"I don't know till I see them," she replied. "Are they elaborate pieces?"

"Here they are," said the woman, taking some pieces of work from a box.
Her tone seemed to imply that she was conferring an enormous favour on
Patty by showing them.

They were rather large centrepieces, all of the same pattern, which was
stamped, but not embroidered.

"There's a lot of work on those," remarked Patty.

"Oh, you _are_ green!" said the woman. She jerked out another similar
centrepiece, on which a small section, perhaps one-eighth of the whole,
was worked in silks.

"This is what you're to do," she explained, in a tired, cross voice. "You
work this corner, and that's all."

"Who works the rest?" asked Patty, amazed at this plan.

"Why, the buyer. We sell these to the shops; they sell them to people who
use this finished corner as a guide to do the rest of the piece. Can't
you understand?"

"Yes, I can, now that you explain it," returned Patty. "Then if I take a
dozen, I'm to work just that little corner on each one; is that it?"

"That's it," said the woman, wearily, as if she were making the
explanation for the thousandth time,--as she probably was.

"You can take this as a guide for yourself," she went on, a little more
kindly, "and here's the silks. Did you say a dozen?"

"Wait a minute," said Patty; "how much do you pay?"

"Five dollars."

"Apiece, I suppose. Yes, I'll take a dozen." The woman gave a hard little
laugh.

"Five dollars apiece!" she said. "Not much! We pay five dollars a dozen."

"A dozen? Five dollars for all that work! Why, each of those corners is
as much work as a whole doily."

"Yes, just about; do you work fast?"

"Yes; pretty fast."

Patty was doing some mental calculation. Three dozen of those pieces
meant an interminable lot of work. But it also meant fifteen dollars, and
Patty's spirit was now fully roused.

"I'll take three dozen," she said, decidedly; "and I'll bring them back,
finished, a week from to-day."

"My, you must be a swift worker," said the woman, in a disinterested
voice.

She was already sorting out silks, as with a practised hand, and making
all into a parcel.

Patty was about to offer her a visiting card, as she assumed she must
give her address, when the woman said:

"Eighteen dollars, please."

"What?" said Patty. "What for?"

"Security. You don't suppose we let everybody walk off with our
materials, and never come back, do you?"

"Do you doubt my h