"What do YOU mean?" asked Lottie, confronting him with blazing eyes. "It is well this gentleman interposed. If you had succeeded in your insult I should have had you punished in a way that you would not soon forget." "It's only part of the game," muttered he, abashed by her manner. "Part of the game?" "Yes," giggled the tall girl, faintly; "it's a kissing game." "Did you know it was such?" asked Lottie, indignantly, of De Forrest and Hemstead. "Indeed I did not," said De Forrest; "and if you say so I'll give this fellow the flogging, anyway." "Come right out, and do it now," was the pert response. "All I can say is, Miss Marsden," explained Hemstead, "that I suspected something wrong, and took means to prevent it. How these nice-looking girls can allow this fellow to kiss them is more than I can understand." "No lady would," said Lottie, as she swept disdainfully out; and under the withering influence of these remarks kissing games languished the rest of the evening; only young children, and a few of the coarser-natured ones, participating. But soon the absurdity of the whole scene overcame Lottie, and she laughed till the tears stood in her eyes. As they were slowly descending the stairs a faded little woman said, "I'm glad to see you enjoying yourself, Miss Marchmont. It was very kind of you and your party to come so far." "I am not Miss Marchmont," said Lottie, "though I came with her." "Well, as the minister's wife, I would like her and all her party to know of our grateful appreciation." "You thank us beyond our deserts. But are you the minister's wife? I am glad to make your acquaintance"; and she held out her hand, which Mrs. Dlimm seemed glad to take. At this moment there came the cry of an infant from one of the upper rooms. "O, there goes my baby," said Mrs. Dlimm; "I thought I heard it before"; and she was about to hasten on. "May I not go with you and see the baby?" asked Lottie. What mother ever refused such a request? In a moment Lottie was in the one small room in which, on this portentous occasion, the three younger children were huddled, the others being old enough to take part in what, to them, was the greatest excitement of their lives, thus far. Lottie looked curiously around, with the quick, appreciative eye by which ladies seem to gather accurately at a glance the effect of a costume and the style and character of an apartment and its occupants. But she politely, and from a certain innate interest, gave such attention to the baby as to win the mother's heart. It was but an ordinary baby, although the fattest and sturdiest member of a rather pinched household; but Lottie wonderingly saw that to the faded mother it was a cherub just from heaven.