"Big Patty or this little one?" Miss Dorothy touched the doll with her gloved finger.
"For both. There is so much that is pleasant in the world, isn't there? Every little while something comes along that you never knew about before and it makes you glad. First you came, then there was school and the girls, and to-day came Patty and your father. He makes me feel very differently about fathers."
"He is a dear dad," said Miss Dorothy lovingly.
"Do you think mine will be like him? I've always thought of him as being like grandpa, not that grandpa isn't very nice," she added quickly, "but he doesn't think much about little girls, and never says funny jokey things to them as your father does. He never seems to notice the things I do, and your father talks to Patty about the little, little things I never knew grown up men were interested in."
"That's because he has to be father and mother, too. Our mother died when Patty was a baby, you know. Yes, daddy is a darling."
"I hope mine will be," said Marian earnestly. "I haven't any mother either, so perhaps he will feel like being father and mother, too. I wonder when I shall see him. I didn't use to think much about it, but since I have written to him, and all that, I think much more about him."
"That is perfectly natural, and I have no doubt but that when he finds out that you want to see him he will want to see you, and he will be crossing the ocean the first thing we know."
"Oh, do you really think so?"
"I shouldn't be at all surprised, only you mustn't count too much on it. We must be getting those photographs ready pretty soon."
"I would like one of Patty and me together, I mean Patty Robbins, this is Patty Otway," and she held out her doll.