So on she stormed, prancing from one side of the table to the other, shaking the flimsy sheets in an angry hand, and scattering pins and needles broadcast on the carpet, while Eunice, like the tortoise, toiled slowly away, until bit by bit the puzzle became clear to her mind. She discovered that one piece of the pattern stood for half only of a particular seam, while others, such as collar and cuffs, represented a whole; mastered the mystery of holes and notches, and explained the same to Peggy, who was by no means too grateful for her assistance. "Well, I'll take your word for it," she said. "I myself can make nothing out of an explanation so illogical and lacking in common-sense. I'll cut the stupid thing out as you say, and see what comes of it. Here goes--" Her scissors were in the silk before Eunice had time to protest, and away she hacked, with such speed and daring that she had finished the cutting out before the other had finished her careful preparation of the first seam. "Now then for the tacking!" she cried, and for five minutes on end there was silence, until-- "Dear me!" quoth Miss Peggy in a tone of dismay, and peaked solemn brows over her work. "What is the matter? Has something gone wrong?" "Um--yes! Seems to have done. The stupid old silk must have got twisted about somehow, when I was cutting out this back. The roses are all upside down!" She spoke in a studiedly careless manner, but Eunice's face was a picture of woe. To her orderly mind the accident seemed irretrievable; and yet how was it to be remedied, when extravagant Peggy had used every fragment of her material? Her face fell, her voice thrilled with horror. "Never! You don't mean it! How dreadful! What will you do? Oh, Peggy, take mine, do, and let me buy something else for myself." "Not an inch! It's no use, Eunice, I will not do it! We are going to have blouses alike, and that's settled. That's the worst of these flower patterns, they do cut out so badly: but it is no use grieving over what cannot be cured. Go on with your work, my dear, and don't mind me." "But what will you--"