Part 28 (2/2)
”It is certainly against my rules.”
”But, dear Mrs. Haddo, it isn't against your rules if you give leave,”
pleaded the girl.
”You are very clever at arguing, Betty. I certainly have liberty to break rules in individual cases. Well, dear child, it shall be so. I will send a line to Mrs. Miles to ask her to expect you and your sisters to-morrow. A servant shall accompany you, and will call again later on.
You can only stay about one hour at the farm. To-morrow is a half-holiday, so it will be all right.”
”Oh, how kind of you!” said Betty.
But again Mrs. Haddo noticed that Betty avoided looking into her eyes.
”Betty,” she said, ”this is a small matter--my yielding to the whim of an impetuous girl in whom I take an interest. But, my dear child, I have to congratulate you. You made a marvellous success--a marvellous success--last night. Several of the girls in the school have spoken of it, and in particular dear Margaret Grant. I wonder if you would improvise for me some evening?”
”Gladly!” replied Betty. And now for one minute her brilliant eyes were raised and fixed on those of Mrs. Haddo. ”Gladly,” she repeated--and she s.h.i.+vered slightly--”if you will hear me after next Thursday.”
CHAPTER XIV
TEA AT FARMER MILES'S
”It's all right, girls!” said Betty in her most joyful tone.
”What is all right, Betty and Bess?” asked Sylvia saucily.
”Oh, kiss me, girls,” said Betty, ”and let's have a real frolic!
To-morrow is Sat.u.r.day--a half-holiday, of course--and we're going to the Mileses' to have tea.”
”The Mileses'!”
”Yes, you silly children; those dear farmer-folk who keep the dogs.”
”Dan and Beersheba?” cried Hetty.
”Yes, Dan and Beersheba; and we're going to have a real jolly time, and we're going to forget dull care. It'll be quite the most delightful sport we've had since we came to Haddo Court. What I should love most would be to vault over the fence and go all by our lonesome selves. But we must have a maid--a horrid, stupid maid; only, of course, she'll walk behind, and she'll leave us alone when we get to the farm. She'll fetch us again by-and-by--that'll be another nuisance. Still, somehow, I don't know what there is about school, but I'm not game enough to go without leave.”
”You are changed a good bit,” said Hetty. ”I think myself it's since you were made a Speciality.”
”Perhaps so,” said Betty thoughtfully.
Sylvia nestled close to her sister; while Hetty knelt down beside her, laid her elbows on Betty's knee, and looked up into her face.
”I wonder,” said Sylvia, ”if you like being a Special, or whatever they call themselves, Betty mine?”
Betty did not speak.
”Do you like it?” said Hester, giving her sister a poke in the side as she uttered the words.
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