oo. I haven't had a single
dull moment. I'm so grateful to you for taking me in."

The little cloud which had slightly dimmed Rosamond's smile faded at
these words and left her face serene. "We will have better times yet,"
she promised as she rose to glance at the clock in the tower across the
housetops. "Let's begin by having dinner upstairs here by ourselves.
I'll phone down to the office at once. Isn't it stupid to have to call
up Tatten every time one wants a tray in one's room? They take great
care of us here," and she shrugged her shoulders gracefully.

Patricia feared that the expense of such select dining might be too much
for her small store of funds and she was determined not to sail under
false colors with this luxuriant companion.

"It would be jolly enough, but how about the cost?" she asked frankly.
"I can't stand many extras, you know. I'm rather poor as far as cash is
concerned."

Miss Merton paused with her hand on the receiver. "You surely didn't
think I was intending you to pay for my treat," she said in such a
gently grieved tone that Patricia became most uncomfortable.

"It's sweet of you to ask me," she said with a good deal of courage.
"And I can't be horrid enough to refuse this first time, but I do want
you to understand that I can't spend money like you do. I'm not really
stingy, as you may think--I'm only trying to be careful. I'm so afraid
of being selfish."

Her speech was rather unintelligible to Rosamond, who could not know of
Bruce's compact with Patricia, but she smiled pleasantly and took down
the receiver.

"I don't think you could be stingy or selfish or anything that wasn't
sweet," she said and then proceeded to announce to Miss Tatten that Miss
Kendall and she were dining in their own rooms that evening, and would
she please see that dinner was sent up promptly at six-thirty, adding a
list of dishes that seemed to the anxious Patricia recklessly expensive.

The dinner was great fun, however, and Patricia felt very pleasantly
luxurious as she slipped into her new kimono, a poor affair indeed
compared to the fur and crepe robe, and lounged before the fire
listening to Rosamond's accounts of the travels and studies which had
filled her life.

"You must have been almost everywhere," she murmured admiringly. "You
have seen such a lot--for a girl. I'm only two years younger, but I've
never been to Niagara Falls, nor Hot Springs, nor the Tower of
London----"

A ripple of laugh