CHAPTER VII

DIFFERING TASTES


A few days before the close of the old year, Patty sat at her desk in the
library of Boxley Hall.

She was making lists of good things to be ordered for the feast on
New Year's day; and, as it was her first unaided experience with
such memoranda, she wore an air of great importance and a deeply
puckered brow.

Mancy, with her arms comfortably akimbo, stood before her young mistress
ready to suggest, but tactfully chary of advice.

They were not yet living in the new home, but all the furniture was in
place, the furnace fire had been started, and the palms arranged in the
little conservatory.

So Patty spent most of her time there, and some of the Elliotts were
usually there with her.

But this morning she was alone with Mancy, struggling with the
all-important lists.

"I'll make the salad myself," she remarked, as she wrote "olive oil" on
her slip of paper.