e brought her song to an abrupt close. She
thrust her head in the doorway. "I'm all through. Didn't I say it
wouldn't take a jiffy? It's been very pleasant but Aunt Kate'll be
wondering where I am and so will Grandma Johnson. Good-by."

"Good-by," they chorused. "Come again," they added, as if they
couldn't help but speak the hospitable words.

"I shall," Mary Rose called back. "Sure, I'll come again."

CHAPTER XIII

"And Mr. Jerry said that if you weren't so much of an angel you'd be a
splendid artist or if you weren't so much of an artist you'd be a
splendid angel. It sounds queer the way I say it but I know he meant
it for a compliment." Mary Rose and Jenny Lind were posing for the jam
poster. It was almost finished and Mary Rose was sinfully proud of it.

Miss Thorley frowned and refused to say what she thought of Mr. Jerry's
compliment. Mary Rose frowned, also.

"You don't like Mr. Jerry very much, do you?" she ventured to ask.

"I'm too busy to know whether I do or not." Miss Thorley half closed
her eyes and looked at Mary Rose in the funny way she did when she was
painting. "My work takes all of my time. Chin up, Mary Rose."

"Yes'm." Mary Rose tilted her chin a little higher. "You aren't under
any obligation to think of him, of course, but if your cat was boarding
with him and he had borrowed your dog you'd just have to keep him in
your mind and heart. And he's worth thinking of. He's a very fine
young man. Everyone says so. Jimmie adores him and he hasn't known
him a week. You've known him lots longer than that, haven't you?" She
spoke as if she could not understand how Jimmie could be so much more
clever. It must be on account of the spell that old Independence had
put upon Miss Thorley. There couldn't be any other reason for not
liking Mr. Jerry. He was so altogether likeable. Mary Rose sighed at
life's complications. "I just love Mr. Jerry myself. I can't help
it," she went on more slowly. "I wish you did, too," wistfully. "It's
much more pleasant when the people you love will love each other. It
gives you such a comfortable feeling as if you didn't care if Heaven
was so far away. I do think this world would be almost as wonderful as
Heaven if everyone would love everyone else."

"There is no doubt of that," Miss Thorley absently agreed with her.

"Then will you try and love my friends?" eagerly. She almost lost her
pose in her eagerness. "I'll love yours. E