to Patricia,
with great cheerfulness. "I suppose you get awfully mussed up with
that clay, too. Isn't it hard to work in?"

Patricia, though a bit disappointed, felt delightfully superior as she
replied loftily, "It isn't so bad. We don't mind, you know, because
we're so interested in the work."

They all stood around on the sloppy floor of the clay room as she undid
the moist wrappings of her half-finished head. As the cloths were laid
aside, there was a disheartening silence.

"It looks sort of whopper-jawed, doesn't it, Miss Pat?" asked David,
hesitating. "I can see it's going to be a stunner when it's done, but
I guess I'm weak on sculpture anyway. I can't understand it in the
green stage."

"It looks like a foreigner, all right," ventured Tom Hughes, and was
rewarded for his courage by a flash of passionate gratitude from
Patricia's big gray eyes.

"He's a Russian refugee," she said, triumphantly, and as she quickly
covered her work again, and they passed out through the little side
entrance, she told them the tragic scrap of the model's history that
had sifted through the gossip of the work room.

"I see why Judy is so keen on the fine arts just now," teased David as
he dropped into step again. "Lots of material for current fiction, eh,
Ju?"

But Judith maintained a discreet silence, and David and Patricia fell
into talk of school and study till the door of the great hotel swung
wide to admit their little party.

"I say, this is fine!" declared David, as he looked about him in the
palm-shaded, pink and gold dining-room. "Beats our refectory at the
Prep, doesn't it, Tommy old boy?"

Hughes made a careful inventory of the delicate china and sparkling
silver before he delivered himself.

"I haven't had a sample of the food yet," he said, gravely, "but if it
comes up to the equipment, I'll be perfectly satisfied."

Patricia and Elinor, who, with Judith, had put on their best for the
little spree, were in the highest spirits and were delighted with
everything, remembering many of the chief features of the room and
pointing them out to each other until David protested.

"I say, you needn't rub it in that Tom and I are greenhorns," he said,
grinning. "Don't forget that once you were quite as unaccustomed to
all this magnificence as we are now."

"Listen to him!" exclaimed Patricia, gayly. "He's been abroad for
_months_ in all sorts of grandeur, and he pretends----"

She broke off suddenly at