Part 2 (1/2)
CHAPTER II
BETTY'S TEMPTATION
It was about an hour later when Betty, having washed and put away the luncheon dishes, and settled Jack with his story book and drawing materials, ran lightly down the three long flights of stairs to the Hamiltons' apartment. In one hand she carried Mrs. Hamilton's plate and napkin, and in the other a small tin money box, which jingled at every step. At the Hamiltons' front door she paused, and rather timidly rang the bell. The door was opened by the same girl who had brought the eclairs.
”I came to bring back the plate,” Betty explained, ”and will you please tell Miss Winifred Hamilton that my little brother and I enjoyed the cakes very much.”
”Wouldn't you like to come in and speak to her yourself?” the girl asked pleasantly; ”she's right here.”
She moved aside as she spoke, and there, sure enough, was Winifred standing smiling in the parlor door.
”Yes, do come in,” said the little girl hospitably. ”Mother's out, but I stayed at home to make a dress for one of my children. They're really my _dolls_, you know,” she added, smiling at Betty's look of bewilderment, ”but I always call them my children. I'm so very fond of them, you see, and they do seem something like real children. Come in and I'll show them to you.”
There was no declining this tempting invitation, and Betty was soon making the acquaintance of Winifred's family, and being introduced respectively to Lord Fauntleroy, Rose-Florence, Violet-May, Lily-Bell, and Miss Mollie.
”You see, when my father and mother were away in California I used to be alone a good deal,” Winifred explained, ”and so if it hadn't been for the children I should have been rather lonely. I lived with Uncle Will and Aunt Estelle then, and Aunt Estelle is a very busy lady and has to go out a good deal. My mother hardly ever goes out without me, and I don't have nearly so much time to devote to the children as I used, but I shouldn't like to have them feel neglected, so sometimes I stay at home on purpose to look after them a little.”
”How old are you?” Betty inquired. To her this conversation seemed extremely childish. She had never had much time in her busy little life to care for dolls, Jack having claimed all her thought and attention.
”I shall be ten next July, so as it's April now, father says I'm nine and three-quarters. Father's very fond of joking, and so is Uncle Will.”
”You go to school, don't you?” Betty asked.
”Yes, I go to Miss Lothrop's. I was coming from school when I met you to-day. Mother almost always takes me and comes for me herself, because we have only Lizzie, and she has a great deal to do.”
”We don't keep any girl at all now,” said Betty, ”and so I can't go to school, because there would be n.o.body to take care of Jack. We did keep a girl last year, but some of mother's pupils gave up, and she couldn't get any new ones, so we had to let her go. Mother gives us our lessons every afternoon when she comes home, and we study in the mornings by ourselves.”
”Is your mother a teacher?” Winifred inquired with interest.
”Yes, she gives music lessons, and she plays beautifully too. We have a piano, because Jack loves music so, and mother plays to him almost every evening.”
”I guess cripples always like music,” said Winifred reflectively. ”Mr.
Bradford had a lovely music box; it played twelve tunes.”
”Who is Mr. Bradford?”
”He was a crippled gentleman I used to know. He was very kind, and I loved him very much. I used to read to him, and he liked it. He died last winter.”
”Some cripples are quite strong in other ways, you know,” Betty hastened to explain. Winifred's remark about dying had made her vaguely uncomfortable. ”Jack isn't nearly so delicate as he used to be. I think if he could only get out in the fresh air sometimes he would be ever so much better.”
”Doesn't he ever go out?”
”No. You see, he can't walk at all, and he's too heavy to carry far.
It's awfully hard for him never to see anything but chimneys. Our apartment is in the rear, so he can't even see the trolley cars.”
”Why don't you take him for a drive sometimes?” Winifred asked sympathetically.