading in the library.
She would have liked to hold a long telephone conversation with Nan andher father, but she thought she had better not, for there were so manyhouse servants on duty that a maid or a footman would be likely tooverhear her.
She played the piano and sang a little, then she wandered about the largeand lonely rooms. Patty was a sociable creature, and had never beforespent an evening entirely alone, unless when engaged in some importantand engrossing work.
But after a while the telephone rang, and when the parlour-maid told herthe call was for her she flew to the instrument with glad anticipation.
"Hello!" she cried, and "Hello!" returned a familiar voice.
"Oh, Ken! of all people. How _did_ you know I was here?"
"Oh, I found it out! How are you? May I come to see you?"
"No, indeed! I'm a companion. I'm not expected to have callers. But I'mglad to talk to you this way. I'm alone in the house, except for theservants."
"Alone! Then let me come up for a few minutes, and chat."
"No; Mrs. Van Reypen wouldn't like it, I'm sure. But, oh, Ken, I'm makinggood this time! On Thursday the week will be up, and I'll get my fifteendollars. Isn't that gay?"
"You're a plucky girl, Patty, and I congratulate you. Is it very horrid?"
"No, it isn't exactly horrid, but I'm fearfully homesick. But it's onlythree more days now, and won't I be glad to get home!"
"And we'll be glad to have you. The goldfish are dull and moping, and weall want our Patty back again."
"That's nice of you. But, Ken, how did you know where to find me? I madeNan and father promise not to tell."
"Well, I may as well confess: I basely worried it out of Miller. I askedhim where he took you to last Thursday afternoon."
"Oh! I meant to tell him not to tell, but I forgot it. Well, it doesn'tmatter much, as you chanced to strike a time when I'm alone. But don'tcall me up again. I'm not supposed to have any social acquaintances."
"Good for you, Patty! If you play the game, play it well. I expect you'rea prim, demure companion as ever was."
"Of course I am. And if the lady didn't have such a fishy nephew I'd getalong beautifully."
"Oho! A nephew, eh? And he's smitten with your charms, as they always arein novels."
"Yes," said Patty, in a simpering tone.
"Oh, yes! I can't see you, but I know you have your finger in your mouthand your eyes shyly cast down."
"You're _so_ clever!" murmured Patty, giggling. "But now you may go, Ken,for I don't want to talk to you any more. Come round Thursday night,can't you, and welcome me home?"
"Pooh, you're late with your invitation. Mrs. Fairfield has alreadyinvited me to dinner that very evening."
"Good! Well, good-by for now. I have reasons for wishing to discontinuethis conversation."
"And I have reasons for wishing to keep on. If you're tired talking, singto me."
"'Thou art so near and yet so far,'" hummed Patty, in her clear, sweetvoice.
"No, don't sing. Central will think you're a concert. Well, good-by tillThursday."
"Good-by," said Patty, and hung up the receiver.
But she felt much more cheerful at having talked with Kenneth, and thecoming days seemed easier to bear.
They proved, however, to be quite hard enough.
The very next day, when Patty went down to the breakfast room, determinedto do her best to please Mrs. Van Reypen, she found that lady sufferingfrom an attack of neuralgia.
Though not a serious one, it seriously affected her temper, and she wascross and irritable to a degree that Patty had never seen equalled.
She snapped at the servants; she was short of speech to Patty; she foundfault with everything, from the coffee to the cat.
After breakfast they went to the sunny, pleasant morning room, and Pattymade up her mind to a hard day.
Then she had an inspiration. She remembered how susceptible Mrs. VanReypen was to flattery, and she determined to see if large doses of itwouldn't cure her ill temper.
"How lovely your hair is," said Patty, apropos of nothing. "I do soadmire white hair, and yours is so abundant and of such fine texture."
As she had hoped, Mrs. Van Reypen smiled in a pleased way.
