Part 7 (2/2)

Betty was already a.s.sured by the very different dresses of the girls with her, and when she arrived at the beautiful place where Carolyn lived she thought how silly she had been to worry about clothes. Still, you wanted to be suitably dressed, and when you knew hardly anybody, there was some excuse. And oh, there _were_ boys, too. She saw a number of lads whose faces she knew by having seen them in the different freshman cla.s.ses. Then there were others whom she did not know at all.

By the time Betty and her friends turned into the drive which led to the house, most of the boys and girls had arrived, it seemed and were dotted in groups all over the closely clipped lawn which still looked like velvet between its flower beds and shrubbery. Oh, wasn't it beautiful?

Betty was so glad that her father could see where the party was.

”I was afraid you weren't coming at all, Betty,” said Carolyn, squeezing Betty's hands, ”but there are still a few that haven't gotten here.”

”I waited for Father to bring us,” replied Betty, ”and we didn't quite know how long it would take to drive out.”

”Well, you're here now and I'm going to ask Peggy to see that you meet everybody. I'll have to be darting here and there and everywhere to see that they all have something to do.”

Carolyn looked so pretty, Betty thought, and she wore the simplest of summer dresses, to all appearances, though the material was fine and sheer, a sort of chiffon, Betty thought; for Betty was just becoming aware of styles and materials, matters which she had left to her mother, and most wisely.

There was the usual tendency of the girls and boys to separate into groups of boys and groups of girls, but Carolyn had announced that first they would stroll to see the flowers and go to the pool and the greenhouse and that each boy must join some girls, not necessarily _one_ girl. In consequence the groups were mixed by the time Betty and her friends began their stroll around the grounds and Peggy took Betty into the midst of one. Dotty Bradshaw accompanied them, though Selma had been drawn away by one of her special friends. Dotty was ”cute,” Peggy said.

Here were Mary Emma Howland and Mary Jane Andrews, the two Marys of Betty's algebra cla.s.s. Then Chet Dorrance, whom Betty afterward found to be Ted's brother, was feeding the goldfishes in the lovely pool from a box of something held by Kathryn Allen. Budd LeRoy perched on the stone arm of a seat that curved artistically in grey lines, back a little from the pool, and talked spasmodically to Chauncey Allen, Kathryn's brother, and Brad Warren. Budd, Chauncey and Bradford were not freshmen, Betty thought, but she wasn't sure. Who _could_ be sure about all the freshmen there were? Chet Dorrance looked a good deal like his brother, though his hair was lighter and Betty decided that he didn't look quite so smart, but not many of the boys could touch Ted for looks.

The boys all wore coats, though she knew that some of them, at least, would have felt more comfortable without them, as she had seen them Friday at school. Later on, however, when games and sports began, many a coat was to be found hung on the back of a garden bench or over the slats of a trellis. Carolyn may have given the word. Betty did not know.

She usually kept her eye out for what boys did, on account of d.i.c.k, whose social etiquette she helped superintend, little as she knew herself. Between three and four o'clock it was very warm indeed. Later it began to cool off and seem like early October.

”Isn't this the loveliest place?” she said to Chauncey Allen, by way of making conversation. After introducing Chauncey to Betty, Peggy had darted off to start Budd and Bradford in tennis, about which they had inquired. Chet Dorrance and Kathryn Allen had finished feeding the goldfish and sauntered to the big stone seat, where Chauncey suggested that he and Betty also sit. Kathryn was a pretty, slight little girl with an olive complexion, very black hair and dark eyes. Chauncey was as dark in his coloring but was of a much larger build.

”Pretty nice,” replied Chauncey. ”They've got fine gardens and a good tennis court, that much is certain; but their house is pretty old.”

”But it looks sodistinguished,” said Betty. ”Those big pillars and the wide porch and the drive with that sort of porch built over itI never can remember the name for it.”

”You can't prove it by me,” grinned Chauncey. ”I don't know either, although we have one. Yes, the Gwynne place is considered a fine old estate, so my dad says. Mother says she wouldn't have it for it isn't modern enough to suit her. She doesn't like high ceilings and great rooms that are hard to heat in winter.”

”Oh, I _love_ them,” cried Betty, ”though maybe it's because I never have to bother about furnaces and things like that. I'd just love to have a great house and big grounds like this.”

”Where do you live?” asked Chauncey.

”In an apartment. My father's just come to the city this fall and we took the best place Mother could find. We still have a home in my home town, but I don't suppose we'll ever go back there to stay.”

”Would you like to?”

Betty shook her head negatively. ”I'm thrilled to death to be in our big high school!”

Chauncey grinned pleasantly. ”It is pretty good,” he acknowledged, ”but I hate to study sometimes. I hope football will go all right for our team this year. There's one of the big high schools that is our greatest rival, and O, boyif we don't beat them this year!”

Betty had not heard about that, but she loyally echoed Chauncey's wish.

”How about going up to the house for that fruitade Carolyn said would be ready pretty soon?” asked Chauncey, including the group, for two other girls had come up to the pool and were now joining Kathryn and Chet.

The suggestion was promptly acted upon and Betty now found herself walking between tall pampas gra.s.s and well trimmed bushes of all sorts along a path to the house and talking to Chet Dorrance, who asked her if she had bought her season ticket for football yet.

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