You're not at home, then?'
'No, I forgot to tell you, I'm staying with you, so be careful not to give me away if you should meet mother. Freddy will be back this afternoon. I'll get him to ask you if you'll come.'
'I promised to go out with Walter to-night.'
'You can put him off. Say that you've some work to finish—some black and white.'
'Then he'd want to come round to the studio. I don't like to put him off.'
'As you like…. It'll be a very jolly dinner. Johnny and Herbert are coming. But I daresay Freddy'll ask Walter. He'll do anything I ask him.'
When lunch was over Cissy and Elsie took each other's arms and went upstairs together. Mildred heard Cissy ask who she was.
Elsie whispered, 'A pupil of Ralph's. You shouldn't have talked so openly before her.'
'So his name is Ralph,' Mildred said to herself, and thought that she liked the name.