They went up in the little box of an elevator, and as they got out, Bruce jingled his keys invitingly.  
"I'll let you open the door—for luck, Judy," he said, holding out a key. "See if you can guess which door it belongs to."
 
Judith scanned the doors critically, her brows puckered and her head aslant.
 
"We-e-ll," she said, slowly revolving so as to see each hall in turn. "I'll take the one just ahead there. It hasn't any card on the door and all the others have."
 
"Clever child!" commended Bruce. "That escaped my notice. You're right, of course. Go ahead. Open up."
 
Judith put the key in its lock, turned it easily and then swung the door wide, but before the others could catch even a glimpse of the interior, she gave a little squeaking cry and rushed in, leaving the door to bang after her.
 
"Well, of all things!" exclaimed Patricia indignantly. "We're locked out!"
 
"We can ring if Bruce has no other key," said Elinor hastily. "She'll surely let us in."
 
So, as there was no other key, Patricia put her finger to the bell on the lintel and kept it there till the knob rattled and the door was flung open wide. Judith was standing in the middle of the big, comfortable studio and her face was flushed, but not one word did she say in explanation of her singular behavior.
 
Elinor and Patricia were so occupied with the room that she almost escaped reproof, but Patricia, as she turned from admiring the stairway that wound up one side of the studio to a nook in the peaked roof above, caught a very knowing look on her little sister's face which was meant for Bruce, and she pounced on her immediately.
 
"What is the matter with you today, Ju?" she asked in an undertone, "I do wish you'd behave yourself. Bruce will be sorry he asked us if we're going to act like wild Indians."
 
Judith's only reply was a giggle.
 
Bruce and Elinor were inspecting the rooms on the other side of the studio, and had passed out of sight behind the second doorway. Patricia forgot her censorship as the spirit of the explorer rose in her.
 
"Let's look at these rooms, Ju," she proposed, with a hand on the heavy curtain at her right.
 
Judith caught her hand with a cry of dismay.
 
"It's not fair, till Elinor comes, too!" she protested hotly. "Wait, they'll be back. I'll call them."
 
But Patricia, with a laugh, broke from her and lifted the curtain.
 
"Elinor didn't wait for us," she began gayly, "and I'm not——"
 
She broke off with her mouth and eyes opened to their widest, for there in the chair by the cozy grate sat Mrs. Shelly, while Miss Jinny stood chuckling her husky chuckle and rubbing her elbows nervously with both hands.
 
"They've come to stay!" shouted Judith in wild excitement. "They're going to be here the whole month! Wasn't it lovely of Bruce to get them, and won't it be transcendant, with all of us together!"
 
Patricia had for once no words, but she fell on Miss Jinny's willing neck, and to Judith's great wonder and Mrs. Shelly's delight, she kissed Miss Jinny with great vigor and despatch.
 
"You duck!" she cried, and, although Judith gasped and paled at the audacious epithet, Miss Jinny merely chuckled and patted her tenderly and then passed her on to the smiling, pink-cheeked little old lady in the rocker.
 
Such a time as they had all together when Elinor and Bruce joined them! And such a happy circle as they made around the studio fire, as twilight came on and the shadows crept out from the vast corners of the big room, and they made plans for the future and compared notes as to the past months of separation, with the cheerful flicker leaping and flaring on their ruddy faces, quite as it had in the old house at Rockham.
 
"Do you remember how we planned for this year?" said Patricia, her chin on her hand and her eyes on the leaping flame. "That was at Christmas time, only three short months ago, and we've all broken our plans already. David and Judy are the only ones who have stuck to theirs, and that is mainly because they can't help themselves. Here am I, studying at the Academy, after vowing I'd not waste money on myself at all. Elinor is dropping half her studies there and starting on an entirely new course—Interior Decoration and Stained Glass—under Mr. Bruce Haydon's personal supervision; and as for Mrs. Shelly and Miss Jinny—they are so far out of their plans I don't believe they'll ever get back into them again."
 
Miss Jinny gave a snort of defiance. "Just you wait till this month is over, Patricia Louise Kendall," she said belligerently. "I'll be back in that old rut so tight you won't be able to see where I ran in again. Not go back to housekeeping with mama, indeed! I'll bet that I put up as many extra pickles and jams this year as I ever did, and with the exception of having the library and you people and the Haldens again, I don't see much change ahead of me, I can tell you!"
 
Patricia sighed and stretched herself luxuriantly.
 
"Well, I haven't any complaint to make with the new arrangements," she said expansively. "Things keep getting deliciouser and deliciouser all the time. I only wish we didn't have to go back to the boarding house tonight——"
 
"Indeed, you're not going to budge a step!" said Miss Jinny triumphantly. "We planned it all out. You're to stay here and begin to be at home right off. You can go and pack tomorrow and have your things sent over as soon as you please."
 
"But," insisted Elinor, "we haven't anything——"
 
Again Miss Jinny interrupted. "I got your negligees and all from Mrs. Hudson this morning," she chuckled. "She knows you won't be back, and she's just as well pleased, for she's a good chance to rent your rooms right away, and I told her to go ahead. She'll keep your things till tomorrow or the next day. Now, come along and choose bunks, though there isn't much choice, for there is only one big room with three beds in it. Mama and I are right next to you, you see."
 
The rooms on the right of the studio, a small one with a double bed in it for Miss Jinny and her mother, and the enormous room with the three beds for the girls, were separated by a tiled bath and were quite remote from the rooms on the other side, where was a corresponding small room to be used for a sitting-room, and a slightly larger one for Bruce. Altogether, the arrangement was as satisfactory as could be wished and everyone was enthusiastic over the many comforts and conveniences that the place boasted.
 
"Fortunate that Symons had to hurry off to South America for that commission, wasn't it?" said Bruce, rubbing his hands before the fire. "We couldn't have got a snugger place, and just for the length of time we want it. I told Miss Jinny it would be flying in the face of Providence for her to refuse to come and occupy it."
 
Judith had been studying the problem of the rooms, and now put her question. "But where are we to have our meals?" she ventured. "I don't see any dining-room."
 
"They are coming in from Dufranne's and we're going to imbibe them in that room to the left," replied Bruce with a wave toward the sitting-room. "When we feel like it, we're going to Dufranne's for them." He turned to Mrs. Shelly with an air of charming courtesy that sat well on his strong face. "Are you still in the humor for dining out, madam?" he asked, in a tone easily heard by her.
 
Mrs. Shelly nodded, smiled her twinkly smile and rose with alacrity.
 
"I'll put on my new bonnet," she promised, and trotted off to her room, smoothing the tails of her basque with eager fingers.
 
"She's just as happy as a lark," said Miss Jinny to the others. "I was so scared for fear she'd hate town life, but, lands alive, she takes to it like a duck to water. I shouldn't wonder if it did her a lot of good. She's been uncommonly quiet recently, and I believe she's been missing you girls."
 
Mrs. Shelly in her new bonnet with a gay little pansy on it, Miss Jinny in another bran new hat, made quite a festive appearance, and the great humor of them both and their sincere pleasure in being so important a part in the little home group gave an added zest to the evening's merry-making.
 
"Ju hasn't let go of Mrs. Shelly's hand since we left the restaurant," said Patricia apart to Elinor, as they were taking off their wraps in the studio again. "Poor little kid, she certainly does worship that dear little old lady."
 
"How she'd have adored mother, if she had only lived," said Elinor softly. "Mother was so lovely. I always feel that you two have been cheated out of so............