At last she reached home, and as she ran up the steps the door flew open, and she saw Nan and her father, with smiling faces, awaiting her.
"Oh, people!" she cried. "Oh, you _dear_ people!"
She flung herself indiscriminately into their open arms, embracing both at once.
Then she produced her precious bills, and, waving them aloft, cried:
"I've succeeded! I've really succeeded! Behold the proofs of Patty's success!"
"Good for you, girlie!" cried her father. "You have succeeded, indeed! But don't you ever dare cut up such a prank again!"
"No, don't!" implored Nan. "I've had the most awful time the whole week! Every night Fred vowed he was going to bring you home, and I had to beg him not to. I wanted you to win,--and I felt sure you would this time,--but you owe it to me. For if I hadn't worked so hard to prevent it your father would have gone after you long ago----"
"Good for you, Nan!" cried Patty. "You've been a trump! You've helped me through every time, in all my failures and in my one success. Oh, I've so much to tell you of my experiences! They were awfully funny."
"They'll keep till later," said Nan. "You must run and dress now; Ken and the Farringtons are coming to dinner to help us celebrate your success."
So Patty went dancing away to her own room, singing gaily in her delight at being once more at home.
"Oh, you booful room!" she cried, aloud, as she reached her own door. "All full of pretty _homey_ things, and fresh flowers, and my own dear books and pictures, and--and everything!"
She threw herself on the couch and kissed the very sofa cushions in her joy at seeing them again.
Then she made her toilette, and put on one of her prettiest and most becoming frocks.
"Oh, daddy, dear," she cried, meeting him in the hall on her way down, "it has done me lots of good to be homeless for a week! I appreciate my own dear home so much more."
"Oh, that's different! Travelling or visiting is one thing, but working for your living is quite another! Oh, _don't_ lose all your fortune, will you, father? I don't want to have to go out into the cold world and earn my own support."
"Then it isn't as easy as you thought it was?"
"Oh, dear no! It isn't easy at all! It's dreadful! Every way I tried was worse than every other. But I succeeded, didn't I?"