ter broke in on her confession. "What a delicious
jumble!" cried Rosamond, springing up to adjust a lock that had fallen.
"One can't tell which is the place of confinement and which the
playground. For Heaven's sake, though, don't _complain_ that you've
never seen Niagara Falls, no self-respecting person nowadays is willing
to confess that such a place even exists. It went out of date with the
bridal bonnet and the what-not."

Patricia laughed, but this troubled her, and later on she recurred to it
while they were beginning on their salad.

"Why shouldn't one see all the wonderful places and things in the
world?" she asked. "I should think Niagara Falls was quite as important
as those snippy little falls at that camp in the Adirondacks that you
said were so much admired."

Rosamond laid down her fork and looked at her very carefully. "Are you
actually in earnest?" she inquired with a polite repression of any hint
of a smile. "My dear Miss Patricia Kendall, you forget that the most
exclusive families have their camps near that snippy falls, while only
the cheap tourist makes the pilgrimage to Niagara."

Patricia was obstinate. "I don't see what that has to do with it. The
falls were there before the exclusive families were thought of, and
it's a wonderful, wonderful falls. It seems rather stupid to me to
ignore such a big thing in nature," she insisted with flushing cheeks.

Rosamond waved the argument away. "Never mind the falls, large or
small," she said, with unruffled amiability. "Tell me some more about
yourself and your doings."

Patricia was won instantly. She was to learn later on in her friendship
with Rosamond Merton that this was one of her readiest answers to
argument, particularly when she was not faring so well as she would
like. As yet, however, she had not learned the skilled defences which
Rosamond kept for her protection against better logic than her own, and
she responded with her usual impetuous generosity.

"I've told you almost everything," she said brightly. "I'd rather hear
about you. It's twice as exciting as my humdrum accounts of myself. Tell
me about your studio at home. Is it so gorgeous as the peacock panels
that Constance Fellows is doing for you?"

"It's hardly gorgeous, but it's rather good." Rosamond's interest was
plainly forced. "Constance is getting on with them, is she? I must see
them in the morning. How do you like her? I suppose you have heard that
she is very eccentric.