nthusiasm over every little thing she happens to be
doing. It's her gay, glad spirit that wins our interest, bless her
heart."

Judith nodded again. "I know," she said conclusively. "When Miriam and
she went into the chicken business no one got awfully excited over
Miriam's part of it, while they were all trying to help Miss Pat make a
success of it. And when we were fixing up the Social House, even old Mr.
Peberdy woke up when she scolded him. It's queer, isn't it, how she
makes you feel? She----"

A rap-a-tap-tap on the knocker sounded sharply and then, before either
Judith or Elinor could move, the door was flung open and Patricia,
followed by Bruce and Mrs. Spicer, rushed breathlessly in.

"Oh, you darlings!" she cried, hugging them both at once. "Oh, how
heavenly it is to be here, and how adorable you look! Judy, that's a
simply perfect green in that frock, and, Norn, you're lovelier than ever
in that queer faded yellow. The studio looks stunning. Oh, I'm so
excited that I don't know what I'm doing! To think of actually being
here at last!" And she flung down her hat on the long divan and,
crumpling her bright hair between both pink palms, she stepped back and
faced the group in the middle of the studio with laughing lips and wet
eyes.

Elinor, Judith and Bruce, with Mrs. Spicer in their midst, smiled back
at her, but did not speak, each feeling, somehow, that this was Miss
Pat's moment for utterance. On the brink of her new life--that life she
had so ardently longed and planned and worked for--she had become for
the moment the first figure in the scene. Tomorrow she would be gone
into the ranks of that great army which is building up the beautiful
world for others less gifted to live in, but today she was the center of
her little world.

"To think, Judy and Elinor and Bruce and Mrs. Jinny-Nat, that I'm here,
_here_, all ready to begin too with my music. One little day and then
I'll be a real singing student. Why, it takes my breath away--" And she
paused with a catch in her voice that threatened tears.

This was too much for the calm and practical Judith. "But you've been
simply crazy to be here, Miss Pat," she cried reprovingly. "You've
toiled and moiled on chickens and sculpture and candy and boarders and
everything just to be able at last to be a real singer. I don't see what
there is to be a cry-baby about now."

Patricia's merry peal rang out wholesomely and she caught Judith by her
slim shoulders an