ight be, because the
idiotic crowd are nice and pleasant to me, while my old friends, one of
them, at least, is as cross as a bear with a bumped head."

"Well, you're enough to make me cross. Here I'm going to have a big
Christmas tree, and a lovely Christmas party, and you won't come to it.
That makes me cross, but to have you throw me over for those ridiculous
Blaneys makes me crosser yet."

"You can't get much crosser, you're about at the limit."

"No, I'm not, either. It makes me still crosser that you won't have
the House Sale."

"Oh, Elise, it's such a nuisance! Turn the whole place upside down and
inside out, for a few dollars! Let's get the money by subscription.
Everybody would be glad to give something for the girls' library."

"No, they won't. Everybody has been asked for money for charity all
winter, and they're tired of it. But a novel sale would bring in a
lot."

Patty and Elise were greatly interested in getting a library for the
working girls' club, which they helped support. Patty was usually most
enthusiastic and energetic in furnishing any project for helping this
work along, and Elise was greatly surprised at her present
unwillingness to hold a sale they had been considering.

"And it's only because you're crazy over that Cosmic Club that you
can't bother with the things that used to interest you. Phil Van
Reypen thinks they're a horrid lot, and so does Chick Channing, and I
do, too."

"You forget that it was down at your house in Lakewood that I first met
them."

"No, I don't; but that's no reason you should go over to them so
entirely, and forsake all of your old set. I never liked the Blaneys;
I only wanted you to meet them, to see how queer and eccentric they
were. But I never supposed you'd join their ranks, and become so
infatuated with Sam Blaney----"

"I'm not infatuated with Sam Blaney!"

"You are so! You think he's a genius and a poet and a little tin god
on wheels!"

"Well, all right, Elise, then I do think so. And I've got a right to
think so, if I want to. Now, listen, and stop your foolishness. I
said I'd give you my decision, and this is it. I'll come round here
Christmas Eve after the party at the Blaneys'. I've got to go to that,
for I'm going to dance, and I'm going to be in some 'Living Pictures,'
but I can get away by eleven, or soon after, and that will be in time
for your dance."

"Well, half a loaf is better than no bread,--I'll have the tree l