o furry shapes leaping largely on either side of her and
one cold nose sniffing interrogatively at her heels. Her heart was
very light,--her pulses jumping with excitement,--an occasional furry
head doming into the palm of her hand warmed the whole bleak night
with its sense of mute companionship. But the back of her heels felt
certainly very queer. Even the warm yellow lights of the Rattle-Pane
House did not altogether dispel her uneasiness.

"Maybe I'd better not plan to make my call so--so very informal," she
decided suddenly. "Not at a house where there are quite so many dogs!
Not at a house where there is a butler ... anyway!"

Crowding and pushing and yelping and fawning around her, it was the
dogs who announced her ultimate arrival. Like a drift of snow the huge
wolf-hound whirled his white shagginess into the vestibule. Shrill as
a banging blind the impetuous coach-dog lurched his sleek weight
against the door. Sucking at a crack of light the red setter's kindled
nose glowed and snorted with dragonlike ferocity. Without knock or
ring the door-handle creaked and turned, three ecstatic shapes went
hurtling through a yellow glare into the hall beyond, and Flame found
herself staring up into the blinking, astonished eyes of the crumpled
old man with the red waistcoat.

"G--Good evening,--Butler!" she rallied.

"Good evening, Miss!" stammered the Butler.

"I've--I've come to call," confided Flame.

"To--call?" stammered the Butler.

"Yes," conceded Flame. "I--I don't happen to have an engraved card
with me." Before the continued imperturbability of the old Butler all
subterfuge seemed suddenly quite useless. "I _never_ have had an
engraved card," she confided quite abruptly. "But you might tell Miss
Flora if you please--" ... Would nothing crack the Butler's
imperturbability?... Well maybe she could prove just a little bit
imperturbable herself! "Oh! Butlers don't 'tell' people things, do
they?... They always 'announce' things, don't they?... Well, kindly
announce to Miss Flora that the--the Minister's Daughter is--at the
door!... Oh, _no_! It isn't asking for a subscription or anything!"
she hastened quite suddenly to explain. "It's just a Christian
call!... B--Being so nervous and lost on the train and everything ...
we thought Miss Flora might be glad to know that there were
neighbors.... We live so near and everything.... And can run like the
wind! Oh, not Mother, of course!... She's a bit stout! And Fath