CHAPTER XIII.
A NEW FRIEND "Patty," said her father, a week or two later, "Mr.Hepworth has invited us to a tea in his studio in New York tomorrow afternoon, and if you care to go, I'll take you." "Yes, I'd love to go; I've always wanted to go to a studio tea.

It's very kind of Mr.Hepworth to ask us after the way he was treated here." Mr.Fairfield laughed, but Patty looked decidedly sober.

She still felt very much crestfallen to think that the first guest her father brought home should be obliged to dine at the hotel, or at a neighbour's.

Aunt Alice had invited them to dinner on that memorable Sunday, and though she said she had expected to ask the Fairfields anyway, still Patty felt that, as a housekeeper, she had been weighed in the balances and found sadly wanting.
According to arrangement, she met her father in New York the day of the tea, and together they went to Mr.Hepworth's studio.
It gave Patty a very grown-up feeling to find herself amongst such strange and unaccustomed surroundings.
The studio was a large room, on the top floor of a high building.

It was finished in dark wood and decorated with many unframed pictures and dusty casts.