he as to whether the articles that she chose would combine
well.

Arabella, often annoyed with indigestion, gazed at the "treat" that
Patricia had placed upon the little table, and wondered how she would
feel when she had eaten her share.

And eat it she must, for Patricia never would forgive her if she did
not. More than that, she must not refuse anything, because Patricia
would consider that a sure sign that her "treat" had failed to please,
and for a week at least, would talk of Arabella as ungrateful.

* * * * *

In a room farther up the corridor, Vera and Elf were laughing and
chuckling over much the same trick as that which Patricia had played,
only that Vera and Elf had brought a huge parcel into the house, and had
not been questioned regarding it.

It was late afternoon when Vera had returned from the village. Dorothy
saw her far up the road, and wondered why she walked so slowly, but as
she neared the gateway, it was evident that she carried a heavy parcel.
Her storm-coat had a deep cape, but it only partly hid the bundle.

She looked up toward the window where Dorothy stood, laughed, and made a
gesture to indicate that she was going around to the rear of the house.

"Nancy, what do you suppose the girls are up to?"

"Vera has just come from the village with a bundle twice as big as the
one Miss Fenler found Patricia bringing in, and she has gone around
toward the back door with it."

"She's trying to dodge Miss Fenler," Nancy said.

"But, Nancy, she can't get to her room from the back way. The back door
leads into the kitchen. There's no back stairway."

"I know that," Nancy said, "but Vera isn't going around the house for
the sake of a walk. She's intending to get in the back way I do believe.
I wonder if she has coaxed one of the maids to help her. Come on, down
the hall to the big window that has a balcony under it. We'll see if she
really gets in."

Dorothy clasped Nancy's outstretched hand and they ran softly along the
hall, reaching the window just in time to see a bulky-looking bundle
swinging from a rope, and occasionally bumping against the house as it
made its way slowly upward.

On the ground stood Vera eagerly looking up, while, from the window of
their room Elf reached out, desperately struggling to draw the heavy
bundle up to the window sill.

"Don't stand there looking up at me!" she said in a voice hardly above a
whisper. "Come up here before some