"I do indeed; I selected it with utmost care." "Yes, it's a gem. Perfectly flawless. Well, I'll get it, and see if we can see things in it." Patty ran for her crystal, and returning to the library held it up to the fading sunlight, and tried to look into it. "That isn't the way, Patty; you have to lay it on black velvet, or something dark." "Oh, do you? Well, here's a dark mat on this table. Try that." They gazed intently into the ball, and though they could see nothing, Patty felt a weird sense of uncanniness. Ken laughed when she declared this, and said: "Nothing in the world but suggestion. You think a Japanese crystal _ought_ to make you feel supernatural, and so you imagine it does. But it doesn't any such nonsense. Now, I'll tell you why I like them. Only because they're so flawlessly perfect. In shape, colour, texture,--if you can call it texture,--but I mean material or substance. There isn't an attribute that they possess, except in perfection. That's a great thing, Patty; and you can't say it of anything else." "The stars," said Patty, trying to look wise. "Oh, pshaw! I mean things made by man." "Great pictures," she suggested. "Their perfection is a matter of opinion. One man deems a picture perfect, another man does not. But a crystal ball is indubitably perfect." "Indubitably is an awful big word," said Patty. "I'm afraid of it." "Never mind," said Kenneth, kindly, "I won't let it hurt you." Then the doorbell rang, and in a moment in came Elise and Roger. "Hello, Ken," said Elise. "We came for Patty to go skating. Will you go, too?" "I can't go to-day," said Patty, "I'm too tired. And it's too late, anyway. You stay here, and we'll have tea." "All right, I don't care," said Elise, taking off her furs. The quartette gathered round the library fire, and Jane brought in the tea things. Patty made tea very prettily, for she excelled in domestic accomplishments, and as she handed Kenneth his cup, she said, roguishly, "There's a perfect cup of tea, I can assure you." "Perfect tea, all right," returned Ken, sipping it, "but a cup of tea can't be a perfect thing, as it hasn't complete symmetry of form." "What are you two talking about?" demanded Elise, who didn't want Ken and Patty to have secrets from which she was excluded. "Speaking of crystal balls," said Patty, "I'll show you one, Elise; a big one, too! Get Darby and Juliet, won't you please, Ken?" Kenneth obligingly brought the glass globe in from the dining-room, where they had left the goldfish to be by themselves. "How jolly!" cried Elise. "And what lovely goldfish! These are the real Japanese ones, aren't they?" "Yes," said Patty, smiling at Ken. "Being Japanese, they're perfect of their kind. Make them stand on their tails and beg, Kenneth." "Oh, will they do that?" said Elise. "Only on Wednesdays and Saturdays," said Kenneth, gravely. "And on Fridays they sing. To-day is their rest day."