“A terrible crash.  And now the firm’s reorganized; it’s Hunter, Hunter & Brauer.  Thorny told me about it.  And Miss Sherman’s married, and Miss Cottle’s got consumption and has to live in Arizona, or somewhere.  However,—–­” she returned to the original theme, “Peter seems to be still enjoying life!  Did you see the account of his hiring an electric delivery truck, and driving it about the city on Christmas Eve, to deliver his own Christmas presents, dressed up himself as an expressman?  And at the Bachelor’s dance, they said it was his idea to freeze the floor in the Mapleroom, and skate the cotillion!”

“Goose that he is!” Mrs. Carroll smiled.  “How hard he works for his fun!  Well, after all that’s Peter—­one couldn’t expect him to change!”

“Does anybody change?” Susan asked, a little sadly.  “Aren’t we all born pretty much as we’re going to be?  There are so many lives—–­” She had tried to keep out the personal note, but suddenly it crept in, and she saw the kitchen through a blur of tears.  “There are so many lives,” she pursued, unsteadily, “that seem to miss their mark.  I don’t mean poor people.  I mean strong, clever young women, who could do things, and who would love to do certain work,—­yet who can’t get hold of them!  Some people are born to be busy and happy and prosperous, and others, like myself,” said Susan bitterly, “drift about, and fail at one thing after another, and never get anywhere!”

Suddenly she put her head down on the table and burst into tears.

“Why Sue—­why Sue!” The motherly arm was about her, she felt Mrs. Carroll’s cheek against her hair.  “Why, little girl, you musn’t talk of failure at your age!” said Mrs. Carroll, tenderly.

“I’ll be twenty-six this fall,” Susan said, wiping her eyes, “and I’m not started yet!  I don’t know how to begin.  Sometimes I think,” said Susan, with angry vigor, “that if I was picked right out of this city and put down anywhere else on the globe, I could be useful and happy!  But here I can’t!  How—–­” she appealed to the older woman passionately, “How can I take an interest in Auntie’s boarding-house when she herself never keeps a bill, doesn’t believe in system, and likes to do things her own way?”

“Sue, I do think that things at home are very hard for you,” Mrs. Carroll said with quick sympathy.  “It’s too bad, dear, it’s just the sort of thing that I think you fine, energetic, capable young creatures ought to be saved!  I wish we could think of just the work that would interest you.”

“But that’s it—­I have no gift!” Susan said, despondingly.

“But you don’t need a gift, Sue.  The work of the world isn’t all for girls with gifts!  No, my dear, you want to use your energies—­you won’t be happy until you do.  You want happiness, we all do.  And there’s only one rule for happiness in this world, Sue, and that’s service.  Just to the degree that they serve people are happy, and no more.  It’s an infallible test.