opulace. I suppose I ought to have gone
in and spoken to them instead of slipping out like a criminal, but I
didn't wish to lose time. Really, Emma, I can't begin to tell you how
beautiful Evelyn looked!"

"Her white silk evening gown is a work of art. I wish I had a sister Ida
to sew for me," commented Emma.

"Oh, she wasn't wearing her white silk. Her gown was apricot satin
and--" Grace came to an abrupt stop. "Why--she--that was a new gown. How
could she--"

"Have a new gown when her sister is too ill to make it," supplemented
Emma dryly.

Two pairs of eyes exchanged questioning glances.

"She may have brought it with her when she came to Overton," said Grace.
"She is very secretive, you know. All along she may have been saving it
for some such occasion as this dance."

"True enough," admitted Emma. "Always take people at their face value
until you find they haven't any," she added cheerfully.

"I shall," declared Grace. "I'm not going to spoil my Easter vacation by
worrying over something that is really Evelyn's own affair."

CHAPTER XXI

THE PUZZLE DEEPENS

Grace experienced a pleasure in being at home for Easter so deep as to
be akin to pain. When as a student at Overton she had traveled happily
home for her Christmas and Easter vacations there had been a difference.
Then, her classmates had much to do with making it easier to be away
from her adored father and mother. But now that she had bravely launched
her boat on the tempestuous sea of work, she found that home was a far
distant shore, for whose cheery lights she often yearned. To be sure
Emma was a never-failing source of consolation, but there were more
times than one when the clutching fingers of homesickness were at her
throat.

To Mr. and Mrs. Harlowe, Emma Dean was an unfailing source of amusement
and delight. In Hippy, too, she found a kindred spirit, and when Elfreda
arrived the funny trio was complete. It seemed to Grace that she had not
laughed so much in years. Anne, Jessica and Reddy had not been able to
join their friends for the Easter holidays and were loudly mourned and
sorely missed. Tom Gray managed to come on for a two days' visit and
cause Grace the only unhappy moments she spent at home by again asking
her to give up her beloved work to marry him.

"I'm so sorry for Tom," she confided to her mother, on the night before
leaving home to return to Overton, "but I can't give up my work, even
for him. Really and truly,