hair, her eyes busy with the reading of her own
mail, Mrs. Harlowe looked up smilingly as she said, "Heavy enough to
keep you both busy for a while. I didn't count your letters. They are on
the library table in the living-room. I sorted them into two piles.
Elfreda's was the highest."

"Thank you, dear." Blowing a gay little kiss to her mother, Grace made
for the living-room, with Elfreda close behind her.

"I ought to receive a few dozen letters," commented Elfreda. "Nearly
every one of my correspondents have been lagging and languishing."
Running hastily over the stack of letters bearing her name, she
separated one of them from the rest. "Here's the letter from Ma. Now
we'll see whether its back to law school for J. Elfreda."

"Oh, here's one from Miriam." Having been equally busy with her own
mail, Grace drew up a chair before the table. Slipping into it she soon
became absorbed in what Miriam had written her.

Seated opposite her, Elfreda perused the letter from her mother with the
anxious eye of one about to receive sentence. In the middle of it she
uttered a cluck of satisfaction. "Excuse me for interrupting you, but I
just wanted to tell you that Ma is a wingless angel. I don't have to do
the convincing act at all. She says I may stay with you until I either
wear out my welcome or get ready to come home. Isn't that a glorious
message? Hooray!" Elfreda waved her maternal parent's unexpected missive
of leniency on high.

"Glorious indeed." Finishing the short but interesting letter from
Miriam, Grace shoved it across the table to Elfreda. "Read it," she
commanded. "I know Miriam would be willing that you should. As her
roommate of long standing you are entitled to special privileges."

"Thank you." Elfreda pounced upon the proffered letter with avidity,
while Grace continued with her own correspondence. Counting her letters
over, she found she had received nine. As was her usual custom, she had
begun with the top one, which was from Miriam, and read them in the
order in which they were stacked. Elfreda on the contrary, scattered
broadcast on the table the whole ten letters she had received. She
picked and chose with the air of a connoisseur, keeping up a running
fire of ridiculous remarks between letters, that moved Grace to frequent
laughter, but did not distract her attention to any degree from her own
affairs. She had become too familiar with Elfreda's always entertaining
methods of doing things to be othe