a tomorrow
night for all of us," she said eagerly. "I don't know how I was so
stupid as to let it slip my mind. Elinor and Judy and Bruce and I are
going, and we want you to go with us."

Rosamond turned drowsily on her pillows, pulling the satin coverlet up
to her chin.

"Awfully kind," she said indifferently. "I had tickets for us two and
Miss Ardsley was to chaperone us. It was to surprise you, but we can
give our tickets to her and let her take someone else. I fancy she can
find some one who will go."

She turned over with so definite an air that Patricia snapped off the
light and went slowly to her own little room, where she sat down before
her table and got out her writing materials. She had a letter to write
to Mrs. Spicer, but somehow the bloom seemed to be rubbed off of her
wonderful afternoon, and she sat staring at the heading, 'Dear Mrs.
Nat,' for a long time before she began to write.

Her mind was ranging over the costumes which Rosamond had made her
describe so minutely and she was thinking with an earnestness new to her
how much she should like to be like Rosamond, with her lovely voice and
sumptuous clothes.

At last she dipped her dry pen and laid the blotter ready. "I guess Mrs.
Nat will be glad to hear all about it," she said with a little
self-conscious smile twisting her pink lips. "She hasn't much chance at
really splendid doings, and she does love pretty things."

She stopped before she had written a sentence to muse again. "I wish she
hadn't taken a sort of dislike to Rosamond when she saw her out at Red
Top," she said wistfully. "It's so hard to write without putting
Rosamond in. She's in almost everything I do now."

CHAPTER X

MISS PAT PLAYS NURSE

Patricia found that Rosamond was still more interwoven into her daily
life when she went into her room the next morning, and found her
breathing heavily and entirely oblivious of all about her.

"Oh, dear, she must be really ill," said Patricia, half aloud, as she
bent over the bed and looked at the flushed face anxiously. "I wonder if
I ought to call Miss Ardsley or Miss Tatten."

She tried to find out just how ill poor Rosamond was, but in spite of
her careful attempts to rouse her, Rosamond refused to come back to
wakefulness, and Patricia was forced to give up the effort.

"I wish I could go to Miss Tatten," she thought, drawing the door softly
to behind her and hurrying through the sitting-room. "She's the one in
charge