"I think you\'re just as mean as you can be, Patty Fairfield! You won\'t come to my tree and you won\'t have the House Sale, and you won\'t do a thing anybody wants you to! I never saw such a disagreeable old thing as you are!"

"Why, Elise, you dear little, sweet, \'bused child! Am I as bad as all that? You do su\'prise me! Well, well, I must mend my ways. I\'ve always had a reputation for good nature, but it seems to be slipping awa\' Jean, like snow in the thaw, Jean,—as the song book says. Now, my friend and pardner, here\'s my ultimatum. But smile on me, first, or I can\'t talk to you at all. You look like a thunder cloud,—a very pretty thunder cloud, to be sure,—but still, lowering and threatening. Brace up, idol of my heart,—shine out, little face, sunning over with raven black curls,—I seem to be poetically inclined, don\'t I?"

Elise laughed in spite of herself. The two girls had been discussing plans, and as Patty stuck to her determination to spend Christmas Eve at the Blaneys\', Elise was angry, because she was to have her own Christmas tree that night, and, of course, wanted Patty with her.

They were in the Farringtons\' library. It was nearly dusk, and Patty was just about to get her hat to go home, when they began the controversy afresh.

"I can\'t help laughing, because you\'re so silly, but I\'m angry at you all the same," Elise averred, with a shake of her dark, curly head. "You\'re so wrapped up in the Blaneys and their idiotic old crowd, that you have no time or attention for your old friends."

"It does seem so," mused Patty; "of course, it might be, because the idiotic crowd are nice and pleasant to me, while my old friends, one of them, at least, is as cross as a bear with a bumped head."

"Well, you\'re enough to make me cross. Here I\'m going to have a big
Christmas tree, and a lovely Christmas party, and you won\'t come to it.
That makes me cross, but to have you throw me over for those ridiculous
Blaneys makes me crosser yet."

"You can\'t get much crosser, you\'re about at the limit."

"No, I\'m not, either. It makes me still crosser that you won\'t have the House Sale."

"Oh, Elise, it\'s such a nuisance! Turn the whole place upside down and inside out, for a few dollars! Let\'s get the money by subscription. Everybody would be glad to give something for the girls\' library."

"No, they won\'t. Everybody has been asked for money for charity all winter, and they\'re tired of it. But a novel sale would bring in a lot."

Patty and Elise were greatly interested in getting a library for the working girls\' club, which they helped support. Patty was usually most enthusiastic and energetic in furnishing any project for helping this work along, and Elise was greatly surprised at her present unwillingness to hold a sale they had been considering.

"And it\'s only because you\'re crazy over that Cosmic Club that you can\'t bother with the things that used to interest you. Phil Van Reypen thinks they\'re a horrid lot, and so does Chick Channing, and I do, too."

"You forget that it was down at your house in Lakewood that I first met them."

"No, I don\'t; but that\'s no reason you should go over to them so entirely, and forsake all of your old set. I never liked the Blaneys; I only wanted you to meet them, to see how queer and eccentric they were. But I never supposed you\'d join their ranks, and become so infatuated with Sam Blaney——"

"I\'m not infatuated with Sam Blaney!"

"You are so! You think he\'s a genius and a poet and a little tin god on wheels!"

"Well, all right, Elise, then I do think so. And I\'ve got a right to think so, if I want to. Now, listen, and stop your foolishness. I said I\'d give you my decision, and this is it. I\'ll come round here Christmas Eve after the party at the Blaneys\'. I\'ve got to go to that, for I\'m going to dance, and I\'m going to be in some \'Living Pictures,\' but I can get away by eleven, or soon after, and that will be in time for your dance."

"Well, half a loaf is better than no bread,—I\'ll have the tree late, then. After you get here."

"Oh, no, don\'t put off your tree! I might not be able to get here much before midnight."

"Yes, you will. You\'ve promised me for eleven, and you always keep a promise,—I know that. I\'ll send for you, and you must come."

"All right, I will. Truly, Elise, I want to be at the tree here,—but
I couldn\'t help the two engagements clashing. Now, also, to show you
that I haven\'t lost interest in the Girls\' Club, I\'ll have the House
Sale after the holidays are over."

"Oh, will you, Patty? You\'re a dear old thing!"

"And amn\'t I mean and horrid, and a deserter?"

"Well, you\'re a bit of a deserter, and I suppose you\'ll rush off to a
Cosmic meeting the night of the Sale, and leave me to run it!"

"You\'re mean, now, Elise. You know I wouldn\'t do such a thing,—unless——"

"Unless what?"

"Unless it happened to be on a night of a special meeting of the Cosmic
Centre. In that case, I\'d have to go for a little while."

Just then Van Reypen came in.

"You here, Patty?" he said. "I\'ve been looking you up. How are you,
Elise? What are you girls confabbing about?"

"I\'m scolding Patty for her desertion of us and her infatuation for those Blaney people."

"Confound those Blaney people! I wish they were in Timbuctoo!"

"Why, Philip, how unkind!" and Patty smiled at him in an exasperating way. "You know you admire Sam Blaney immensely,—only you\'re jealous of him."

"Admire him! Jealous of him!" Van Reypen fairly glowered with indignation. "That nincompoop! with long hair and a green neck-tie! He\'s a half-witted farmer!"

Patty\'s laugh rang out. "Oh, Phil," she cried, "don\'t be a silly, yourself! His worst enemy couldn\'t call Sam a farmer! And I can assure you, he\'s far from half-witted."

"Yes, far less than half," growled Van Reypen. "Oh, Patty, drop \'em, cut \'em out, give \'em the go-by, won\'t you?"

"Thank you, no. I still reserve the right to choose my friends, and I confess to a liking for those who are kindly disposed toward me."

"Oh, I\'m kindly disposed toward you, very much so," declared Phil, "but your new friends are not included in my kindly disposition."

"So I gathered," and Patty laughed again. "But, do you know, they feel that they can struggle along without your admiration and affection."

"Don\'t be sarcastic, Patty," and Van Reypen smiled at the haughty little face turned toward his.

"No, I won\'t, Phil. I hate it. And I\'m sorry I let myself go like that. But you do stir me up,—you and Elise."

"Glad of it," said Elise, "you ought to be stirred up once in a while. But don\'t go, Patty. Here comes Daisy,—and, well, if it isn\'t Bill Farnsworth with her! I didn\'t know he was in town. He\'s in and out so much, it\'s hard to keep track of him. Come in, Daisy, take off your furs. Glad to see you, Bill. Here\'s Patty Fairfield."

"So I see," laughed Farnsworth, as he held out his hand. "Going? Why go yet? Hello, Van Reypen."

"Hello, Bill. Thought you were on your way to or from Arizona. How do you know where to vote, anyhow?"

"Guess at it. But I\'m not going to live on the road so much as formerly. I\'ve cleaned things up a bit, and shall sort of settle in New York from now on."

"Good! Glad to give you the freedom of our city. And you, Daisy? Are you going to live East, also?"

............