if she would be glad if she were at home.

"I guess I'll go now," she said. "I think it must be time."

"What time did your Aunt Matilda tell you to come home?" Floretta asked.

"She said I could stay to dinner if Dorothy asked me, but she doesn't
come home, so I guess I won't wait."

"Go to dinner at the Cleverton in that plaid gingham!" thought Floretta,
for she had seen the plain little frock beneath the raincoat.

[Illustration: SHE OFFERED TWO CARDS TO FLORETTA.--_Page 210._]

Arabella grasped her big umbrella firmly, and turned, as she went down
the steps, to say:

"You may tell Dorothy Dainty that _Miss_ Corryville called."

Floretta giggled.

"And you might tell your Aunt Matilda that you talked with _Miss_
Paxton," she said.

"I will," said Arabella, without a sign of a smile.

"I wonder you don't leave cards," said Floretta, and to her surprise,
the queer child put her hand in the pocket of her raincoat, and, without
looking at them, offered two cards to Floretta, saying:

"There they are."

Then, without looking back, she marched resolutely down the road. She
did not thank Floretta for talking with her while she rested, nor did
she say "good-by."

For some moments Floretta stood watching the odd little figure as it
tramped down the road, the umbrella, like a huge walking stick, thumping
the gravel at every step. She thought Arabella would turn around, but
she did not.

One might have thought that she had already forgotten the child with
whom she had been talking. When, at last, she disappeared behind a clump
of trees that hid the curve of the road, Floretta looked at the two
cards in her hand, stared at them in amazement, and then laughed,
laughed until her eyes were full of tears.

Who could have helped laughing? One card bore these lines:

JAMES HORTON WORTH,
PAINLESS DENTISTRY,
10 TREVOR STREET, MERRIVALE.

While the other, equally interesting, bore this statement:

ALTON JUSTUS MEER,
JEWELLER,
90 RUPERT ROAD, MERRIVALE.

"How perfectly funny," cried Floretta. "I'll run up and show them to
mamma, and then I'll wait here to give them to Dorothy and Nancy when
they come. I wonder if they'll have any choice?"

Dorothy and Nancy felt, as did the older members of the party, that the
ride had been the most delightful of any that they had enjoyed since
their arrival.

The horses were tossing their manes, a