Part 11 (1/2)

The older girl nodded. ”Thank you, dear. This is the last time I am going to trouble you to sit for this picture. I have just decided that I can't do any better by trying it over again, yet I don't know whether I shall send it to the compet.i.tion after all.”

The next moment Angel was startled by something that sounded almost like a sob from Tina. Since the little girl was so seldom cross, she was surprised and a little frightened.

”I am sorry you are so tired. Why didn't you tell me?” Angelique demanded.

Bettina had crossed the nursery and was standing close beside her picture.

”It isn't that, it is only that I do want you to send it so much,”

Bettina answered. ”You see, I think it is the best picture anybody ever painted and we have both worked so hard and it has been such a nice secret,” she said huskily.

Angel put her arm about her. ”Of course I'll send it, dear, if you feel that way,” she conceded. ”But you must not even dream that I shall get the prize and you must promise not to be disappointed if we never hear of the picture again.”

Bettina agreed and then there followed a most unexpected knocking at the locked nursery door. The two conspirators stared at each other in consternation.

”Who is it, please?” Bettina demanded. ”You know Angel and I are having our secret together and we can't let any one come in.”

Betty's voice replied: ”Yes, I know; but I thought maybe the secret was over and you would like me to come and play too. I am feeling pretty lonesome.”

”Oh,” Tina returned, and then she and Angel whispered together. Finally the little girl came over toward the closed door.

”I wish you would not be lonesome just now, mother,” she murmured, ”just when we are most dreadfully busy. If you will only go away for a little while and then come back, why, Angel and I will love to play with you.”

”I am afraid I won't be here after a while,” Betty answered and then walked slowly away. It was absurd for her to feel wounded by such a trifle, and yet recently it had looked as though Bettina preferred Angelique's company to hers. What a useless person she was growing to be! Well, at least she and Meg were going to a Suffrage meeting that afternoon! She had not intended going, but the baby was asleep and Anthony would not be home for hours. Perhaps after the talk ended she might drive by and get Anthony to return with her. She had not thought him looking very well that morning.

CHAPTER XVI

A TALK THAT WAS NOT AN EXPLANATION

THE Suffrage meeting was fairly interesting, but then both Meg and Betty had been believers in equal rights for men and women ever since their Camp Fire days and there were few new arguments to be heard on the subject.

When they came out from the crowded hall, however, it was still too early to call for Anthony. There could be no hope of getting hold of him before half-past five o'clock. So it was Meg Emmet's suggestion that she and Betty stop by and see her father for a few moments. Professor Everett had a slight cold and his daughter was a little uneasy about him.

They found the old gentleman in his library sipping hot tea and re-reading a letter from his son, Horace, whom Betty could not ever think of by any more serious name than ”b.u.mps.” She always saw a vision of the small boy dragging around at his sister Meg's heels and tumbling over every object in their way. However, ”b.u.mps” had grown up to be a very clever fellow and had a better record at college than his brother John ever had. The young man was to graduate in law at Cornell in the coming spring. The present letter was to say, however, that he expected to spend Christmas in Concord with his father. He had been doing some tutoring at Cornell and had earned the money for his trip himself.

Plainly Professor Everett was much pleased by this news. He had always been a devoted father to all his three motherless children, but Horace was his ”Benjamin.”

Moreover, they were still talking of ”b.u.mps” when unexpectedly John Everett made his appearance. He was looking rather f.a.gged, but explained that there was nothing going on at his office and so he had quit for the day.

Nevertheless tea had a reviving effect upon him, as it had upon both Meg and Betty, so that Betty was surprised to discover that it was twenty minutes past five o'clock when her visit seemed scarcely to have begun.

It was quite dark, however, as it was toward the middle of December when the days are short, so that John Everett insisted upon accompanying his sister and friend, even though they were in Betty's carriage.

Meg's home was nearer. They drove there first and later John went on to the Capitol, where Betty sent in to inquire if the Governor were free to return home with her.

There was a little time to wait before the answer came, so that in the meanwhile Betty and John continued talking.

It was Betty who asked the first important question.