"And we are going?" she demanded breathlessly. "Oh, say that we are going, Elinor!"
"Of course we're going," said Elinor, evenly. "What else should we do? And I want you to persuade Miss Jinny to stay over for it, Miss Pat."
"That will I!" cried Patricia, heartily. "We'll ship Judy to Mrs. Shelly on an afternoon train, and make Miss Jinny feel it's her duty to chaperone us among the wild and woolly artists. Oh, it will be contemptibly easy! But," and her face fell in dismay, "what are we to wear? We haven't any party clothes, you know."
Elinor rose, and going to her bag that was still dangling from the chair back where she had flung it in her hurried preparation for dinner, took out a cardcase, and drawing forth three square bits of gray cardboard, handed them to Patricia.
"'An Arabian Nights Entertainment,'" read Patricia, mumbling in her haste. "'No guests admitted unless in costume' . . . m-m-m-m . . . 'The Sultan Haroun-al-Raschid' . . . Oh, I see! We can rig up in anything we choose,--so that it looks sort of Turkish. _Dee_-licious! I know what to do with my rose-colored cloak right now!"
"My shawl will be stunning," rejoiced Elinor. "They've both come to us in the very nick of time. With that old silk skirt of mine, and that worn-out gold-beaded tunic of Aunt Louise's that we found in the closet at Greycroft, we'll be simply dazzling. See if we're not, Patricia Louise Kendall."
"I wonder what Miss Jinny will say to a costume?" Patricia said, her bright face clouding with the thought.
"I believe she'll like it," declared Elinor, confidently. "She does so love variety--and she has entered into everything already with such a vim."
"Perhaps she's been hungering for what she calls fripperies," said Patricia, hopefully. "She's so tremendously alive that she must need some play, and if she's only willing, we'll see that she gets it, won't we, Norn?"
"Find out in the morning how she feels about it," said Elinor, switching off the light. "I'm pretty sure she'll want to go."
At the earliest permissible hour, Patricia slipped into her pink kimono and slippers and sped softly to Miss Jinny's room, where she tapped lightly, and was admitted at once by Miss Jinny, fully dressed and with a little book in her hand.