“Good for you, Nan!” cried Patty. “I do! I think they’re great! and I’m not a coquette at all. I’d like to be, but I don’t know how.”
“Don’t bother to learn,” said Peter Homer. “It will come naturally after a while.”
“’Deed I won’t bother to learn,” returned Patty. “I’ve too much to learn now. I want to learn Italian perfectly, before I start for Italy next week, and I want to learn all about art and architecture, and everything like that, before I go, too.”
“Take the same advice for those things,” said Austin; “don’t bother to learn them, and they’ll come naturally after a while.”
“I agree to that,” said Lady Hamilton. “Patty will learn more of art and architecture by being thus suddenly pushed into it than she could learn from a hundred text-books or tutors.”
“Right!” agreed Sir Otho, heartily. “But don’t try too hard to learn, little girl; just enjoy. These are your years for enjoying. When you’re my age you’ll have time to learn.”
“That’s a new theory,” said Mr. Fairfield, smiling, “but I rather think it’s a sound one.”
“I think so, too,” said Nan. “I know lots of people who have just spoiled a perfectly good trip through Italy, because they learned so hard they had no time to enjoy.”
“One should go through Italy,” said Mr. Homer, “with a mind like a sieve. Let it alone, and worthless trifles will sift through, and the big, important things will remain.”
“All this is very comforting,” said Patty, with a relieved sigh; “I had expected to cram as if for an examination, all next week. Now, I shan’t even open a book.”