"and please
appreciate my amiability, for I think they're most jolty and
uncomfortable things to ride in."

"I speak for a seat in one of the victorias," said Aunt Alice; "and I
think it wise to get my claim in quickly, as the bids are being made
so rapidly."

"I don't care how I go," said Patty, "or what I go in. I'm so amiable, a
child can play with me to-day. I'll go in a wheelbarrow, if necessary."

"I had hoped to drive you over myself," said Mr. Hepworth, who sat next
to her, speaking in a low tone; "but I'll push you in a wheelbarrow, if
you prefer."

"You go with me, Patty, in one of the traps, won't you?" said Kenneth,
who sat on the veranda railing at her other side.

Patty's face took on a comical smile of amusement at these two requests,
but she answered both at once by merrily saying:

"Then it all adjusts itself. Mr. and Mrs. Allen and Mr. and Mrs. Elliott
shall have the most comfortable carriage, and Marian and Mr. Hepworth and
Ken and I will go in the other."

That seemed to be the, best possible arrangement, and about three
o'clock the procession started.

Patty and Marian took the back seat of the open carriage, Mr. Hepworth
and Kenneth Harper sat facing them.

As Marian had already become very much interested in her new fad of
authorship, and as under Miss Fischer's tuition she was rapidly
developing into a real little blue-stocking, it is not strange that the
conversation turned in that direction.

"I looked in all the bookshops in the city for your latest works, Miss
Marian," said Mr. Hepworth, "but they must have been all sold out, for I
couldn't find any."

"Too bad," said Marian. "I'm afraid you'll have to wait until a new
edition is printed."

"You're not to tease Marian," said Patty reprovingly. "She's been as
patient as an angel under a perfect storm of chaff, and I'm not going to
allow any more of it."

"I don't mind," said Marian. "I think, if one is really in earnest, one
oughtn't to be annoyed by good-natured fun."

"Quite right," said Kenneth; "and ambition, if it's worth anything,
ought to rise above comment of any sort."

"It ought to be strengthened by comment of any sort," said Mr. Hepworth.

"Of any sort?" asked Marian thoughtfully.

"Yes, for comment always implies recognition, and that in itself means
progress."

"Have you an ambition, Mr. Hepworth?" said Patty suddenly. "But you have
already achieved yours. You are a successful artist."

"A man may have