mood for it. Tell me who
he is."

Patty had never known Roger to be so out of temper, and she resented
his tone, which was almost rude. Now, for all her sweetness, Patty had
a touch of perversity in her nature, and Roger had roused it. So she
said: "I don't know why you speak like that, Roger. He's a friend of
Mona's, and lives at the Hotel Plaza, where she lives."

"The fact that two people live in the same big hotel doesn't give them
the right to be friends," growled Roger. "Who introduced them,
anyhow?"

"I don't know, I'm sure," said Patty, her patience exhausted; "but Mr.
Galbraith knows him, so it must be all right."

Patty was not quite ingenuous in this speech, for she knew perfectly
well, from what Mr. Galbraith had said to her, that it was not all
right. But she was irritated by Roger's demeanour, and perversely
disagreed with him.

"Well, I don't believe he's all right; I don't like his looks a bit,
and, Patty, you know as well as I do, that the Galbraiths are not
quite competent always to select the people best worth knowing."

"Oh, what a fuss you are, Roger; and it's hardly fair when you don't
know anything at all about Mr. Lansing."

"Do you?"

"No," and then Patty hesitated. She did know something,--she knew what
Mr. Galbraith had told her. But she was not of a mind to tell this to
Roger. "I only met him as I was introduced," she said, "and Mona has
never so much as even mentioned him to me."

"Didn't she ask you if she might bring him to-night?"

"No; I suppose, as an intimate friend, she didn't think that
necessary."

"It _was_ necessary, Patty, and you know it, if Mona doesn't. Now,
look here; you and I are Mona's friends; and if there are any social
matters that she isn't quite familiar with, it's up to us to help her
out a little. And I, for one, don't believe that man is the right sort
for her to be acquainted with; and I'm going to find out about him."

"Well, I'm sure I'm willing you should, Roger; but you needn't make
such a bluster about it."

"I'm not making a bluster, Patty."

"You are so!"

"I am not!"

And then they both realised that they were bickering like two
children, and they laughed simultaneously as they swept on round the
dancing-room. The music stopped just then, and as they were near a
window-seat, Patty sat down for a moment. "You go on, Roger," she
said, "and hunt up your next partner, or fight a duel with Mr.
Lansing, or do whatever amuses you. My partne