n her bite. She's a
trump at heart, though she _is_ awful fool on the outside."

Elinor was waiting for them, and Patricia could see that she was in a
state of great agitation. She hurried to her, while her companion
dropped behind to exchange notes with one of the men from the
composition room.

"What is it, Norn? Didn't you get along all right?" she asked
breathlessly.

Elinor dropped on a stool and raised her face to her sister, and
Patricia was surprised to see that her eyes were shining with joy
instead of tears.

"Oh, Miss Pat!" she cried in an ecstasy. "I've made good, and I can
write to Bruce and tell him!"

"What, already?" exclaimed Patricia rapturously. "You _duck_! Tell me
all about it instantly."

She swept Elinor off the stool, away from the crowded dressing room,
and at last found a deserted corner behind a big cast.

"Now," she demanded, "tell me all about it, or I'll simply die of
ingrowing curiosity."

Elinor rippled and dimpled in a surprisingly sparkling fashion as she
recounted her experience in the portrait room, and Patricia, while she
listened, marveled at the change in her placid sister.

"And so," concluded Elinor, "when I had just gotten ready to come out
to see you, some more of them came over and looked at it. And one of
them said, 'Dorset's right. It's a pace-maker all correct,' and then
they brought some other men, and I left."

Patricia, greatly excited, patted her hard on the shoulder. "I told
you you'd be a winner," she crowed. "I guess Bruce knew what he was
talking about."

Elinor's face clouded. "But I have only started the outline," she
confessed. "And I'm awfully weak on putting in the tones. I'm afraid
I'll make a fizzle of it."

"See here," said Patricia, facing her severely. "I'm tired of your
deceptive timidity. Just let someone else say you can't do it, and
you'd feel mighty mad about it, but you're willing to scare me out of
my feeble senses by croaking."

Elinor jumped up laughing, and hugged her. "I'll be as conceited as
you like, if you'll stop scolding," she promised, gayly. "It doesn't
look well to be too much under the thumb of a younger sister, even if
she is a promising sculptor. By the way, how are _you_ getting on? I
hear that Miss Griffin is a wonderful worker. Did you see anything of
her work?"

Patricia gave her a brief outline of the class and its chief
characters, as far as she had observed, dwelling on Miss Green with
g