'll be glad you did, afterward."

Farnsworth's talk was sound sense, and Patty knew it. She already felt
a little relieved at getting away from Sam Blaney and back with her own
crowd. So she shook off her petulance and her anger, and when she
entered the Farringtons' drawing-room, no smile that greeted her was
brighter than her own in response.

"Why, Pattibelle," cried Chick Channing, "welcome home! I feared we
had lost you to the high-geared Highbrows. Merry Christmas and many of
'em! Come sit by my side, little darling----"

"No, come sit by us," insisted Elise, from the other side of the room.
"You're a dear, to come so early, Patty. How did it happen?"

"Oh, I just _couldn't_ stay there any longer," said Patty, very
truthfully. "Am I in time for the Christmas tree?"

"Indeed you are," returned Elise; "also for the feast and the dancing
and the Mistletoe Bough."

"Good!" and Patty joined the laughing group, of which she immediately
became the centre. Her red velvet gown, though unusual, was not so
eccentric as to appear peculiar in this setting, and the girls began to
express admiration.

Nor were the men unappreciative.

"A real Yuletide frock, Patty," said Phil Van Reypen, approvingly.
"Didn't know you could wear that colour."

"I couldn't," laughed Patty, "in daylight. But the electrics even
things up, somehow, and my complexion takes on a harmonising tint of
brick red."

"Because you are a brick," put in Channing. "Did you get many
Christmas gifts, Patty? Did you get my small votive offering?"

"Did I get many gifts! My boudoir looks like a World's Fair! Yes,
Chick, I got your present. Let me see, it was the padded calf Emerson,
wasn't it?"

"It was not! If you got that, it probably came from your Cosmetic
friends. I sent you--oh, if you didn't even open it----"

"But I did, Chickadee. It was a heavenly jade hatpin, an exquisite bit
of carving. I just adore it, and I shall never wear any other. So
cheer up, life is still worth living!"

Patty was in high spirits. It was partly reaction from the artificial
atmosphere of the Studio, and partly her real enjoyment of the festive
occasion of Elise's Christmas party. The Farrington parties were
always on an elaborate scale, and this was no exception.

"I wish Roger and Mona were here," Patty said, "I sort of miss them."

"So do I," chimed in Daisy Dow. "But the honeymoon shining on the
sands at Palm Beach still holds them unde