of you to think of a circus! I haven't attended a circus for
years. It's really refreshing after such a dose of Shakespeare and Ibsen
as the theaters have been offering this winter."

Mr. Pendleton offered a limp hand and hailed a hansom without comment.
He leaned back in the corner and continued to stare for three silent
minutes; then he threw back his head and laughed.

"Good Lord, Patty! Do you mean to tell me that you've grown up?"

Patty laughed too.

"Well, Uncle Bobby, what do you think about it?"

* * * * *

Dinner was half over that night before the two travelers returned. Patty
dropped into her seat and unfolded her napkin, with the weary air of a
society woman of many engagements.

"What happened?" the other two clamored. "Tell us about it! Was the
circus nice?"

Patty nodded.

"The circus was charming--and so were the elephants--and so was Uncle
Bobby. We had tea afterwards; and he gave me a bunch of violets and a
box of candy, instead of the fairy book. He said he wouldn't be called
'Uncle Bobby' by anyone as old as me--that I'd got to drop the
'Uncle'--It's funny, you know, but he really seems younger than he did
seven years ago."

Patty dimpled and cast a wary eye toward the faculty table across the
room.

"He says he has business quite often in this neighborhood."

VIII

The Society of Associated Sirens

Conny had gone home to recuperate from a severe attack of pink-eye.
Priscilla had gone to Porto Rico to spend two weeks with her father and
the Atlantic Fleet. Patty, lonely and abandoned, was thrown upon the
school for society; and Patty at large, was very likely to get into
trouble.

On the Saturday following the double departure, she, with Rosalie Patton
and Mae Van Arsdale, made a trip into the city in charge of Miss
Wadsworth, to accomplish some spring shopping. Patty and Rosalie each
needed new hats--besides such minor matters as gloves and shoes and
petticoats--and Mae was to have a fitting for her new tailor suit.
These duties performed, the afternoon was to be given over to
relaxation; at least to such relaxation as a Shakespearean tragedy
affords.

But when they presented themselves at the theater, they were faced by
the announcement that the star had met with an automobile accident on
his way to the performance, and that he was too damaged to appear; money
would be refunded at the box office. The girls still clamored for their
matin