ONE OF THOSE A-D PARTIES
“It will probably not reach them very soon, Betty,” comfortably said
Mrs. Lee when Betty expressed her concern over “the way Gwen was telling
the girls” about Ramon. “Moreover, that is a risk that Ramon runs, not
you, by his request and not sending them word himself. Other people can
only try to be considerate. So far as I am concerned, I should prefer to
know all about my children, to bear the trouble with them if necessary.
Never keep anything from _me_ with the idea of sparing me, Betty!”
“All right, Mamma. We’ll probably need you too badly to do any stunts of
the sort!”
Betty was soon in the midst of Lucia Coletti’s letter, running excitedly
to find her mother again after she had finished reading it. “Why,
Mother, she _is_ coming! Isn’t that great? And moreover she said that
she might get here before the letter.
“See—it’s mailed at Milan. They were in Switzerland for the hot
weather, but when they decided to have Lucia come to finish her senior
year at Lyon High, she and her mother ‘ran down to Milan’ to their
‘palazso’ for some things Lucia wanted and Lucia might just go right on
and sail as soon as she was all packed up. It all depended on what
reservations or accommodations or whatever you call it they could get on
a steamer. That also made it uncertain what route she’s coming by,
whether from Naples or Cherbourg or what. Here, read it Mother. It’s a
short one. She has stacks of things to tell me, she says.”
Mrs. Lee smilingly read the brief letter, enclosed in a noticeable
envelope, very elegant, Betty said, and having the “family crest” or
some “Italian sign” on it. It amused Betty’s mother to hear her running
comments as she read and she handed back the letter with the remark that
Lucia had “not neglected to acquire some of the American vocabulary.”
“Certainly,” said senior Betty. “And she thinks about it when she writes
to _me_!”
“I wonder what arrangements she will make here. I suppose she will stay
at her uncle’s. If you like to invite her to be with you, Betty, part of
the time or for any visit, we could manage it. We have just decided,
your father and I, to take the house we looked at this afternoon. I’m
almost sorry that it could not be the one out in the same suburb as the
Gwynne’s your sake, or the one Mrs. Dorrance recommended, not very far
from their fine place. But this seems suitable in every way. The only
one of your friends that I know lives anywhere near is Marcella
Waite—though our place is much more modest. Marcella is not in your
class, of course, but I understand that she is to attend the
university.”
“Yes, she is not to be away from her mother this year. And besides,
Marcella does not want to leave the crowd that’s going to the university
this year. Why, Mother, it does not matter about living near Carolyn. We
see each other every day at school and at other times, too, though it
would be convenient to be near. I am crazy to see the house. Did you
just find it for the first or is it one you looked at?”
“Just discovered it. It is for sale, too, and after living in it a while
to try it out, so to speak, we might buy it.”
“Oh, Mother! Then it wasn’t a mistake to come to the city?”
“Your father is doing very well now,” said Mrs. Lee with her customary
reserved way of putting things.
This decision and the immediate prospect of change was even more
exciting than the news from Lucia. Betty expected to call up her friends
as she had almost promised, but not until more of her curiosity had been
satisfied in regard to the new home. Would they sell the old home at
Buxton? No, that was to be kept. It was well rented now. Would they have
to have much new furniture? Very little. They would add good furniture
as it seemed advisable.
“Our oldest things are the best, Betty, you know, the ‘antiques’ that
Mrs. Dorrance admires so much. And I think I can persuade one of my
friends in Buxton to let me have some that she has, at a fair price. I
happened, too, to think of old Mrs. Buxton, for whose family the town
was named—and she has no one to leave her things to—she has closed her
house, I think, and has a tiny apartment in Columbus, with some one to
take care of her.”
In great enthusiasm Betty called up Carolyn first. Good news was always
shared first with her, though Kathryn was “a close second.”
“Yes, Lucia is actually coming! Isn’t that wonderful? I can scarcely
wait to hear all about it,” said Betty at the telephone, outlining
Lucia’s letter after this burst of rejoicing. “And we’re moving, and I
haven’t yet seen the place! Mother and Father just found the house they
want.”
Carolyn naturally wanted street and number and the conversation was so
prolonged that some one who wanted the line impatiently took a receiver
off and replaced it several times, till Betty realized the situation.
“Somebody wants the line, Carolyn, so I’ll have to ring off. So long.”
After dinner that evening, Mr. Lee, who had a key to the recently rented
house, drove his interested family around to it. Betty was secretly not
particularly sorry to have the new home in the suburb that held the
Waite home. She had always liked Marcella very much, even if she were
not intimate and had not joined the sorority to which Marcella belonged.
Then, to be sure, there was Larry! But Betty did not mention him when
Doris on the way was saying that with Chet “so attentive to Betty” it
would be better for him if they had taken “that house Mrs. Dorrance
wanted us to have.” Doris had seen that.
“I fancy that if Chet wants to see me he will be able to find us,”
demurely said Betty to Doris. “And, you know what pretty trees and big
yards they have out near Marcella.”
