Patty spoke carelessly, but her colour heightened a little. She was sitting at her toilet mirror, while Nan lounged in an easy chair, near by. Patty's golden hair was drawn smoothly down from a central part, and tightly confined at the back of her neck, where it was rolled and twisted into an immense knot, hard and round, that was exceedingly unbecoming. "It's awful!" declared Nan, "I never saw you look really plain before." "It's all right," and Patty tossed her head. "That fluffy, curly business is a sign of a light-weight brain,--this arrangement is far more intellectual." "And is that your gown!" Nan fairly gasped, as Patty took from her wardrobe a strange-looking affair of mulberry-coloured woolen goods. "Yes, it's really stunning, Nan. I had it made by Alla Blaney's dressmaker, and it's a triumph." "Looks to me as if it had been made by a dressmaker in the house." "Not much! It's a marvel of line and type. Wait till it's all on." Patty adjusted the shapeless garment, which hung in loose folds from her shoulders, but which, with its muddy hue and clumsy drapery, was decidedly unattractive. Over it she put on a sort of tunic of green and orange damask, edged with glittering sequins. "Oh," cried Nan, relieved, "I didn't know it was a fancy dress affair." "It isn't," returned Patty. "They all wear this sort of clothes." "They _do_? Are they supposed to be brainy?--Blaney, I mean!" "Don't be unpleasant, Nancy, it doesn't suit you. And, honestly, I like these people, and I like to be with them. Now, it would be silly of me to wear my usual dance frocks where everybody dresses quite differently. So, don't criticise unkindly, will you?" "Of course not, you goosie. But it seems a shame when you look so pretty in your own clothes, to wear these hideous duds." "Thank you for the compliment on the side, but the Cosmic Centre people think I look rather well in these things. I haven't shown them this gown yet, but I know they'll love it." "It's lucky for you your father isn't at home! He'd make you take it right straight off." "Oh, no, he wouldn't, Nancy-lady. I'm not a little girl any more, to be scolded and sent to bed. There, I'm ready." Patty had added a long string of queer-looking beads, terminating in a huge pendant of Oriental effect. It was composed of coloured stones set in dingy metalwork. "Where did you get that horror? Gift from the Cosmickers?" "Funny, aren't you? No, I bought it myself, out of my hard-saved income. It's great! I found it at Ossilovi's. He says there isn't another like it out of Asia." "I should hope not! Though I doubt if it ever saw Asia." "Nan, you're positively unbearable! One more speech of that sort, and I'll be right down mad at you." "Forgive me, Patty, I did let my feelings run away with me. It's all right for you to do these things if you want to, but it doesn't seem like you,--and it jars, somehow."