Sure you don't mind, Ju?" she asked,
solicitous as ever for her small sister's happiness. "Mrs. Nat will soon
be thawed out, and----"

Judith drew herself up with beautiful composure. "Patricia Louise
Kendall, you will never be a great artist if your mind is so set on your
food," she said severely. "Do stop talking about dinners, and tell us
what you've seen down there among the alligators and palm trees."

Patricia flung out two protesting palms. "Ask Sinbad, otherwise Mrs.
Nathaniel Spicer," she retorted gayly, relieved by Judith's evident
sincerity, "I'm no earthly good on descriptive pieces, as you very well
know; and she can spin yarns that would make Robinson Crusoe sound like
a Cook excursion. I'll roll up here alongside of Elinor and censor her
reports when they get too highly colored."

Mrs. Spicer chuckled, rubbed her frosty fingers before the leaping blaze
and then plunged into the story of their fortnight's journey southward
with Miriam Halden, whom they had left with her mother in New Orleans,
looking forward, in spite of crutches, to the festivities of her
friends' coming-out parties.

Elinor and Judith asked a great many questions and Patricia threw in a
word or two occasionally, but for the most part she was silent, reveling
in the cosy warmth of the big room, with its easels and casts and
canvases and all the other familiar delightful implements of the
painter's craft.

As Mrs. Spicer finished and Patricia was beginning to bubble over with
eager questions about friends and acquaintances, Bruce came back into
the room, and, lighting a cigar, flung himself into the vacant lounging
chair at the other side of the hearth. He was smiling and Patricia knew
his expression meant something agreeable.

"What is it, Bruce?" she asked eagerly. "I know you've something up your
sleeve. Is it a surprise? Does Elinor know? Is anyone coming?"

Bruce pretended to be absorbed in his cigar and said not a word.

The others looked expectantly at him, and Judith, catching the
infection, slipped over to him and taking him gently by the ears,
turned his head directly toward them.

"You may as well tell us, Mr. Bruce," she urged firmly. "We haven't any
time to waste this evening on conundrums, you know."

Elinor suddenly seemed enlightened. "Oh, I think I know--" she began,
when Bruce interrupted her.

"No, you don't know it all," he announced loudly, as if fearful that the
news might come from some other source. "Yo