It was rather late when they started for the settlement, and by the time they had walked down Tyler Street from Kneeland--they left the carriage at the corner of Kneeland--they found that it was quite four and time for a club, the members of which were enthusiastically crowding around the door waiting for permission to enter, and playing leap-frog and tag and imperilling life and limb by walking on the spiked iron fence in their frantic attempts to see in the windows. But when they caught sight of Miss Minot they stopped playing and jumped down from the fence and threw away their shinny sticks, and began to all talk at once at her, and to tell her what they had been doing during the winter, and that they hadn’t been absent from school but twice or ten times, or not at all, as the case happened to be, and they all seemed to have had a surprising number of deadly diseases, of which fact they were inordinately proud; and there were several still on the waiting list, who wanted her to intercede for them to have their names put in the club books, so they could go in and have a good time with the others; to all of which, and a great deal more, she listened sympathetically and interestedly. And as she stood so, the eager, softened expression on her face, laughing and talking with the children crowding around her, the boys grabbing at her hands and the little girls touching shyly the gown she wore, it seemed to Cahill that he had never seen her quite so lovely and lovable. He felt an amused sort of jealousy as he saw her run lightly up the steps with her slim hands held tightly by two very dirty and very affectionate little boys, with the rest swarming after her and hemming her in; and when the front door was finally opened and she and his sister disappeared with them into the rooms beyond, he felt rather aggrieved and out of it. He found himself in a narrow little hall and was just wondering what he should do with his hat and stick, when she came out from the inner room, closing the door behind her. She was laughing in a breathless, pleased way, and her face had a little flush on it as she turned to him.