have me, really?" cried Patricia, sitting bolt upright,
with every sense alert to seize so good an opportunity of escape.

"Why, yes. I've been wanting to have you a long time. You had better
come back to town with me to-morrow."

"I'd like it better than anything in the world," asserted Patricia,
fervently and truthfully.

"I wonder if people ever grow up at all here," Constantia said,
smiling, "you are all so preposterously young, you know."

"You were brought up here yourself."

Constantia laughed outright. "But I have been educated since I
married: that is when most people's education does begin. We are only
preparing for it before."

"And if one never marries, one remains uneducated, I suppose."

Constantia kissed her. "Your education is not likely to be neglected,
my dear. Go to bed now, we will settle with Renata to-morrow."

CHAPTER XXVII

It is one thing to produce, and another to launch the production on an
unwilling world. Christopher soon found he had but exchanged an
arduous engrossing task for a sordid uphill struggle. Yet if his mind
sometimes flew back to Peter Masters' offer, it was never with any
desire to open negotiations with him, nor did he ever remind Aymer of
the possibility. They fought together against the difficulties that
beset the great venture and their comradeship reduced the irritating
trivialities of the first start to bearable limits.

Since the day when he received Peter Masters' curt acknowledgment of
satisfaction with the selected car, neither Christopher nor the Astons
had heard one word from the millionaire. His restored interest in the
family appeared to have evaporated as rapidly as it had risen, and
peace fell on Aymer's troubled mind. He flung himself heart and soul
into the business of launching Christopher's discovery, and verified
his cousin's old opinion of his business qualities. The initial
difficulties of obtaining the patent being overcome and a small,
private company formed, they started a factory for the manufacture of
Patrimondi within five miles of Marden, and a decently capable staff
was secured to meet the slow, but steadily increasing, demands for the
new material.

After some months of uphill work they suddenly received an order for
laying the roadways and a special motor track at an International
Exhibition. From this plane Patrimondi leapt into fame. Within three
months of the opening of the Exhibition the little factory had doubled
its s