"Ah, Miss Fairfield, you should have seen it when I was a girl. It wasphenomenal. But of late years it has come out sadly."
"You still have quantities," said Patty, and very truthfully, too, "andits silvery whiteness is so becoming to your complexion."
"Do you think so?" said Mrs. Van Reypen, smiling most amiably. "I thinkit's much wiser not to colour one's hair, for now-a-days so many peopleturn gray quite young."
"Yes, they do. I've several friends with gray hair who are very youngwomen indeed."
"Yes," agreed the other, comfortably, "white hair no longer indicatesthat a woman is advanced in years. You speak very sensibly, MissFairfield."
Patty smiled to herself at the success of her little ruse, "And, afterall," she thought, "I'm telling her only the truth. Her hair is lovely,and she may as well know I appreciate it."
"Have you ever tried," she went on, "wearing it in a coronet braid?"
"No; I've thought I should like to, but I've worn puffs so long I don'tknow how to change."
"Let me do it for you," said Patty. "I'm sure I could dress it to pleaseyou. At any rate, it would do no harm to try."
So up they went to Mrs. Van Reypen's dressing room, and Patty spent mostof the morning trying and discussing different modes of hair-dressing.
Mrs. Van Reypen's maid was present, and she admired Patty's clevernessand deftness at the work.
"You have a touch," declared Mrs. Van Reypen, as she surveyed herself bythe aid of a hand-mirror. "You're positively Frenchy in your touch. Wheredid you learn it? Have you ever been a lady's-maid?"
"No," said Patty, suppressing her smiles, "I never have. But I've spent awinter in Paris, and I picked up some French notions, I suppose."
"You certainly did. You are clever with your fingers, I can see that. Canyou trim hats?"
"Yes, I can," said Patty, smiling to herself at the recollection of herexperiences 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 hermaid to bring out some boxes.
"This," she said, taking up a finished hat, "is one my milliner has justsent home, and I think it a fright. Now here's a last year's hat, but theplumes are lovely. If you could untrim this first one, and transfer theseplumes, and then add these roses--what do you think?"
Secretly Patty thought the new hat was lovely just as it was, but herplan that morning was to humour the testy old lady and, if possible, makeher 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 herhair in the fashion Patty had done it.
But the maid was not very deft in the art, and soon Patty heard Mrs. VanReypen shrilly exclaiming:
"Stupid! Not that way! You have neither taste nor brains! Place the braidhigher. 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 thelong-suffering maid that she fell to weeping and thereby roused hermistress to still greater ire.
"Crying, are you!" she exclaimed. "If you had such a painful neck an
dshoulder 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 forthe maid and incensed at Mrs. Van Reypen's injustice and disagreeableness,but she felt intuitively that it was the best plan to be, herself, kindand affable.
"Oh, yes, I'll do it!" she said, pleasantly. "Your hat is almostfinished, and we can try it on with your hair done this way. I'm sure theeffect will be charming."
Mollified at this, Mrs. Van Reypen smiled benignly on her companion, andalso smiled admiringly at her own mirrored reflection.
"Now," said Patty, as, a little later, she brought the completed hat forinspection, "I will try this on and see how it looks."
Mrs. Van Reypen seated herself again in front of her dressing mirror, andwith gestures worthy of Madame Villard herself, Patty placed the hat onher head.
"It's most becoming," began Patty, when Mrs. Van Reypen interrupted her.
"Becoming?" she cried. "It is dreadful! It is _fearful_. It makes me looklike an old woman!"
With an angry jerk she snatched the offending hat from her head and threwit across the room.
Patty was about to give a horrified exclamation when the funny side of itstruck her, and she burst into laughter. Mrs. Van Reypen was really anelderly lady, and her angry surprise at being made to look like oneseemed very funny to Patty.
But in a moment she understood the case.
She had thought the hat in question of too youthful a type for Mrs. VanReypen, and in retrimming it had made it more subdued and of a quieter,more elderly fashion.
