d home.

"I'm glad it all turned out right," said Patty with a sigh, "but I do
wish that pretty baby had been named Rosabel instead of Mary. It really
would have suited her a great deal better."

CHAPTER XX

THE ROLANDS

"There's a new family in that house across the road," said Mr. Fairfield
one evening at dinner.

"The Fenwick house?" asked Nan.

"Yes; a man named Roland has taken it for August. I know a man who knows
them, and he says they're charming people. So, if you ladies want to be
neighbourly, you might call on them."

Nan and Patty went to call and found the Roland family very pleasant
people, indeed. Mrs. Roland seemed to be an easy-going sort of lady who
never took any trouble herself, and never expected anyone else to do so.

Miss Roland, Patty decided, was a rather inanimate young person, and
showed a lack of energy so at variance with Patty's tastes that she
confided to Nan on the way home she certainly did not expect to cultivate
any such lackadaisical girl as that.

As for young Mr. Roland, the son of the house, Patty had great ado to
keep from laughing outright at him. He was of the foppish sort, and
though young and rather callow, he assumed airs of great importance, and
addressed Patty with a formal deference, as if she were a young lady in
society, instead of a schoolgirl.

Patty was accustomed to frank, pleasant comradeship with the boys of her
acquaintance; and the young men, such as Mr. Hepworth and Mr. Phelps,
treated Patty as a little girl, and never seemed to imply anything like
grown-up attentions.

But young Mr. Roland, with an affected drawl, and what were meant to be
killing glances of admiration, so conducted himself that Patty's sense of
humour was stirred, and she mischievously led him on for the fun of
seeing what he would do next.

The result was that young Mr. Roland was much pleased with pretty Patty,
and fully believed that his own charms had made a decided impression on
her.

He asked permission to call, whereupon Patty told him that she was only a
schoolgirl, and did not receive calls from young men, but referred him to
Mrs. Fairfield, and Nan being in an amiable mood, kindly gave him the
desired permission.

"Well," said Patty, as they discussed the matter afterward, "if that
young puff-ball rolls himself over here, you can have the pleasure of
entertaining him. I'm quite ready to admit that another season of his
conversation would affect my mind."