he had perforce learned from her mother, the sad
look in his eyes would make her quickly repent her bitterness, and her
endeavors to bring back his rarely sweet smile were almost pathetic in
their eagerness. Mrs. Brown understood the girl thoroughly and did
everything in her power to make her feel that she was one of the little
coterie and a valued member; but Elise found it difficult to look upon
herself as anything but an outsider. She was sensitively afraid of being
in the way where Molly's and Judy's intimacy was concerned, and the
girls often had to force her to join them on a lark unless Mrs. Brown
was one of the party.

Pierce was "making good," as he expressed it, at the school. He had gone
through several years of hard drawing at the League in New York, so
decided that he could give his time to the painting that was to be his
life's work. His uncle was delighted with his progress, and felt that
his own youth was not lost at all but reincarnated in the glowing genius
of his beloved nephew.

Molly was studying at the Sorbonne, where her Cousin Philippe d'Ochte
had duly installed her. It did not seem like studying, but more like
going to the theater for several hours a day. The lecturers were so
charming, so vivacious; their delivery was so dramatic, their gestures
so animated. She drank in every word and found herself understanding
French as she had never dreamed that she could.

She wrote on her stories when she was not attending the lectures. The
Latin Quarter had given her several good plots and she was eager to work
them out before Professor Green should put in his appearance, as she was
anxious to let him see she had accomplished something during her Paris
winter. That poor young man was still teaching the young idea how to
shoot at Wellington and saw no hope of his release before March.

Kent Brown wrote cheerful letters from Kentucky. He was very busy in his
chosen field of architecture and was learning French in a night class to
fit himself for the Beaux Arts when he would finally be able to get to
Paris. Aunt Clay was fighting the Trust vindictively as only she could
fight and was dying hard, but Kent predicted that the end was near; and
as soon as the suit was settled, he intended to take the first steamer
abroad.

Mrs. Brown was not concerning herself in the least about her financial
affairs. She felt sure that sooner or later she would realize on the
sale of oil lands, and in the meantime the eco