a distaste for the whole thing.

"You are certainly clever," said Madame Villard, patronisingly, as she
looked at the hats Miss O'Flynn held up for her inspection. "I am glad to
offer you a permanent position here. You will have to learn the rudiments
of the work, as the most gifted genius should always be familiar with the
foundations of his own art. Will you agree to come to me every day?"

Patty hesitated. She hated the thought of coming every day, even if but
for a week. And yet, here was the opportunity she was in search of.
Trimming hats was easy enough work; probably they wouldn't make her learn
lining and covering at once.

Then the thought occurred to her that it wouldn't be honest to pretend
she was coming regularly, when she meant to do so only for a week.

"Suppose I try it for a week," she suggested. "Then if either of us
wishes to do so, we can terminate the contract."

"Very well," said Madame, who thought to herself she could make this
young genius trim a great many hats in a week. "Do you agree to that?"

"At what salary?" asked Patty, faintly, for she felt as if she were
condemning herself to a week of torture.

"Well," said Madame Villard, "as you are so ignorant of the work, I ought
not to give you any recompense at all; but as you evince such an aptitude
for trimming I am willing to say, five dollars a week."

"Five dollars a week," repeated Patty, slowly. "You ought to be ashamed
of yourself!"

Patty did not mean to be rude or impertinent. Indeed, for the moment she
was not even thinking of herself. She was thinking how a poor girl, who
had her living to earn, would feel at an offer of five dollars for six
long days of work in that dreadful atmosphere.

"I beg your pardon," she said, mechanically, and she said it more because
of Madame Villard's look of amazement, than because of any regret at her
own blunt speech. "I shouldn't have spoken so frankly. But the
compensation you offer is utterly inadequate."

Patty glanced at her watch, and then began drawing on her gloves with an
air of finality.

"But wait,--wait, Miss Fairfield," exclaimed the Madame, who had no wish
to let her new-found genius thus slip away from her. "I like your work. I
may say I think it shows touches of real talent. Also, you have unusually
good taste. In view of these things, I will overlook still further your
ignorance of the details of the work, and I will give you seven dollars a
week."

"Madame," said Patt