wever, and she went to
her lesson very miserable indeed, feeling that she had lost both the
splendid Rosamond's interest and her dear Elinor's sympathy.

That was one of the worst mornings Patricia ever knew. She sang so
unevenly that Tancredi scolded her and put her back in her first
exercises for punishment. She was longing to ask about Madame Milano,
but her lips were sealed by her own fault. She would not trespass on her
teacher's indulgence and she left the house so wretched that she hated
even the dear music she had so longed for and lived in.

"I'll never be a real singer," she thought dolefully, as she walked
slowly towards Artemis Lodge. "Tancredi doesn't care a rap about my
voice and I don't believe she'd have bothered with me if it hadn't been
to please Madame Milano, and Madame Milano only told me to go on because
she wanted to please Elinor and Bruce because they are friends of the
Van Kelts, who are such chums with her Dutch friend."

If she had not been so woebegone she would have laughed at this string
of disheartening reasons for her being so falsely encouraged to compete
with gifted creatures like Rosamond Merton, but her gloom was too deep
and too real to see the funny side of anything just then.

The clock in the tower was pointing to twelve as she passed along on the
other side of the Square, and she looked wistfully up at the big window
of the studio, where she knew that Elinor or Bruce would be just
dismissing a model and making ready to clean their brushes and tidy up
for the one o'clock luncheon which they always had sent in to them.

"I wonder if they'd care if they never saw me again," she thought with
what she instantly knew to be shallow sentimentality. "I suppose they
would care," she acknowledged, and her sense of justice saved her from
any more silly speeches like that. "They think I'm an awful goose,
though," she amended, and she knew she was rather safe in this.

As she turned the corner toward her own street, she saw a couple of
figures come out of the rather imposing entrance of the studio
building, and her dejection deepened. She could easily recognize
Elinor's blue coat and Doris Leighton's black suit with the white fur
collar. They were coming briskly toward her and she hastily turned on a
sudden impulse and crossed the Square in the opposite direction.

"I simply can't see anyone just now," she told herself miserably.

She walked with her head up, though the tears were in h