led away, and Dora slipped into the next room, that her mother might
not be vexed at her partnerless state.

Mrs. Baldwin saw to it that the twins had partners for supper, and
seated them at a table with half a dozen lively spirits, where they ate
in submissive silence while the talk flowed over and about them. No one
seemed to remember that they were there, yet they felt big and awkward,
conspicuous with neglect, thoroughly forlorn. When they rose, the others
moved off in a group, leaving them stranded. Mrs. Baldwin beckoned them
to her table with her fan.

"Well, twinnies, yours was the noisiest table in the room," she laughed.
"I was quite ashamed of you! When these quiet girls get going--!" she
added expressively to her group. The twins flushed, standing with shamed
eyes averted. In the rooms above the music had started, and the bright
procession moved up the stairs with laughter and the shine of lights on
white shoulders; they all seemed to belong together, to be glad of one
another. "Well, run along and dance your little feet off," said Mrs.
Baldwin gaily.

They hurried away, and without a word mounted by the back stairs to
their own room. When their eyes met, a flash of anger kindled, grew to a
blaze.

"Oh, I won't stand it, I won't!" exclaimed Dora, jerking the wreath of
forget-me-nots out of her hair and throwing it on the dressing-table.
"We have been humiliated long enough. Cora, we're twenty-four; it is
time we had our own way."

Cora was breathing hard. "Dora, I will never go to another party as long
as I live," she said.

"Nor I," declared Dora.

They sat down side by side on the couch to discuss ways and means. A
weight seemed to be lifted off their lives. In the midst of their eager
planning the door opened and Mrs. Baldwin looked in at them with a
displeased frown.

"Girls, what does this mean?" she exclaimed. "Come down at once. What
are you thinking of, to leave your guests like this!"

The twins felt that the moment had come, and instinctively clasped hands
as they rose to meet it.

"Mother," said Dora firmly, "we have done with parties forever and ever.
No one likes us nor wants to dance with us, and we can't stand it any
more."

"Miss Browne still wants us to come there and teach," Cora added, her
voice husky but her eyes bright. "So we can be self-supporting, if--if
you don't approve. We are twenty-four, and we have to live our own
lives."

They stood bravely for annihilation. Mr