drome party. I know
one guest I shall invite, who's sure to enjoy it. He's a boy about
fourteen, and the funniest thing you ever saw."

"I'd like to take children, too," said Mona; "but I don't know many. I
think I'll ask Celeste's two little sisters."

It was characteristic of Patty not to dwell on anything unpleasant, so
having made up her mind to accept Mr. Lansing's favour, she entered
heartily into the plan for the next party.

But after dinner, when the girls were alone in Patty's boudoir, she
said to Mona, seriously, "You know I didn't want to take that box from
Mr. Lansing."

"Of course I know it, Patty," and Mona smiled, complacently. "But I
made you do it, didn't I? I knew I should in the end, but your father
helped me unexpectedly, by offering a second box. Now, Pattikins, you
may as well stop disliking Mr. Lansing. He's my friend, and he's going
to stay my friend. He may have some faults, but everybody has."

"But, Mona, he isn't our sort at all. I don't see _why_ you like him."

"He mayn't be your sort, but he's mine; and I like him because I like
him! That's the only reason that anybody likes anybody. You think
nobody's any good unless they have all sorts of aristocratic ancestry!
Like that Van Reypen man who's always dangling after you."

"He isn't dangling now," said Patty. "I haven't seen him since my
party."

"You haven't! Is he mad at you?"

"Yes; he and Roger are both mad at me; and all on account of your old
Mr. Lansing!"

"Yes, Roger's mad at me, too, on account of that same poor,
misunderstood young gentleman. But they'll get over it. Don't worry,
Patty."

"Mona, I'd like to shake you! I might just as well reason with the
Rock of Gibraltar as to try to influence _you_. Don't you know that
your father asked me to try to persuade you to drop that Lansing man?"

Patty had not intended to divulge this confidence of Mr. Galbraith,
but she was at her wit's end to find some argument that would carry
any weight with her headstrong friend.

"Oh, daddy!" said Mona, carelessly. "He talks to me by the hour, and I
just laugh at him and drum tunes on his dear old bald head. He hasn't
anything, really, against Mr. Lansing, you know; it's nothing but
prejudice."

"A very well-founded prejudice, then! Why, Mona, that man isn't fit
to--to----"

"To worship the ground I walk on," suggested Mona, calmly. "Well, he
does, Patty, so you may as well stop interfering."

"Oh, if you look upon it as in