“What _is_ it?” cried the others, as they crowded about and pushed the desks and chairs out of the way, in their haste to see the contents of the mysterious box. “It is a typewriter,” announced Katherine. “_A typewriter_!” repeated her sisters. “What—what for? Why did you buy a typewriter?” “Why, you stupid children, to typewrite with, of course!” “But do you know how?” “No; certainly not. How should I? But I am going to learn. It was a tremendous bargain, and I have been thinking of them for some time without saying anything about it. You know the magazines are full of advertisements of them, and they have made me simply wild to have one. I thought it would be so useful for us to have one in the house, and we can make a lot of money with it.” “How?” asked Honor. Something in her voice made Katherine glance at her sister’s face; but Honor was standing in the shadow cast by the staircase, which went up from the centre of the hall. “Doing typewriting for people, of course. You hear all the time of girls who are typewriters. How dull of comprehension you are to-night, Honor!” “How much did you give for it?” “My dear, it was awfully cheap! The man assured me it was a wonderful bargain!” “They usually do,” remarked Honor, “but you haven’t yet named the price. How much was it, Katherine?” “It is really a hundred-dollar machine, but they call it second-hand, though it has only been used a little, and so I got it for forty.” “Forty dollars!” cried Victoria, while Honor’s feelings prevented her for the moment from finding words, and Peter gave utterance to a prolonged whistle of astonishment. “You don’t mean, Katherine, that you have actually spent forty dollars on _that_?” “I do,” said Katherine, with an assumption of boldness that she was far from feeling. “Only forty dollars. I assure you it is the cheapest thing I ever saw. I never dreamed of being able to get a decent one for less than fifty at the lowest—and when we are making money with it, you will thank me.” “But _how_ are we to make money with it?” asked Victoria, while Peter laughed with malicious glee. He had been so often remonstrated with himself for various misdemeanors that he was glad to see his chief critic undergoing the same unpleasant experience. “Do you know how to use it?” “No, not yet; but that is easily learned. The man offered to give me a lesson, but I was in a hurry, and so he said I could come in any time. He showed me some books on the subject, which I bought, and I can easily puzzle it out myself, I think. It will be something to do in the evening.” “Have you paid for it, or did you have it charged, too?” It was Honor who asked the question. She had not spoken for some time, and her voice had the same note which Katherine, who was susceptible to voices, had remarked upon before.