winter's night air, and her bare feet on the stones of the threshold.

"Scamp, Scamp!" she called in a soft voice, and, wonderful to tell, he
heard her and came flying round the house.

"Oh, Scampie, dear, _have_ you come, and do you really love me still?"
whispered Hetty as the dog leaped into her arms, and she clasped his
paws round her neck and kissed his shaggy head.

Scamp uttered a few short rapturous exclamations and licked her face and
hands all over.

"But you must be very quiet," she said, "or you will wake the house and
we shall be caught. Come now, lovie, and I'll hide you in my own room."

She closed the door as quietly as possible and crept upstairs again,
carrying the dog hugged in her arms.

As she stole along the passage to her room, one of the maids whispered
to another who was sleeping in the room with her:

"Oh, I have heard a great noise down-stairs, and one of the dogs was
barking. And just now I am sure I heard feet in the passage."

"Some one has got into the house then," said the other maid listening.

"Oh, lie still, don't get up!" said the first maid. "It must be
burglars."

"I will go and waken the men," said the other courageously. And