"Of course not!" cried Lucy and Phyllis in chorus, while Fanny maintained a meek, consenting silence. "The question remains," continued the speaker; "what can we do? There is teaching, of course. We might find places as governesses; but we should be at a great disadvantage without certificates or training of any sort. And we should be separated." "Oh, Gertrude," cried Fanny, "you might write! You write so beautifully! I am sure you could make your fortune at it." Gertrude's face flushed, but she controlled all other signs of the irritation which poor hapless Fan was so wont to excite in her. "I have thought about that, Fanny," she said; "but I cannot afford to wait and hammer away at the publishers' doors with a crowd of people more experienced and better trained than myself. No, I have another plan to propose to you all. There is one thing, at least, that we can all do." "We can all make photographs, except Fan," said Phyllis, in a doubtful voice. "Exactly!" cried Gertrude, growing excited, and walking across to the middle of the room; "we can make photographs! We have had this studio, with every proper arrangement for light and other things, so that we are not mere amateurs. Why not turn to account the only thing we can do, and start as professional photographers? We should all keep together. It would be a risk, but if we failed we should be very little worse off than before. I know what Lucy thinks of it, already. What have you others to say to it?" "Oh, Gertrude, need it come to that--to open a shop?" cried Fanny, aghast. "Fanny, you are behind the age," said Lucy, hastily. "Don't you know that it is quite distinguished to keep a shop? That poets sell wall-papers, and first-class honour men sell lamps? That Girton students make bonnets, and are thought none the worse of for doing so?" "_I_ think it a perfectly splendid idea," cried Phyllis, sitting up; "we shall be like that good young man in _Le Nabab_." "Indeed, I hope we shall not be like Andre," said Gertrude, sitting down by Phyllis on the couch and putting her arm round her, "especially as none of us are likely to write successful tragedies by way of compensation." "You two people are getting frivolous," remarked Lucy, severely, "and there are so many things to consider." "First of all," answered Gertrude, "I want to convince Fanny. Think of all the dull little ways by which women, ladies, are generally reduced to earning their living! But a business--that is so different. It is progressive; a creature capable of growth; the very qualities in which women's work is dreadfully lacking."