"
"Have you an ambition, Mr. Hepworth?" said Patty suddenly. "But you have
already achieved yours. You are a successful artist."
"A man may have more than one ambition," said Mr. Hepworth slowly, "and I
have _not_ achieved my dearest one."
"I suppose you want to paint even better than you do," said Patty.
"Yes," said the artist, smiling a little, "I hope I shall always want to
paint better than I do. What's your ambition, Harper?"
"To build bridges," said Kenneth. "I'm going to be a civil engineer, but
my ambition is to be a bridge-builder. And I'll get there yet," he added,
with a determined nod of his head.
"I think you will," said Mr. Hepworth, "and I'm sure I hope so."
Then the talk turned to lighter themes than ambition, and merry laughter
and jest filled up the miles to Allaire.
All were delighted with the place. Aside from the picturesque ruined
buildings and the eerie mysterious-looking old mill, there was a novel
interest in the strange silent air of desertion that seemed to invest the
place with an almost palpable loneliness.
"I don't like it," said Patty. "Come on, let's go home."
But to Marian's more romantic imagination it all seemed most attractive,
so different was her temperament from that of her sunshiny,
merry-hearted cousin.
At last they did go home, and Patty chattered gaily all the way in
order, as she said, to drive away the musty recollections of that
forlorn old place.
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