the time and had arrived
so much too soon, since it gave her the opportunity of having even this
small glimpse into the world of music before she ventured into it
herself.

The girl came out, and her expression was heightened into positive
radiance. Evidently her lesson had been a good one and she had been
praised.

Coming over to where Patricia still sat, she stood for a moment looking
down on her. Then she smiled her slow smile and held out her hand.

"I am Rosamond Merton," she said, "and I know that you are Patricia
Kendall. I am living at the Lodge while I study with Madame. I have
three rooms there. Will you come and stay with me for a month?"

Patricia gasped. "Why--" she began in some confusion. "Oh, you're awful
kind, but--but--you don't know me at all."

Rosamond Merton smiled again, but did not withdraw her hand. "Which
means that you don't know me," she replied, not at all affronted. "Ask
Tancredi who I am, and--if you are still in doubt, come to see me at the
Lodge. I like you, Miss Patricia Kendall, and I mean that you shall like
me."

Patricia was so overcome by these magnanimous words that she shook hands
with great heartiness, promising to visit Miss Merton and vowing
appreciation of her kindness.

"Though I can't come and stay with you, you know," she said as she rose
in response to the gong which was now summoning her. "I'm simply crazy
to stay at Artemis Lodge, but I couldn't sponge on a perfectly
absolutely strange girl." Then fearing that this might sound
ungracious, she added hastily, "Though there isn't anyone I'd like to
visit better than you."

The frank admiration in her tone pleased the girl and she took up her
muff and gloves with a gratified air. "I warn you that I am hard to
discourage when I've set my mind on a thing," she said lightly as she
turned to go. "You will come to see me this afternoon, I am sure."

She was gone before Patricia could reply and since the door into the
studio was opening softly, there was no other course for Madame Milano's
protege than to walk as calmly as she might straight into the fiery
furnace, leaving all thoughts of Rosamond Merton behind her.

Tancredi proved a rather good-natured portly woman with a taste for
exaggerated garments which suggested the operatic stage. She met
Patricia on the threshold, and patted her shoulder kindly as she led her
into the large bare apartment.

"So, so. You are a very young one," she said with a strong foreign