But she now realised that she had been expected to make it of even gayereffect than it had shown at first. This was an easy matter, and pickingup the hat she straightened it out, and hastily catching up a bunch ofpink roses and a glittering buckle, she said:
"Oh, it isn't finished yet; these other trimmings I want to put in placewhile the hat is on your head."
"Oh," said Mrs. Van Reypen, only half-convinced.
But she sat down again, and Patty replaced the hat, and then adjusted theroses and the buckle, giving the whole a dainty, pretty effect, whichthough over-youthful, perhaps, was really very becoming to thefine-looking old lady.
"Charming!" she exclaimed, letting her recent display of bad temper gowithout apology. "I felt sure you could do it. This afternoon we will goout to the shops and buy some materials, and you shall make me anotherhat."
They did so, and, though it meant an afternoon of rather strenuousshopping, Patty didn't mind it much, for Mrs. Van Reypen couldn't flyinto a rage in the presence of the salespeople.
And so the days dragged by. Patty had hard work to keep her own temperwhen her employer was unreasonably cross and snappish, but she stuck toher plan of flattering her, and it worked well more often than not.
Nor was she insincere. There were so many admirable qualities and traitsof Mrs. Van Reypen that she really admired, it was easy enough to tellher so, and invariably the lady was pleased.
But she often broke out into foolish, unjustifiable rages, and then Pattyhad to wait meekly until they passed over.
But when, at last, Wednesday evening had gone by, and she went to herroom, knowing it was the last night she should spend under that roof, shewas glad indeed.
"Another week of this would give me nervous prostration!" she said toherself. "But to-morrow my week is up, and that means Success! I havereally and truly succeeded in earning my own living for a week, and I'mglad and proud of it. I knew I should succeed, but I confess I didn'tthink I'd score so many failures first. But perhaps that makes my successall the sweeter. Anyway, I'm jolly glad I'm going home to-morrow. Wow!but I'm homesick."
Then she tumbled into bed, and soon forgot her homesickness in a sound,dreamless sleep.
Patty had been uncertain whether to tell Mrs. Van Reypen the true storyof her week of companionship or not; but on Thursday morning she decidedshe would do so.
And, as it chanced, after breakfast Mrs. Van Reypen herself opened theway for Patty's confidences.
"Miss Fairfield," she said, as they sat down in the library, "you knowour trial week is up to-day."
"Yes, Mrs. Van Reypen, and you remember that either of us has theprivilege of terminating our engagement to-day."
"I do remember, and, though I fear you will be greatly disappointed, Imust tell you that I have decided that I cannot keep you as mycompanion."
As Patty afterward told Nan, she was "struck all of a heap."
She had been wondering how she should persuade Mrs. Van Reypen to let hergo, and now the lady was voluntarily dismissing her! It was so sudden andso unexpected that Patty showed her surprise by her look of blankamazement.
"I knew you'd feel dreadful about it," went on Mrs. Van Reypen, with realregret in her tone, "but I cannot help it. You are not, by nature, fittedfor the position. You are--I don't exactly know how to express it, butyou are not of a subservient disposition."
"No," said Patty, "I'm not. But I have tried to do as you wanted me to."
"Yes, I could see that. But you are too high-strung to be successful in aposition of this kind. You should be more deferential in spirit as wellas in manner. Do I make myself clear?"
"You do, Mrs. Van Reypen," said Patty, smiling; "so clear that I am goingto tell you the truth about this whole business. I'm not really obligedto earn my own living. I have a happy home and loving parents. My father,though not a millionaire, is wealthy and generous enough to supply all mywants, and the reason I took this position with you is a special andpeculiar one, which I will tell you about if you care to hear."
"You sly puss!" cried Mrs. Van Reypen, with a smile that indicated reliefrather than dismay at Patty's revelation. "Then you've been onlymasquerading as a companion?"
"Yes," said Patty, smiling back at her, "that's about the size of it."