ng them that she _never_ had been so glad to see any one
before.

Neither Flossie nor Reginald could say that they were quite as pleased,
but Patricia did not wait for them to speak.

"We've been living in N' York," she said, "but we're going to live here
now, an' we've got a el'gant house right next the schoolhouse. Ma says
it's one of the finest houses in Merrivale, an' I guess--"

"If it's next to the schoolhouse it's the one where our cook's brother
lives," remarked Reginald. "He lives on the first floor, and the man
that drives the water-cart lives just over him."

Patricia was annoyed. She had wished them to think that the entire house
had been engaged for her own small family. Her cheeks were flushed,
but she made the best of the situation, and at once commenced to tell of
the beauties of the flat.

"We lived in a great big hotel in N' York," she said, "but ma says this
flat is handsomer than the one what we had at the hotel. Ma says I can
give a party this winter, if I want to. Of course I'll invite _all_ my
N' York friends, but I shall only ask the girls here that have been nice
to me, and I don't think I shall ask _any_ boys at all."

She cast a withering glance at Reginald, who whistled softly. Then he
made a naughty reply.

"P'r'aps the boys wouldn't come if you asked them," he said.

"Oh, Reginald!" said Flossie.

"Well, she said a mean thing 'bout not inviting boys, else I wouldn't
have said it. I wouldn't speak like that to you or Dorothy, or any of
the nice girls I know."

"There were nice boys in N' York," snapped Patricia. "I didn't see a boy
while I was there who wasn't _very_ nice."

CHAPTER VI

WHAT FLOSSIE DID

In the great hall, at the Barnet house, the butler stood puzzling over
the letters which the postman had left.

He dared not meddle with them, but he paused for a moment to study them
as they lay upon his salver, while he wondered if the handwriting upon
either envelope were in the least familiar.

The little French maid, peering over the baluster, laughed softly.

"M'sieur is curious, but he should not delay. The lettairs, it may be,
of importance are, and the madam already waiting is."

With a soft, yet merry laugh, the maid returned to dress her mistress's
hair, and the burly butler stalked up the stairway, angry that Marie
should have seen him studying the letters, and annoyed by her saucy
laugh. "That girl is always 'round," he muttered.

It was Saturday m