that. I sha'n't exactly retire, but I shall get the business into such
shape that I can take a long vacation, and then we'll all go out and see
the world. But that doesn't seem to have anything to do with Patty's
immediate future. I have thought over this a great deal, and if you
don't go to college, Patty, I should like very much to have you go
abroad sooner than I can take you. But I can't see any way for you to
go. I can't spare Nan to go with you, and I'm not sure you would care to
go with one of those parties of personally conducted young ladies."

"No, indeed!" cried Patty. "I'm crazy to go to Europe, but I don't want
to go with six other girls and a chaperon, and go flying along from one
country to the next, with a Baedeker in one hand and a suit case in the
other. I'd much rather wait and go with you and Nan, later on."

"Well, I haven't finished thinking it out yet," said Mr. Fairfield, who,
in spite of his apparent pliability, had a strong will of his own. "I
may send you across in charge of a reliable guardian, and put you into a
French convent."

[Illustration with caption: "'There never was such a dear, lovely,
beautiful stepmother on the face of the earth!'"]

Patty only laughed at this, but still she had a vague feeling that her
father was not yet quite done with the subject, and that almost anything
might happen.

But as Kenneth Harper came in to see them just then, the question was
laid before him.

"There is no sense in Patty's going to college," he declared. "I'm an