I
shall have to be very careful about my proportion; but if you and papa
will help me, I think I'll come out all right."
"I think you will," said Aunt Alice, but she smiled a little at the
assured toss of her niece's head.
The Intelligence Office proved to be as much misnamed as those
institutions usually are, and varying degrees of unintelligence were
shown in the candidates offered for the position of cook at Boxley Hall;
though, if the applicants seemed unsatisfactory to Patty, in many cases
she was no less so to them.
One tall, rawboned Irishwoman seemed hopefully good-tempered and capable,
but when she discovered that Patty was to be her mistress, instead of
Mrs. Elliott, as she had supposed, she exclaimed:
"Go 'way wid yez! Wud I be workin' for the likes of a child like that?
No, mum, I ain't no nurse; I'm a cook, and I want a mistress as has got
past playing wid dolls."
"I hope you'll find one," said Patty politely; "and I'm afraid we
wouldn't suit each other."
Another Irish girl, with a merry rosy face and frizzled blonde hair, was
very anxious to go to work for Patty.
"Sure, it will be fun!" she said. "I'd like to work for such a pretty
little lady; and, sure, we'd have the good times. Could I have all me
afternoons out, miss?"
"Not if you lived with me," said Patty, laughing. "My house is large,
and there's a great deal of work to be done by somebody. I think my cook
couldn't do her share if she went out every afternoon.
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