Quite unconsciously, and certainly without intention, the three High School girls held themselves a little apart from Lena and her "crowd," and Lena was quite sharp enough to detect and resent this. She chuckled as she watched Frances' clouded face. "O never mind, Frances," Elsie Harding whispered under cover of a brisk discussion on old ladies, that Lena's words had started, "Lena's just talking for effect. She won't take the trouble to go to the Home." XII NANCY REXTREW But that was where Elsie was mistaken. Lena did go the very next afternoon, and dragged the reluctant Eva with her. The girls, proposing to join the Sunday promenade on the Avenue later, were in their Sunday best when they presented themselves at the big, old-fashioned frame house on Capitol Hill. "Who you goin' to ask for?" Eva questioned as Lena, lifting the old brass knocker, dropped it sharply. "The Barlow angel, I s'pose. We don't know the name of anybody else here," Lena returned with a grin. The maid who answered their summons told them to go right upstairs. They would find Mrs. Barlow in Room 10 on the second floor. So they went up, Lena's eyes, as always, keen and alert, Eva scowling, and wishing herself "out of it." "Here's No. 6--it must be that second door beyond," Lena said in a low tone; but low as it was, somebody heard, for the next door--No. 8--flew open instantly, and a woman stepped briskly out and faced the girls. "Come right in--come right in," she said with an imperative gesture. "My! But I'm glad to see ye!" So compelling was her action that, with a laugh, Lena yielded and Eva followed her as a matter of course. The woman closed the door quickly, and pulled forward three chairs, planting herself in the third. "My land, but it's good to see ye sittin' there," she began. "What's yer names? Mine's Nancy Rextrew." Lena gave their names, and the woman repeated them lingeringly, as if the syllables were sweet on her tongue. Then she tipped her head, pursed her lips, and gave a little cackling laugh. "I s'pose ye was bound fer her room--Mis' Barlow's, eh?" she questioned. "Yes," Lena admitted, "but----"