"Will the Associated Chaperons," he said, "turn their backs?"
"Not at all," I began stiffly. "If I--"
"She baked it herself!" said Jasper exultantly. "One--two. When I say
three I shall kiss Bettina."
And I have every reason to believe he carried out his threat.
* * * * *
Eliza Bailey forwarded me this letter from London where Bettina had sent
it to her:--
_Dearest Mother_: I hope you are coming home soon. I really think you
should. Aunt Lizzie is here and she brought two friends, and, mother,
I feel so responsible for them! Aunt Lizzie is sane enough, if somewhat
cranky; but Miss Tish is almost more than I can manage--I never know
what she is going to do next--and I am worn out with chaperoning her.
And Miss Aggie, although she is very sweet, is always smoking cubeb
cigarettes for hay fever, and it looks terrible! The neighbors do not
know they are cubeb, and, anyhow, that's a habit, mother. And yesterday
Miss Tish was arrested, and ran a motor race and won it, and to-day she
is knitting a stocking and reciting the Twenty-third Psalm. Please,
mother, I think you should come home.
Lovingly, BETTINA.
P.S. I think I shall marry Jasper after all. He says he likes the
Presbyterian service.
I looked up from reading Eliza's letter. Tish was knitting quietly and
planning to give the money back to the town in the shape of a library,
and Aggie was holding a cubeb cigarette to her nose. Down on the tennis
court Jasper and Bettina were idly batting a ball round.
"I'm glad the Ellis man did not get her," said Aggie. And then, after a
sneeze, "How Jasper reminds me of Mr. Wiggins."
The library did not get the money after all. Tish sent it, as a wedding
present, to Bettina.