noon
`` Emma take Elfreda upstairs to our room , while I ask Sarah to make the waffles . '' Half an hour later they sat around the breakfast table , a contented trio . After Emma had left them to go to her work , Grace and Elfreda had a long confidential conversation over their coffee . The noon train brought Mabel Ashe , Arline and Ruth , while from off the afternoon trains stepped Anne and Miriam , the smiling Emerson twins , Elizabeth Wade , Marian Cummings and Elsie Wilton . It was a congenial and talkative company that , as Elfreda 's guests , graced Vinton 's at six o'clock dinner that night . Kathleen West , who had been prevailed upon to spend at least one Thanksgiving at Overton , instead of on duty on her paper , was one of three guests of honor , Mabel Ashe and Patience Eliot were the others . By special arrangement a table that would seat fifteen persons had been set in their favorite rendezvous , the mission alcove .