have them here to the house---
just as often as they'll come! Let's brighten things up a little!"

I looked at her with interest. Here was _another_ sister of mine--risen
out of her sorrow and eager to live, and talking of running our lives as
well, of curing us both by large, firm doses of "fresh ideas," while she
herself looked around for a job that would help her to "live her own
life."

"Look here, Sue," I argued vaguely. "You don't want to take a job----"

"I certainly do----"

"But you can't! Dad wouldn't hear to it!"

"He'll have to--when I've found it. No poor feeble old man supporting
me, thank you--quite probably no man at all--ever! But you needn't
worry. I won't take any old job that comes along. And I won't bother
Dad till I've found just what I really want--something I can grow in."

"That's right, take it easy," I said.

"Where have you been!" I thought as I watched her. It came over me as a
distinct surprise that Sue had been in all sorts of places and had been
making all sorts of friends, had been having ambitions and dreams of her
own--all the time I had been having mine. Most older brothers, I
suppose, at some time or another have felt this same bewilderment. "Look
here, Sis," they wonder gravely, "where in thunder have you been?"

I took a keen interest in her now. In the evenings when I wasn't out
working we had long talks about our lives, which to my satisfaction
became almost entirely talks about _her_ life, her needs, her growth.
Her delight in herself, her intensity over plans for herself, her
enthusiasm for all the new "movements," reforms and ideas that she had
heard of God-knows-where and felt she must gather into herself to expand
herself--it was wonderful! She was like that chap from Detroit, that
would-be perfect all-round man. But Sue was so much less solemn about
it, one minute in art and the next in social settlements, so little
hampered by ever putting through what she planned.

"In short, a woman," I thought sagely.

I felt I knew a lot about women, although I had had no more intimate
talks since that affair in Paris. I had felt that would last me for
quite a while. But here was something perfectly safe. A sister, decent
but far from dull, well stocked with all the feminine points and only
too glad to be confidential. She wanted to study for the stage! Of
course that was the kind of thing that Dad and I would stop darned
quick. Still--I could see Sue on the stage. She was