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. Mrs. Baldwin laughed.