seemed much absorbed in Rita. She took walks with her while Patricia
was at her lesson or otherwise occupied, and she went to afternoon
service with her. She was so much with Rita when not with Patricia that
it was a surprise to Patricia to see her coming in the afternoon of the
dance entirely alone and wearing a rapturous expression. She said she
had been doing an errand and Patricia was too much occupied with the
finishing touches to her white net--she was putting the dearest bunches
of apple blossoms at odd places on the skirt and waist--to be too
inquisitive.

She noticed that Judith hung about her, seeming to be trying to make up
her mind to say something, but she did not stop to ask what it was, as
she supposed it merely a trifling comment or criticism on her dress.

She sent Judith over to Constance's room to borrow a spool of pink silk
and then forgot her in the delightful task of deciding whether the apple
blossoms ought to go on the sleeves or not.

Judith came back with the spool and a yellow envelope which she had
signed for. "That's what made me so long," she explained, but Patricia
had hardly missed her.

The telegram was from Elinor. They were coming back and would be at the
dance. "Coming home tonight. Save a dance for Bruce. Love. Elinor."

Patricia was wild with delight. "Oh, Judy, won't it be fine?" she cried
with quite her old gay laugh. "I'm so glad they're coming."

But before Judith could add her rejoicings the bright look had died into
a quieter expression and Patricia said, "I was forgetting that you
weren't going to be there. I wish, oh, I wish you could go."

"Well, I can't and there's an end of it," said Judith calmly. "And I
hear Rita beginning to get things ready. We're going to make fudge, so
I'll have to be off."

She was at the door before she remembered. "Constance told me she'd stop
on her way down for you if you changed your mind about going late," she
said briskly. "She wants you to see her dress, anyway, before anything
happens to it. She says she's sure to wreck it. She's so used to good
tough stuff that she'll walk right through this one."

Patricia nodded brightly and Judith hurried off across the hall, where
Rita's welcome reached Patricia's ears. "Dear old Ju," she thought
fondly. "She's always doing the right thing. She's such a comfort."

Then she smiled to herself at Constance's message. "It's good of her to
come away over here, when the ball-room is so near her,"