Part 12 (2/2)

Matters being thus happily arranged, Winifred hurried away to telephone her friend that Betty would be delighted to accept the invitation, and Betty made herself very useful, helping Mrs. Flynn with the Sat.u.r.day cleaning, feeling all the time as if she were about to enter upon a new and very interesting experience.

”You're sure you don't mind, Jack,” she said, stooping to kiss him at the last moment before going downstairs to join Winifred.

”Not a bit,” said Jack heartily. ”I hope you'll have a lovely time, and it'll be such fun to hear all about it.”

”You're not a single mite jealous, are you?” said Betty, with a sudden recollection of her own feelings on another occasion.

”No, of course not. What does it feel like to be jealous?”

”Well, you know, I never went away and left you for a whole afternoon, just to have fun before, and I'm going to have a good time, and you're not. You wouldn't like it if you were jealous.”

”But I am going to have a nice time,” said Jack, looking rather puzzled; ”I've got that nice book Winifred brought, and mother's going to play for me. I wonder what being jealous really does feel like.”

”It doesn't feel nice,” said Betty, blus.h.i.+ng, ”but I don't believe you'll ever know anything about it, you're too dear.”

It was about twelve o'clock when the two little girls, accompanied by Mrs. Hamilton, left the apartment house, and started on their walk across the park, to the Bells' home on Madison Avenue. It was a beautiful day, and the park was full of children, all making the most of their Sat.u.r.day holiday. They met several May parties, and Betty told them how her mother had once read them Tennyson's ”May Queen,” and how Jack had been so much interested in the poem that he had learned it by heart.

”Jack is really a very clever boy,” said Winifred admiringly. ”I don't like boys very much generally, they're so rough, but I respect Jack very much indeed.”

”There isn't any other boy in the world like him,” said Betty, with conviction. ”Mrs. Hamilton,” she added rather shyly, ”do you suppose Dr.

Bell has forgotten Jack, now that he doesn't come to see mother any more?”

”I am very sure he has not,” said Mrs. Hamilton decidedly.

Betty said no more on the subject, but her heart beat high with renewed hope, and during the rest of the walk she felt as if she were treading upon air.

Betty could not help feeling a little uncomfortable when she first caught sight of the handsome house where Winifred's friends lived. She had met Lulu only once, and although she looked upon the doctor as one of her best friends, she did not know any other members of the family, and the thought of being presented to entire strangers was a rather embarra.s.sing one. Mrs. Hamilton, having another engagement, left them at the foot of the steps. Winifred rang the bell, and when the door was opened by the boy in bra.s.s b.u.t.tons, she walked in with the air of a person very much at home. Betty followed more slowly, wondering rather uncomfortably what people who lived in such a grand-looking house would think of her faded brown dress and last year's straw hat. But all such speculations were speedily forgotten in the kind cordiality of the greeting she received. Lulu was a charming little hostess, and her mother and her blind aunt both greeted the little stranger so kindly, that they soon succeeded in making her feel almost as much at home as Winifred herself.

At luncheon the ladies asked questions about Jack, and quite won Betty's heart by telling her of the many kind things the doctor had said about her little brother. Lulu had a great deal to say about the pretty seaside cottage her father had just hired for the summer.

”You must come and make us a long visit, Winifred,” she said decidedly, but Winifred shook her head.

”I can't leave mother,” she said, with equal decision on her part. ”It's so perfectly beautiful to have her, I can't ever go away from her.”

”There is a good hotel very near us,” said Mrs. Bell kindly. ”Perhaps your father and mother will come there to board for a while.”

But Winifred still looked doubtful. She had an idea that money was not very plentiful with her family just then, and she had heard her mother say that a couple of weeks in the mountains, while father had his vacation, would probably be all they could afford that summer.

[Ill.u.s.tration: What a delightful afternoon that was!--_Page 111._]

As soon as they rose from the luncheon table Mrs. Bell and the three little girls started for the circus.

What a delightful afternoon that was! Even Betty's wildest antic.i.p.ations had scarcely prepared her for the blissful reality. She enjoyed every moment, and every incident, from the clown who made her laugh till she cried, to the ”Battle of Santiago,” which made her s.h.i.+ver and cling tightly to Winifred's hand.

”It's been the loveliest afternoon I ever knew,” she said gratefully to Mrs. Bell, when it was all over, and the little girls were saying good-bye at the door of the apartment house. ”It was so kind of you to take me, and I shall have lots and lots to tell Jack.”

<script>