getting
to the place where I have serious doubt as to whether I am your sister
or not. If I am, it's not my fault, and the same clay never made two
objects quite so different. I came up here to fight, and I'm going
to see it through. I'm on the warpath, so you may take your club and
proceed to battle."

"What have we to fight about?" inquired Eileen.

"Every single thing that you have done that was unfair to me all my
life," said Linda. "Since all of it has been deliberate you probably
know more about the details than I do, so I'll just content myself
with telling you that for the future, last night marked a change in the
relations between us. I am going to be eighteen before so very long, and
I have ceased to be your maid or your waitress or your dupe. You are not
going to work me one single time when I have got brains to see through
your schemes after this. Hereafter I take my place in my father's house
and at my father's table on an equality with you."

Eileen looked at Linda steadily, trying to see to the depths of her
soul. She saw enough to convince her that the young creature in front of
her was in earnest.

"Hm," she said, "have I been so busy that I have failed to notice what a
great girl you are getting?"

"Busy!" scoffed Linda. "Tell that to Katy. It's a kumquat!"

"Perhaps you are too big," continued Eileen, "to be asked to wait on the
table any more."

"I certainly am," retorted Linda, "and I am also too big to wear such
shoes or such a dress as I have on at the present min. ute. I know all
about the war and the inflation of prices and the reduction in income,
but I know also that if there is enough to run the house, and dress
you, and furnish you such a suite of rooms as you're enjoying right now,
there is enough to furnish me suitable clothes, a comfortable bedroom
and a place where I can leave my work without putting away everything I
am doing each time I step from the room. I told you four years ago that
you might take the touring car and do what you pleased with it. I have
never asked what you did or what you got out of it, so I'll thank you
to observe equal silence about anything I choose to do now with the
runabout, which I reserved for myself. I told you to take this suite,
and this is the first time that I have ever mentioned to you what you
spent on it."

Linda waved an inclusive hand toward the fully equipped, dainty
dressing table, over rugs of pale blue, and beautifully decorated wal