four-thirty and Mr. Kinsella says he thinks there will be no doubt about
her coming straight to us. He is to meet them at the station and intends
to put the question immediately to Mrs. Huntington, and if her answer is
favorable, he will bring Elise to us bag and baggage. So Pierce told me
when he stopped in on his way to the art school to see if he could be of
any service to us in the move. Oh, my mother, aren't we going to have a
lovely time in our own little flat and away from that terrible dragon?"
Molly kissed her mother and then flew up the steps of the balcony to the
sleeping quarters that she and Judy were to occupy, just to peep out of
the window into the court. Then she ran to the tiny kitchen. "I am
itching to get to work on that little gas stove and see how it cooks,"
she exclaimed.

"Now, Molly, there is one thing I am going to put my foot down about:
you are not to be working and cooking all the time we are in Paris. If
this housekeeping is going to make you slave constantly, we will give it
up and go back to Mrs. Pace. We will all share the work; the girls must
do their part, too," and Mrs. Brown looked quite serious and determined.

"I promise, Mumsy, not to overwork but please let me do most of the
cooking. I simply love to cook and I know Judy can't brew a cup of tea
or boil an egg, and I fancy Elise has not had the kind of training that
would make her very domestic. Of course, I'll be studying myself before
so very long at the Sorbonne, and then I am afraid you will be the one
to be overworked."

Just then there was a knock at the door: it proved to be the
short-haired female artist from the adjoining studio. "I saw you had
just moved in and I came to offer my assistance in settling you if you
need me," she said in a voice singularly low and sweet for one of her
very mannish appearance.

Her sandy hair was parted on the side and rather tousled, she had a
freckled face and a turned-up nose, and a broad, good-natured, clever
looking mouth. Her clothes were just as near being a man's as the law
allowed: black Turkish trousers and a workman's blouse with paint all
over the back, giving it very much the effect of the Bents' china press.
Mrs. Brown and Molly looked at her wonderingly. She was a new and
strange specimen to them. Their politeness was equal, however, to any
shock and they thanked her for her kindness and asked her to come in.

"My name is Williams, Josephine Williams, commonly known as Jo