she said
gratefully. "I'll be glad to see her dress. She's been so secret about
it."

Her face grew wistful as she thought of the dance. "I'll have a good
time, I suppose," she said slowly. "Rosamond will sing, and that will
make me remember I'm a failure. But Bruce and Elinor and Constance will
be there, and I can have the fun of showing Doris to Mr. Long without
her knowing it."

This brought the light into her eyes again, and she held up her golden
head very bravely.

"I'll have a good time," she said again, with a nod at the mirror. "I
may be a failure as a singer, but I needn't be as a human critter, as
Hannah Ann calls us."

CHAPTER XVI

THE DOOR OPENS AGAIN

Patricia had got into her apple-blossom dress and had smiled at herself
with a good deal of real satisfaction.

"You do look very nice," she said to the girl in the mirror. "If you
were only a little bit less addicted to yourself, my child, you'd not be
half bad. That's a thing you're going to get over, though, so I won't
scold you tonight about it."

She shut off the light and sat down by the window to watch the first
arrivals. The night was warm, even for spring, and the window was open.

"It's just like being at the play," she told herself, smiling into the
warm darkness. "I'm glad I had to wait for Doris."

The courtyard was light with torches and the entrance was ablaze with
torches and the windows across the quadrangle she could see figures
moving to and fro, shadows fell on the curtained oblongs and inside the
open ones she saw girls who were late in dressing getting frantically
ready, others who were putting on their gloves, and still others with
their guests even making ready to go down to the ball-room, which was
the transformed tea-room not to be seen from Patricia's point of
vantage.

Maids came and went across the courtyard. The first guests came in a
straggling fashion, and then suddenly everyone seemed to be rushing in
at once. Patricia laughed as she recognized the tall, lanky figure of
Bob Wetherill, whose attachment to Rosamond Merton was the bane of that
young lady's life. Then she gave a little cry. She had recognized Bruce
and Elinor.

She flew down to them for a rapturous greeting and though the courtyard
was filled with hurrying people she hugged both of them heartily,
dropping some tears of real delight on her own apple blossoms.

"I'll be down later," she told them. "I'm waiting for Doris Leighton. Do
look