t even a decent costume. All we had left after the
sheriff got through was some grass mats, a checked sunbonnet and a
pump."

"Minnie," Mrs. Sam said coldly, "that little beast of a dog is trying to
drink out of the spring!"

I caught her in time and gave her a good slapping. When I looked up Miss
Summers was glaring down at me over the rail.

"Just what do you mean by hitting my dog?" she demanded. It was the
first time I'd seen her angry.

"Just what I appeared to mean," I answered. "If you want to take it as a
love pat, you may." And I stalked to the door and threw the creature out
into the snow. It was the first false step that day; if I'd known what
putting that dog out meant--! "I don't allow dogs here," I said, and
shut the door.

Miss Summers was furious; she turned and stared at Mrs. Sam, who was
smiling at the fire.

"Let Arabella in," she said to me in an undertone, "or I'll open the
pantry door!"

"Open the door!" I retorted. I was half hysterical, but it was no time
to weaken. She looked me straight in the eye for fully ten seconds;
then, to my surprise, she winked at me. But when she turned on Mr. Sam
she was cold rage again and nothing else.

"I am not going to leave, if that is what you are about to suggest," she
said. "I've been trying to see Dicky Carter the last ten days, and I'll
stay here until I see him."

"It's a delicate situation--"

"Delicate!" she snapped. "It's indelicate it's indecent, that's what it
is. Didn't I get my clothes, and weren't we to have been married by
the Reverend Dwight Johnstone, out in Salem, Ohio? And didn't he go out
there and have old Johnstone marry him to somebody else? The wretch! If
I ever see him--"

A glass dropped in the pantry and smashed, but nobody paid any
attention.

"Oh, I'm not going until he comes!" she continued. "I'll stay right
here, and I'll have what's coming to me or I'll know the reason why.
Don't forget for a minute that I know why Mr. Pierce is here, and that I
can spoil the little game by calling the extra ace, if I want to."

"You're forgetting one thing," Mrs. Sam said, facing her for the first
time, "if you call the game, my brother is worth exactly what clothes he
happens to be wearing at the moment and nothing else. He hasn't a penny
of his own."

"I don't believe it," she sniffed. "Look at the things he gave me!"

"Yes. I've already had the bills," said Mr. Sam.

She whirled and looked at him, and then she threw back