ite well enough
now without further instructions."

"I think so, too," said Patty. "I'd rather hear you sing those quaint
little songs of yours than to hear the most elaborate trills and frills
that any prima donna ever accomplished."

"Your opinion is worth a great deal to me, Patty, as a friend, but
technically, I can't value it so highly."

"Of course, I don't know much about music," said Patty, quite unabashed;
"but papa thinks so too. He said your voice is the sweetest voice he
ever heard."

"Did he?" said Nan.

"What is your ambition, Patty?" said Marian, after a moment's pause. "Nan
and I have expressed ourselves so frankly you might tell us yours."

"My ambition?" said Patty. "Why, I never thought of it before, but I
don't believe I have any. I feel rather ashamed, for I suppose every
properly equipped young woman ought to have at least one ambition, and I
don't seem to have a shadow of one. Really great ones, I mean. Of course,
I can sing a little; not much, but it seems to be enough for me. And I
can play a little on the piano and on the banjo, and I suppose it's
shocking; but really I don't care to play any better than I do. I can't
paint, and I can't write stories, but I don't want to do either."

"You can keep house," said Marian.

Patty's eyes lighted up.

"Yes," she said; "isn't it ridiculous? But I do really believe that's my
ambition. To keep house just perfectly, you know, and have everything go
not only smoothly but happily."

"You ought to have been a _chatelaine_ of the fourteenth century," said
Nan.

"Yes," said Patty eagerly; "that's just my ambition. What a pity it's
looking backward instead of forward. But I would love to live in a great
stone castle, all my own, with a moat and drawbridge and outriders, and
go around in a damask gown with a pointed bodice and big puffy sleeves
and a ruff and a little cap with pearls on it, and a bunch of keys
jingling at my side."

"They usually carry the keys in a basket," observed Marian; "and you
forgot to mention the falcon on your wrist."

"So I did," said Patty, "but I think the falcon would be a regular
nuisance while I was housekeeping, so I'd put him in the basket, and set
it up on the mantelpiece, and keep my keys jingling from my belt."

"Well, it seems," said Nan, "that Patty has more hopes of realising her
ambition than either of us."

"Speak for yourself," said Marian.

"I think I have," said Patty. "I have all the keys I want