ht I was quite so old-fashioned as to make calls on New
Year's Day. However, I'm not quite doing that, as this is the only call I
shall make to-day."

"We're glad to see you any day in the year," said Nan, cordially, and
Patty added:

"Indeed we are. I've been wondering why you didn't come round."

"Busy," said Mr. Hepworth, smiling at her. "An artist's life is not a
leisure one."

"Is anybody's now-a-days?" asked Mr. Fairfield. "The tendency of the age
is to rush and hurry all the time. What a contrast to a hundred years
ago!"

"And a good contrast, too," declared Nan. "If the world still jogged
along at a hundred years ago rate, we would have no motor-cars, no
aeroplanes, no----"

"No North Pole," suggested her husband. "True enough, Nan, to accomplish
things we must be busy."

"I want to get busy," said Patty. "No, I don't mean that for slang,"--as
her father looked at her reprovingly,--"but I want to do something that
is really worth while."

"The usual ambition of extreme youth," said Mr. Hepworth, looking at her
kindly, if quizzically. "Do you want to reform the world, and in what
way?"

"Not exactly reform it," said Patty, smiling back at him; "reform has
such a serious sound. But I do want to make it brighter and better."

"That's a good phrase, too," observed Mr. Hepworth, still teasingly.
"But, Patty, you do make the world brighter and better, just by being in
it."

"That's too easy; and, anyway, I expect to remain in it for some several
years yet; and I want to do something beside just _be_."

"Ah, well, you can doubtless find some outlet for your enthusiasms."

"What she really wants," said her father, "is to be an operatic star."

"And sing into phonographs," added Nan, mischievously.

"Yes," smiled Patty, "and have my picture in the backs of magazines!"

"That's right," said Mr. Hepworth, "aim high, while you're about it."

"I can aim high enough," returned Patty, "but I'm not sure I can sing
high enough."

"Oh, you only need to come high enough, to be an operatic star," said Mr.
Hepworth, who was in merry mood to-day.

"But, seriously," said Patty, who was in earnest mood, "I do want to do
good. I don't mean in a public way, but in a charity way."

"Oh, soup-kitchens and bread-lines?"

"No; not exactly. I mean to help people who have no sweetness and light
in their lives."

"Oh, Patty," groaned Nan, "if you're on that tack, you're hopeless. What
have you been reading? 'The You