BETTY FINDS OUT
It was Monday afternoon and the March weather held an alluring
suggestion of spring.
Running along the street with her red coat scarcely fastened and her
hat at a totally wrong angle upon her head, Polly O'Neill showed no
concern for exterior conditions.
Finding the Ashton front door unlocked she entered without stopping to
ring the bell, and made straight, not for Betty's, but for Mrs.
Ashton's bedroom. She found her lying upon the bed, though at her
visitor's entrance she sat up, appearing quite ill.
"O Mrs. Ashton, why didn't Betty come to school today? Where is she?
Has anything happened? I was dreadfully worried when I found she was
not at any of her classes, and then when I asked Miss McMurtry whether
anything was the matter, she was so queer and mysterious. And when I
said I was going to leave school and come here at once, she said that I
had better not, that Betty had specially asked to be alone and that
even you had not seen her this morning. Donna behaved just as though
she knew something about my beloved Betty that I don't. And it is not
fair. I am sure Betty would wish me to know. Where is she?"
"Sit down, Polly," Mrs. Ashton returned, getting up from the bed and
taking a seat opposite. "I don't know where Betty is just now and I am
very uneasy and very unhappy about her. The poor child has had so many
things happen in the past year, after being spoiled in every possible
way up till then. She was in her own room most of the morning, but
about two hours ago sent word to me that she was going out and that I
was not to be alarmed if she did not return for some little time. I
might as well tell you our secret, dear. I suppose there is no way now
to keep people from knowing it eventually and perhaps we have been
unkind and unwise in concealing it from Betty so long. I wonder if you
have ever dreamed that Betty is Esther Crippen's sister?"
Polly gasped. No, she had not dreamed it. If the suspicion had ever
entered her mind, she had put it from her as a self-evident absurdity.
Her beautiful, exquisite Princess and Esther and Herr Crippen! It was
an impossible association of ideas and of people.
"But it can't be true, Mrs. Ashton," she argued almost angrily, feeling
that the room was whirling about and that she was almost ill from the
surprise and shock. And if this was her sensation, what could Betty's
have been! "Think how lovely Betty is and how utterly unlike either of
them. Besides, why have we never known and how did you happen to do
it?" Polly dropped her face in her two hands. She so very seldom
cried that the effort always hurt her.
"It is a tragic story, dear, and one we have never liked to talk about
for all our sakes," Mrs. Ashton replied, showing more self-control than
Polly had ever seen her display before.
"Very many years ago I had a baby named Phyllis. Betty tells me that
you too saw her picture in the old trunk. Well, Dick was a little boy
of about seven, and by some dreadful accident found a loaded pistol in
his father's desk and came running into the big back room with it,
which in those days was the baby's nursery. You can imagine what
happened without my telling you. Dick was a child, and yet the horror
of it has altered his entire nature and life. He has always been
serious and over-conscientious, always anxious to devote his life to
the service of other people as a reparation for a tragedy which was
never in the least his fault. It was therefore as much for Dick's sake
as for mine that Mr. Ashton persuaded us to adopt a baby in Phyllis'
place. So we drove out to the asylum together one day, with our minds
not made up and there--there we found our adored Betty. Herr Crippen
had just left his two children to be cared for, and Betty was only a
baby. But she was the most exquisite little thing you can imagine, the
same lovely auburn hair and big serious gray eyes. Dick adored her
from the moment that she put her arms about his neck and would not let
go when the time came for us to return home. We have always loved her
since, Polly, as well as if she had been our own baby--better I almost
think. You know what she is, so there is little use for me to say
it--'Our Princess', dear. I have always loved your name and the other
girls' for her."
"But Herr Crippen and Esther--they are so plain, and except for their
gifts, why, compared to Betty they seem so--so ordinary," Polly
protested.
"But you must remember that there was a mother, too, and that Herr
Crippen has said she was an American and very lovely. I believe her
family would have nothing more to do with her because she married a
German musician. And then, you see, child, Betty has had many
advantages that Esther has not had. It was because Dick and I began
slowly to realize that perhaps we had been cruel to Esther in depriving
her of her little sister that we finally asked her to come here and
live as a kind of companion to Betty. It was a long-delayed kindness
and yet Esther has very nobly repaid us; for it seems that when Herr
Crippen returned and claimed Esther as his daughter, Esther learned
then of Betty's relation to them and it was she who insisted that her
father make no sign, realizing how entirely Betty's devotion was given
to Dick and Mr. Ashton and to me, even to this old home, which has been
her pride for so long."
"Poor, poor little Princess! It will almost break her heart," Polly
murmured.
But although Mrs. Ashton wiped a few tears from her eyes, she shook her
head.
"Some day you will find out that hearts are harder to break than you
now believe. I would almost have given my life to have spared Betty
this knowledge, and yet some day she must realize that we love her as
we have always done and that love is the only thing that greatly
counts, after all. There is no reason why Betty should feel any shame
in her relation to Herr Crippen; he has been unfortunate, but there is
nothing else against him. And Esther is a remarkable girl."
"Yes, I know. But what made Betty suspect? How did she find all this
out?" Polly queried.
"Betty told me of her discoveries in the old trunk and asked me a
number of questions. I was confused; I am not in the least sure how I
answered them. Anyhow, she became suspicious and went to Herr Crippen
and then to Miss McMurtry, who, it seems, was in Esther's and her
father's confidence. They gave the child no satisfaction, but only
made her the more uneasy and distressed, until finally Betty remembered
the sealed envelope which Mr. Ashton had always made her keep in her
box of valuable papers. Possibly she has told you that the envelope
was only to be opened when she should come to some crisis in her life
and need advice or information. Betty opened the envelope and it
contained the papers proving her legal adoption by us and her right in
the equal division of whatever property either Mr. Ashton or I might
have. Now, Polly, that is all," Mrs. Ashton concluded. "But I feel
that if Betty does not soon come to me and put her arms about me and
call me 'mother' as she always has, that I shan't be able to bear
things either. Won't you find her and bring her here to me?"
And Polly, glad to be away to battle with her own emotions, kissed her
older friend and vanished. But Betty was not in her room, and as there
seemed to be no clue to work upon, it was difficult to decide just
where she should begin the search.