Doris nodded assent and approval began to increase as Mr. Lee drove into
a comparatively quiet street and drew up before an attractive place in
the middle of the square or block. “We’ll be more peaceful in the center
of things,” said he. “Our yard is wide and fairly deep and you see that
pretty little wooded ravine at its end? There are _some_ advantages
about a city with hills. There is room enough for Amy Lou to slide down
hill in winter, though the land does not all belong to this place. It is
shared by the various owners.”
It was fascinating to go into the house with its vacant and echoing
rooms and halls. It was modern, comparatively new, and with enough
bedrooms! Dick said that it would be pretty foxy to have a “real room”
of his own instead of the “den.” Doris and Betty could now have separate
rooms and Amy Lou was to have a small room perhaps intended only as a
dressing room. But she was happy over it. “What shall we do when Amy Lou
grows up?” asked Doris, though executing a lively dance with Betty about
the empty room that was to be hers.
“I think we need not worry about that,” replied Mr. Lee. “From present
indications I should say that if we keep both our older girls till that
happens we shall do well.”
“Father!” cried Betty, giving Doris a whirl and stopping the evolutions.
“I think I’d like Betty’s room,” soberly said Amy Lou, “when she marries
Ch——”
But Betty had clapped a hand over that pretty and mischievous mouth of
her small sister. “Amy Lou, your imagination works overtime!”
Amy Lou struggled, but laughed. “Doris says that the girl Kathryn calls
‘Finny’ and Jack Huxley got engaged this summer. Senior girls do!”
“Not if they have any sense,” said Betty, but her mother shook her head
at her. “What, Mother—do _you_ approve? Is the world coming to an end?”
“I do not approve for you, Betty, or Doris,” said Mrs. Lee, much amused
by the whole incident, “but I should not say that it is out of place for
_all_ girls to marry early.”
“I shall remember that, Mrs. Lee,” said Doris, walking off with quite an
air while Mr. Lee who had heard from the next room, came in to add his
last contribution to the affair.
“See what you have done, Mother! But we’re going to have such a pretty
home of it here that I defy any lad to carry off one of my girls for a
while! Now come on into this other room for a moment, Mother, and tell
me what furniture we need for it.”
“Silly!” Dick was saying to Doris. “Before _you_ like anybody too much
just let your old twin pick him out. I’m likely to know more than you do
about the kids.”
Doris gave Dick a rather impertinent glance, then brightened, replying,
“All right, provided you let me do the same for you!”
Betty, going into the upstairs room which would be hers, stood there
alone, deciding where the furniture should be placed, but she thought of
what Amy Lou had said. Amy Lou dashed after her to say that she thought
Betty’s room was the best bedroom of all because it overlooked the
ravine at the rear. “I meant it, Betty,” she said earnestly, “but you
mustn’t think that I want it for—oh, the _longest_ time!”
Betty stooped, took the pretty face between her palms and kissed it.
“That is all right, Amy Lou! Just please don’t pick out whom I’m going
to marry yet, will you?”
Eyes as blue as Betty’s looked up and a golden mop of almost as bright
as Betty’s hair was shaken back. “Yes, of course. You might change your
mind, mightn’t you?”
“And perhaps I’ve never made it up at all,” whispered Betty.
Amy Lou nodded and went away, satisfied that she had had a confidence
from that big sister of hers. Chet needn’t think Betty wondered where
her sister had heard about “Finny.” But if there were anything in the
report she would soon hear at school.
Long they tarried in the empty house and about the yard. There were
flowers and shrubs and some pretty trees, beside those of the ravine,
with its thickets and the one long track or path to the bottom. “May I
have a party right away?” asked Betty, looking around at the large front
room whose hall was almost a part of it, and the room which Doris said
should be a library widely opening behind it. Doris and Amy Lou
immediately asked the same question, till Mrs. Lee suggested that they
move in first.
“Yes,” said she. “That is one pleasure for us in this roomy house. I
plan some entertaining myself. You shall have your turn all of you,
Dick, too.”
It was dark when at last the Lees reached home; and Betty, though called
by lessons to prepare, remembered one more responsibility and ran to
call up Marcella Waite.
“Oh, but I’m glad to have found you in, Marcella. Why, they’ve made me
chairman of the committee for the A-D party, Marcella, and I thought I’d
better ask you what you did. I missed the party when I was a freshman
myself and now that we give it, I ought to know a few details. I asked
one of the teachers about it after assembly this morning, and she said,
‘Oh, yes, one of those A-D parties,’ with _such_ a bored air that I
thought I’d better ask somebody who might have a speck of enthusiasm. I
suppose they do get tired of some things, though.”
Betty could hear Marcella’s low laugh. Then her friends briefly outlined
the usual A-D program and wound up her remarks by saying that Larry
would make a flying visit home before ‘college began.’ “I’ll have him
drive over for you and bring you over for dinner,” said Marcella, “and
then we can discuss A-D parties and other things. Will you come?”
“Will I? How soon does the university start, Marcella? All right. It
will seem good to see Larry. What fun we all had this summer! ’Bye.”