"
"And aren't you?" asked Patty teasingly.
"Try me and see," said her father, as he took her card.
The trial proved very satisfactory, and Patty declared that she must have
inherited her own taste for dancing from her father.
The evening passed all too swiftly. Pretty Patty, with her merry ways and
graceful manners, was a real belle, and Aunt Alice was besieged by
requests for introductions to her niece and daughter. But Marian, though
a sweet and charming girl, had a certain shyness which always kept her
from becoming an immediate favourite. Patty's absolute lack of
self-consciousness and her ready friendliness made her popular at once.
Mr. Fairfield and Nan Allen were speaking of this, as they stood out on
the veranda and looked at Patty through the window.
"She's the most perfect combination," Miss Allen was saying, "of the
child and the girl. She has none of the silly affectations of
young-ladyhood, and yet she has in her nature all the elements that go to
make a wise and sensible woman."
"I think you're right," said Mr. Fairfield, as he looked fondly at his
daughter. "She is growing up just as I want her to, and developing the
traits I most want her to possess. A frank simplicity of manner, a happy,
fun-loving disposition, and a gentle, unselfish soul."
Meantime Patty and Mr. Hepworth were sitting on the stairs.
"Now my cup of happiness is full," remarked Patty. "I have always thought
it must be perfect bliss to sit on the stairs at a party.
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