ow what other doves will be perching there."

"Oh, doves!" in a tone of great relief. "I thought you wanted to know
what men you would find there,--you inveterate coquette, you! Well,
Elise is there waiting for you, and Miss Farley."

"And Mona Galbraith?"

"I don't know; I didn't see Miss Galbraith. But if you will go with
me, I will accumulate for you any young ladies you desire."

"And any men?"

"The men I shall have to fight off, not invite!"

Laughing at each other's chaff, they sauntered across to the hall and
found the stairs already pretty well occupied.

"Why is it," Mr. Hepworth was saying, "that you young people prefer
the stairs to the nice, comfortable seats at little tables in the
dining-room?"

"Habit," said Patty, laughing, as she made her way up a few steps;
"I've always eaten my party suppers on the stairs, and I dare say I
always shall. When I build a house I shall have a great, broad
staircase, like they have in palaces, and then everybody can eat on
the stairs."

"I'm going to give a party," announced Van Reypen, "and it's going to
be in the new Pennsylvania Station. There are enormous staircases
there."

"All right, I'll come to it," said Patty, and then Mona and Mr.
Lansing came strolling along the hall, and demanded room on the stairs
also.

"Seats all taken," declared Roger, who had had a real tiff with Mona
on the subject of her new friend. The others, too, did not seem to
welcome Mr. Lansing, and though one or two moved slightly, they did
not make room for the newcomers.

Patty was uncertain what she ought to do. She remembered what Mr.
Galbraith had said, and she felt that to send Mona and Mr. Lansing
away would be to throw them more exclusively in each other's society;
and she thought that Mr. Galbraith meant for her to keep Mona under
her own eye as much as possible. But to call the pair upon the stairs
and make room for them would annoy, she felt sure, the rest of the
group.

She looked at Roger and at Philip Van Reypen, and both of them gave
her an eloquent glance of appeal not to add to their party. Then she
chanced to glance at Mr. Hepworth and found him smiling at her. She
thought she knew what he meant, and immediately she said, "Come up
here by me, Mona; and you come too, Mr. Lansing. We can make room
easily if we move about a little."

There was considerable moving about, and finally Patty found herself
at the top of the group with Mona and Mr. Lansing. Christin