of her visits to New York
City, Grace gave little of her time to attending the theatres and seeing
the metropolis. By common consent the members of the house party spent
the greater share of their holiday together in the large, luxurious
living room. Only one evening found them away from this temporary home.
That was on Thanksgiving night, when Miriam gave a theatre party in
honor of her guests to see Everett Southard and Anne in "King Lear," and
after the play Mr. and Miss Southard entertained their friends at supper
in one of New York's most exclusive restaurants. Thanksgiving morning
they spent in the church of which Eric Burroughs the actor-minister was
pastor, and in the afternoon they motored through Central Park and far
out Riverside Drive. Aside from this, the rest of their stay found the
thoroughly congenial household gathered about their borrowed fireside,
treasuring the precious moments that flitted by all too fast.

There was but one drawback to Grace's pleasure. The thought that she had
brought even a breath of sadness to her old friend, Mrs. Gray. There
were moments, too, when she experienced a faint resentment against Tom.
Must her reunions with her friends be forever haunted by the knowledge
that she had made one of the Eight Originals unhappy? The approaching
marriage of Anne to David meant, that of the four girls she, only, had
chosen to walk alone. She knew that Anne, Nora and Jessica would hail
joyfully the news of her engagement to Tom. Living in the tender
atmosphere of requited love, their sympathies went out to the lover.

It was not until Sunday morning, after she had accompanied her father,
mother and Mrs. Gray to the railway station and was driving back to the
Nesbits' in David's car, that Anne ventured to broach the subject of Tom
to Grace. Elfreda, Hippy, Miriam and Nora were in the automobile just
ahead. Mr. and Mrs. Harlowe and Mrs. Gray had driven to the station in
David's car, so, on the return, Grace and Anne had the tonneau of the
automobile quite to themselves.

Both girls were unusually quiet, and David, fully occupied in driving
his car through the crowded streets, said little.

"Anne," it was Grace who broke the silence, "if David insisted upon your
giving up the stage entirely, would you marry him?"

"Yes," came Anne's unhesitating answer. "I love him so much that I could
do even that. Only he hasn't asked me to make the sacrifice. He
understands what my art means to me, and