"I say I can't,--over the telephone. Oh, Dolly, come on, and stop
fussing!"

The telephone receiver at Dotty's end of the wire was hung up with a
click, and Dolly began to waggle her receiver hook in hope of getting
Dotty back. But there was no response, so Dolly rose and went for her
coat. Flinging it round her, and not stopping to get a hat, she ran
next door to Dotty Rose's house.

It was mid January, and the six o'clock darkness was lighted only by
the street lights. Flying across the two lawns that divided the
houses, Dolly found Dotty awaiting her at the side door.

"Hurry up in, Doll," she cried, eagerly, "the greatest thing you ever
heard! Oh, the very greatest! If you only CAN! Oh, if you ONLY can!"

"Can what? Do tell me what you're talking about." Dolly tossed her
coat on the hall rack, and followed Dotty into the Roses' living-room.
There she found Dotty's parents and also Bernice Forbes and her
father. What could such a gathering mean? Dolly began to think of
school happenings; had she cut up any mischievous pranks or
inadvertently done anything wrong? What else could bring Mr. Forbes to
the Roses' on what was very evidently an important errand? For all
present were eagerly interested,--that much was clear. Mr. and Mrs.
Rose were smiling, yet shaking their heads in uncertainty; Bernice was
flushed and excited; and Mr. Forbes himself was apparently trying to
persuade them to something he was proposing.

This much Dolly gathered before she heard a word of the discussion.