Patty came from a large family, and considers it to be an average life with them. Sometimes they fight, sometimes they play, and their parents treated them all the same. When she was six her grandmother offered to take her into her home to raise her as a companion to another girl she had taken in, Molly Bradley. Molly was four years older than Patty, and her parents had taken great care in her education. Molly was given much attention by the people around her, and Patty soon felt ignored and became jealous. Patty says that had she heard of this story before she had left she might have put these emotions aside and attempted to learn from Molly. She remembers being teased by a maid named Betty, who would say that it was a lack of spirit that allowed Patty to not think herself every bit as good as Molly and allow herself to be taught by another child. So Patty resolved to learn nothing from Molly, and eventually her grandmother decided to send Patty away to school. This only made Patty's problem worse, as instead of one person she might have reason to be jealous of, she now had many.