we sent her abroad to be
educated and squandered a fortune on her clothes, and then, just as
mother was gloating over her triumphs, the very day after the Duke of
Toxbridge proposed to her, Patty walked out one morning and married
Billy King at the Little Church Around the Corner. Billy, of course,
hasn't a cent to his name except what he makes painting blue pictures,
and that's precious little. They're up on the West Side now, living in
four rooms with neighbours who fry onions at nine o'clock in the morning
next door to them, and half the time Patty hasn't even a maid, I
believe, and has to do her work with the help of a charwoman."

"And is she happy?" There was eagerness in Gabriella's voice, for she
was sure that she should love Patty.

"Oh, yes, Patty is happy, but mother isn't. It's rough on mother."

"I think she ought to have told your mother before she married."

"Well, Patty thought she could stand the fuss better after she'd done it
than she could before. She said she needed the support of knowing they
couldn't stop it. Cheeky, wasn't it?"

"And is she really so beautiful?"

"Ripping," said George; "simply ripping."

"I know I shall love her. Is she dark or fair?"

"I never thought about it, but she's a towering beauty--something
between dark and fair, I suppose. She has golden hair, you know."

His arm was around her, and lifting her earnest face to his, Gabriella
began in her softest voice: "I shouldn't mind a bit living like that,
George--honestly I shouldn't."

"Yes, you would. It would be rotten."

"I wish you would tell me just how much we shall have to live on, dear.
Even if it is very, very little, it would be so much better not to
expect anything from your father. If the worst comes to the worst, I can
always go back to work, you know, and I feel as if I ought to help
because you are so generous about wanting mother to live with us."

He frowned slightly, while a dark flush rose to his forehead. Already
Gabriella was learning how dangerously easy it

Martha Finley (1828 - 1909) was a teacher and author of numerous works, the most well known being the 28 volume Elsie Dinsmore series which was published over a span of 38 years. The daughter of Presbyterian minister Dr. James Brown Finley and his wife and cousin Maria Theresa Brown Finley, she was born on April 26th, 1828 in Chillicothe, Ohio. Finley wrote many of her books under the psodonym Martha Farquharson. She died in 1909 in Elkton, Maryland, where she moved in 1876.

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