b," she said. "The Haldens are coming in for
Easter and all the other holidays, and we're going to simply revel in
delightful doings right here in the studio. It's a dream of goodly
revelry, Norn, isn't it?" "It means more than that to me," replied
Elinor. "It means work--glorious, big, beautiful work----"

"Do you know," interrupted Patricia, suddenly alert again, "I don't
believe I'll ever amount to a row of pins as an artist? I always
forget the work and think only of the _people_ and the fun. I wonder
if I can't brace up and do something worth while. I'll start in
tomorrow--see if I don't."

CHAPTER XV

AFTERNOON TEA

The days slipped by with wonderful swiftness after the trunks had been
unpacked and things had settled down to the regular routine. Patricia
wondered at the evenness of their minds and the serenity of their
hearts in those first three weeks of studio life.

"Everything goes so smoothly," she confided to Miss Jinny one day at
the end of the fortnight. "It sounds monotonous, but I don't mean it
that way at all. We're all so _naturally_ polite and agreeable. We
don't seem to have to force ourselves a bit."

"That's because we've each of us got something to do," declared Miss
Jinny emphatically. "If we were idling around, musing on ourselves
from morning till night like some poor creatures do, we'd get prickly
mighty soon. People were made to work, and it's flying in the face of
Providence to try to get away from it. We all got our share in the
curse of Adam, and the sooner we realize it, the better for us."

Patricia played with the handle of the great glittering brass amphora
that stood by the low stool where she sat. Her face was puzzled though
not disquiet.

"I wonder just what my work will turn out to be?" she said
thoughtfully. "I'm beginning to be afraid I haven't any real work of
my own. I've tried so hard to get on with the modeling--for I do love
it--but it just seems as though I couldn't. That first head that they
liked so much, and the study of Ju is about all the sculpture I've got
in my system, I reckon. I'm downright ashamed to let them know----"

"You needn't be," declared Miss Jinny vigorously. "You never pretended
you were in it for anything but sport, did you? Bruce knows you're
about through with it; I heard him say so to Elinor yesterday."

"Oh, did he though?" cried Patricia, kindling. "How clever of him to
see. I thought no one _dreamed_!"

M