"Yes, dear, it is. Now rest quietly, and I'll keep everybody away, until you feel like seeing them."
But Patty was keyed up with the excitement of the occasion and unwilling to rest for very long. So, with Alla's help, she was soon rearrayed in her red velvet and ready to return to the Studio.
"I'm ashamed of myself," she said to Alla, "but I'm so vain, I really want to go out there and hear people tell me that I did well!"
"That isn't vanity," Alla returned. "That's proper pride. If any one can do a thing as well as you did that dance, it would be idiocy not to enjoy hearing appreciative praise."
"Do you think so?" and Patty looked relieved; "I don't want to be conceited, but I'm glad if I did well."
"Wait till you hear what Sam says! He's wild about you, anyway, and after that dance he'll be crazier over you than ever."
Patty smiled, happily, and with a final adjustment of her freshly done-up hair, she declared herself ready to return to the party.
As hers had been the last number on the program, she was not surprised to find the audience standing about in groups, or picturesquely posed on divans, and her appearance was the signal for a new hubbub of excitement.
But before she could hear a definite word from any one, a tall, powerful figure came striding up to her, and big Bill Farnsworth's unsmiling blue eyes looked straight into her own merry ones.
Her merriment died away before the sternness of his expression.