disaster to his happiness. Judy was in her
gayest mood and was enjoying herself hugely, and Mr. Kinsella seemed to
find her quite as delightful as Pierce had led him to believe her to be.
That young man was looking rather disconsolate since his uncle was
occupying the place he coveted. He wandered over to where Elise was
examining some of Jo's miniatures. Elise, too, was a little wistful. She
had looked forward with so much eagerness to meeting Mr. Kinsella again,
and now on the first occasion when they might have had a real
conversation, here he was spending the whole time laughing and talking
with Julia Kean. She was glad of the diversion of Mrs. Pace's entrance,
as it necessarily caused some cessation of what looked to her like a
flirtation between Mr. Kinsella and Judy.

Enter, Mrs. Pace did, with a scornful sniff. After rapping sharply on
the Browns' door and receiving no answer, she had made her way to the
studio where the tea was being held. When Jo Bill opened the door,
without waiting to tell her whom she was seeking, she swept into the
room, "not like a ship in full sail," declared Judy to her companion,
"but like a great coal barge in her shiny black satin and her huge jet
bonnet."

Mrs. Brown introduced her to the members of the party with whom she was
not already acquainted, but she acknowledged the honor only with a
slight quiver of the stiff jet trimmings of her headgear.

"Well, Mrs. Brown! Is this what you left my house for?"

Mrs. Brown made no answer but Molly noticed that her nose was what Aunt
Mary called "a-wucken'"; and she was wondering what would be the outcome
of Mrs. Pace's rudeness, when Polly Perkins saved the day. He was taking
tea to the uninvited guests at Jo's bidding. That young woman was
totally oblivious and indifferent to Mrs. Pace's scornful attitude. She
was Mrs. Brown's friend and she, Jo Bill, knew how to behave in her own
house. Mrs. Pace was seated so that the last rays of the setting sun
slanted through the window on her bonnet and the lighted lamp on the
other hand shone full on her capacious chest, making the large square
high lights of which Judy had made such merry jests. Polly handed her
the cup of tea and slice of _brioche_ and then backed away from her,
standing with his eyes half closed and his hands clasped in adoration.

"Well, young man, what are you looking at me that way for?" snapped the
irate Henny.

"Oh, Madame, you are so beautiful! You must pardon my ra