"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, and Romeo, as if in imitation, tossed his so that it showed all its silken beauty. "See him!" cried Dorothy. "He thinks he's as fine as any horse." "Well, he is as dear as they," said Nancy. "Oh, yes," said Dorothy, "and dearer." And when the horses and the pony had been led around to the stable, and the older members of the party had reached the piazza, Dorothy and Nancy, who had paused for a moment to talk, ran up the steps, intending to sit together in a large rocker. Before they reached the chair, Floretta flew toward them.