She could play only moderately herself, and such variety as Mrs.Vance exercised bordered, for Carrie, upon the verge of great art.

Everything she had seen and heard thus far--the merest scraps and shadows-indicated that these people were, in a measure, refined and in comfortable circumstances.

So Carrie was ready for any extension of the friendship which might follow.
One day Carrie's bell rang and the servant, who was in the kitchen, pressed the button which caused the front door of the general entrance on the ground floor to be electrically unlatched.

When Carrie waited at her own door on the third floor to see who it might be coming up to call on her, Mrs.Vance appeared.
"I hope you'll excuse me," she said.

"I went out a while ago and forgot my outside key, so I thought I'd ring your bell." This was a common trick of other residents of the building, whenever they had forgotten their outside keys.