grossing. Can
you do that?"

"How prettily you say 'we lawyers,'" teased Patty.

"Of course I do. I'm getting in practice against the time it'll be true.
But if you really want to copy, buy a nice Spencerian Copy-book, and fill
up its pages. It'll be about as valuable as any other work of the sort."

"Ken, you're horrid. So unsympathetic."

"I'm crool only to be kind! You must know, Patty, that copying is out of
the question."

"Well, never mind then; let's talk of something else."

"'Let's sit upon the ground and tell strange stories of the death of
kings.'"

"Oh, Ken, that reminds me. You know my crystal ball?"

"I do indeed; I selected it with utmost care."

"Yes, it's a gem. Perfectly flawless. Well, I'll get it, and see if we
can see things in it."

Patty ran for her crystal, and returning to the library held it up to the
fading sunlight, and tried to look into it.

"That isn't the way, Patty; you have to lay it on black velvet, or
something dark."

"Oh, do you? Well, here's a dark mat on this table. Try that."

They gazed intently into the ball, and though they could see nothing,
Patty felt a weird sense of uncanniness.

Ken laughed when she declared this, and said:

"Nothing in the world but suggestion. You think a Japanese crystal
_ought_ to make you feel supernatural, and so you imagine it does. But it
doesn't any such nonsense. Now, I'll tell you why I like them. Only
because they're so flawlessly perfect. In shape, colour, texture,--if you
can call it texture,--but I mean material or substance. There isn't an
attribute that they possess, except in perfection. That's a great thing,
Patty; and you can't say it of anything else."

"The stars," said Patty, trying to look wise.

"Oh, pshaw! I mean things made by man."

"Great pictures," she suggested.

"Their perfection is a matter of opinion. One man deems a picture
perfect, another man does not. But a crystal ball is indubitably
perfect."

"Indubitably is an awful big word," said Patty. "I'm afraid of it."

"Never mind," said Kenneth, kindly, "I won't let it hurt you."

Then the doorbell rang, and in a moment in came Elise and Roger.

"Hello, Ken," said Elise. "We came for Patty to go skating. Will you go,
too?"

"I can't go to-day," said Patty, "I'm too tired. And it's too late,
anyway. You stay here, and we'll have tea."

"All right, I don't care," said Elise, taking off her furs.

The quartette gathered round the library fire