ully. "The Eight Originals Plus Two can't celebrate
unless you are with them. Somehow every year we've all managed to gather
home at Christmas. Now if you go to New York to live next winter perhaps
David won't be able to leave his business, and your mother will need you
and----"

"And do I live to hear Grace Harlowe borrowing trouble?" broke in Emma
Dean. "Our intrepid, dauntless, invincible Grace!"

"I'm afraid you do," admitted Grace. "I couldn't help mourning a little.
It was all so sudden. Anne, aren't you astonished?"

"Anne looks as though she'd known it a long while," observed Elfreda
shrewdly.

"I knew David was going into business in New York," confessed Anne, her
face flushing, "but I didn't know the rest."

"Neither did I, until this morning," smiled Miriam.

"It seems as though we are the only persons in this august body that
haven't any plans," declared Julia Emerson wistfully. "Here are Grace,
Anne and Emma, regular salaried individuals. Arline is a busy little
worker. Miriam and Ruth are at least useful members of society, and
Elfreda is an aspiring professional. Sara and I are just the Emerson
twins, with no lofty aims in view, or deeds of glory to perform."

"You and Sara are not quite useless," comforted Emma. "Just think what a
continual source of inspiration you are to me. Some of my finest
observations on life have been prompted by my acquaintance with you."

"I'm glad we are of some account in the world," grinned Sara. "I'd
really quite forgotten about you, Emma. Thank you so much for reminding
me."

"Oh, not at all," Emma beamed patronizingly upon her. "No matter how
much others may malign you, I am still your friend."

"Emma Dean, you ridiculous creature, why won't you take us seriously?"
laughed Julia, but her voice still held an undercurrent of wistfulness.
"Does the fact that we are twins have this hilarious effect upon you?"

"I wonder if that's the reason," murmured Emma. Then dropping her usual
bantering tone, she fixed earnest eyes on the black-eyed twins.
"Seriously, Julia and Sara, I know just the way you feel about having no
particular life work picked out. When I went home after I was graduated
from Overton I hadn't the least idea of where I'd fit in in life. Then I
found that Father needed my help, and I've been head over ears in work
ever since. One never knows what may happen, or how quickly one's work
may find one. It may not be what one would like it to be, but it will