Soon Nan was ready, and the two started off in great glee.
“I can hardly believe you really have the car, Patty; didn’t you learn to run it very quickly?”
“Well, you see, I have driven cars before. Big ones, I mean. And this is different, but so much simpler, that it’s no trouble at all. Oh! Nan, isn’t the scenery gorgeous?”
Gorgeous wasn’t at all the right word, but a tamer one would not have suited Patty’s mood. They were rolling along the coast: on one side the ocean; on the other, an ever-changing panorama of seashore settlements with their hotels and cottages, interspersed with stretches of fine woods, or broad, level vistas with distant horizons.
“It’s beautiful, Patty. We’ll have a lovely time this summer.”
“Yes; don’t let’s have too much company. I’d like to have Christine down for a few weeks, and of course Elise will make us a visit; but I don’t want that horde of boys.”
“Why not?” asked Nan, in amazement, for Patty greatly enjoyed the boys’ calls in New York.
“Oh, I don’t know! It’s so quiet and peaceful, just with us; and, if they come, they’ll stir up picnics and dances and all sorts of things.”
“I know what’s the matter with you, Patty,” said Nan, laughing; “you’ve got automobile fever! You just want to ride and ride in this pretty car of yours, along these good roads, and just give yourself up to indolent enjoyment of it.”
“That’s just it! How did you know, Nan?”