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“You know he won’t. He has been only too anxious for an excuse to foreclose, this long time. He wants the land the house is on. Oh, if I only hadn’t been sick so long in the summer–just when everybody had sewing to do. I’ve tried so hard to catch up, but I couldn’t.” Carry’s voice broke in a sob.

Patty leaned over the table and patted her sister’s glossy dark hair gently.

“You’ve worked too hard, dearie. You’ve just gone to skin and bone. Oh, I know how hard it is! I can’t bear to think of leaving this dear old spot either. If we could only induce Mr. Kerr to give us a year’s grace! I’d be teaching then, and we could easily pay the interest and some of the principal too. Perhaps he will if we both go to him and coax very hard. Anyway, don’t worry over it till after the wedding. I want you to go and have a good time. You never have good times, Carry.”

“Neither do you,” said Carry rebelliously. “You never have anything that other girls have, Patty–not even pretty clothes.”

“Deed, and I’ve lots of things to be thankful for,” said Patty cheerily. “Don’t you fret about me. I’m vain enough to think I’ve got some brains anyway, and I’m a-meaning to do something with them too. Now I think I’ll go upstairs and study this evening. It will be warm enough there tonight, and the noise of the machine rather bothers me.”

Patty whisked out, and Carry knew she should go to her sewing. But she sat a long while at the table in dismal thought. She was so tired, and so hopeless. It had been such a hard struggle, and it seemed now as if it would all come to naught. For five years, ever since her mother’s death, Carry had supported herself and Patty by dressmaking. They had been a hard five years of pinching and economizing and going without, for Enderby was only a small place, and there were two other dressmakers. Then there was always the mortgage to devour everything. Carry had kept it at bay till now, but at last she was conquered. She had had typhoid fever in the spring and had not been able to work for a long time. Indeed, she had gone to work before she should. The doctor’s bill was yet unpaid, but Dr. Hamilton had told her to take her time. Carry knew she would not be pressed for that, and next year Patty would be able to help her. But next year would be too late. The dear little home would be lost then.

When Carry roused herself from her sad reflections, she saw a crumpled note lying on the floor. She picked it up and absently smoothed it out. Seeing Patty’s name at the top she was about to lay it aside without reading it, but the lines were few, and the sense of them flashed into Carry’s brain. The note was an invitation to Clare Forbes’s party! The Lea girls had known that the Forbes girls were going to give a party, but they had not expected that Patty would be invited. Of course, Clare Forbes was in Patty’s class at school and was always very nice and friendly with her. But then the Forbes set was not the Lea set.

Carry ran upstairs to Patty’s room. “Patty, you dropped this on the floor. I couldn’t help seeing what it was. Why didn’t you tell me Clare had invited you?”

“Because I knew I couldn’t go, and I thought you would feel badly over that. Caddy, I wish you hadn’t seen it.”

“Oh, Patty, I do wish you could go to the party. It was so sweet of Clare to invite you, and perhaps she will be offended if you don’t go–she won’t understand. Clare Forbes isn’t a girl whose friendship is to be lightly thrown away when it is offered.”