Miss Pat at Artemis Lodge | Page 8

cried as though just
realizing the great fact. "Oh, Mrs. Nat, and Judy, and Elinor, you dear,
adorable angels, I'm so happy I don't know what to do."
Elinor and Judith were blowing out the guttering candles, and Mrs. Nat
was hastily rearranging the disordered furniture, but they each stopped
to smile sympathetically at her, and Judith reached out an eager hand.
"Just think of tomorrow, Miss Pat," she said, shaken out of her
composure for once. "Oh, jiminy! Losh keep us all! What fun that's
going to be!"
CHAPTER III

THE TEA-ROOM AT ARTEMIS LODGE
Patricia spent the next morning in a whirl of pleasantly conflicting
emotions, and, while she was posing in the studio for a rapid sketch by
Elinor, her head was humming with a perfect hive of delightful
thoughts.
Bruce was off for the day on business, Judith was, of course, at school,
and so the three, Mrs. Nat, Elinor and Patricia, had the place to
themselves. And how they did chatter!
Patricia heard over and over again every particular of the interview
Elinor and Bruce had with the prima donna on their last flying visit to
New York; they discussed the possibilities of getting an attractive room
at Artemis Lodge at the very moderate price Patricia could afford; they
made plans for the welfare of Marty Sneath, who was to arrive and take
up her duties as studio-girl the next day; and, in spite of the fact that it
was only two short weeks since the travelers had left the north, Patricia
insisted on minute inquiries about everyone she knew.
But always, at the end of every other subject, they returned to the great
matter in hand--Patricia's enrolment as a singing student under Madame
Tancredi and her establishment at Artemis Lodge.
"I'm scared stiff at the thought of paying such a fortune for the lessons,"
Patricia said ruefully. "Think of spending all that money for one little
half hour! And three lessons a week, too. Don't you think I might do
with less, Norn? I can make it up with practicing, you know."
Elinor shook her head and Mrs. Spicer counseled briskly, "Better stick
tight to rules, my dear. This Madame knows her business, it seems, and
if your operatic friend, says three, it must be as she commands. Thank
goodness, she didn't tell you to spend every afternoon there."
"Well, then, the only thing for me to do is to get a very cheap room,"
said Patricia decisively. "For I am just determined not to be sponging
on you and Bruce if I can help it."

Elinor was about to protest, but Mrs. Spicer with nods and head-shakes
signaled her to desist.
"That's the way to talk," she said heartily. "You'll enjoy every scrap of
progress that you make. We've got to pay for everything in this life one
way or another and it saves a lot trouble to begin square."
"Oh, I'm so glad you see it," cried Patricia. "I simply couldn't take
money for mere indulgences, even though I might for real hard study. I
can be just as happy in a little room as a big one, and I'll have this
lovely place to come to when I'm hankering after space, anyway."
It was settled, after a careful consultation of the little book which
Patricia called her "Incomings and Outgoings" that, since the lessons
took almost every cent of the modest income which Ted generously
insisted on sharing with his two younger sisters for the winter months,
Patricia was to accept the rent of her room at Artemis Lodge as a gift
from Bruce and Elinor and to keep the remnant of her own money for
current expenses.
"I'll be a perfect miser and that will help me to stay at home and
practice all the more," laughed Patricia as she settled down to the
posing again. "I do hope Artemis Lodge isn't a very top-lofty place,
with lots of maids to tip and a hundred ways of grabbing at my little
pile."
"You'll find out all its pitfalls after you get there," said Mrs. Nat with a
grimness born of experience. "Don't look for too much. It isn't human
nature to be perfect. Besides, it ain't religious. If this good old earth of
ours was just one little mite better none of us would be hankering so
very specially after heaven."
Patricia tossed the suggestion of drawbacks to Artemis Lodge behind
her with a gay gesture, and if the clock had not struck at that minute
would have entered a strong protest. At the signal of release, however,
she flung off the drapery in which Elinor had posed her, and flew to the
window.

"The sun's out again, and it's come to stay!" she cried, peering down at
the streets with eager interest.