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RESTLESS EARTH
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was to insist that the poor girl became a member of No. 2 Committee, which, surely, would prove that she had been sincere in her apology. Did not everyone think so?

Before breakfast on the morning following the scene, Mrs. Langham telephoned her invitation to Patricia at her flat, protesting that she really could not wait a moment longer before “putting things right, between us, my dear.”

Patricia, tired and listless after her night of sleepless thought, listened in silence, her tongue in her cheek.

“Very well,” she replied curtly, and replaced the receiver.

Mrs. Langham judged, by the hostility in the acceptance, that the insolent hussy would prove an obstacle to the smooth working of her committee. She said as much to her hushand at breakfast. Mr. Langham replied that he sincerely hoped not. He did not mean what he said, and was thankful that the morning paper screened his features at the moment.

Mrs. Langham’s forebodings were fulfilled.

From the very moment of her entry into the work of No. 2 Committee Patricia Weybourn proved a disturbing influence. After the brief formal greetings of Mrs. Langham and her old friends in the bare room which had been allotted to them as a receiving depot for donations of goods, she removed her hat and turned back her silken cuffs.

“Where is a telephone ?” she asked briefly.

Mrs. Langham and her old friends, who were grouped in the centre of the room eyeing the dusty walls and floor with disapproval, were offended by the girl’s authoritative tone.

“A broom seems to be the first consideration,” observed Mrs. Langham, pointedly.

“It’s an easy matter to borrow a broom,” replied Patricia. “Trestles, benches and packing cases may not prove so easy. I know where I can get a sign