“Why, it is impossible!” gasped Beth, aloud, and forgot to applaud when the little, earnest talk was over. She sat in her seat, unable to rise, or even think connectedly, when the talk had ended.
Suddenly, the charming figure came down from the dais and seized Beth in her arms.
“Well, Chicken Little! who told you the sky had fallen?” demanded Miss C. Emeline Freylinghausen, shaking Beth, playfully.
CHAPTER XXIX
THE “PERFECT NUMBER” IN AUNTS
Beth had something really wonderful to tell Molly Granger when the winter vacation was over and she met that young lady on the train bound for Rivercliff School.
And Molly listened in as rapt amazement as Beth had experienced when she listened to the public talk of “Miss Cynthia Emeline Fogg Freylinghausen,” as Molly ever after insisted upon calling their mysterious friend.
“And cracky-me!” giggled Molly. “If only Maude Grimshaw could know this! She was such a close personal friend of the heiress of the Freylinghausen millions. Oh, my aunt! as Cynthia herself would say. In my case—oh, my seven aunts! And Bethesda! They are all coming to our graduation.”
“Who are?” demanded the surprised, not to say startled, Beth. Molly did jump about so from one subject to another.
“My aunts. They have promised. Yea, verily, they have threatened. Do you suppose, if I tell Miss Hammersly they are coming, that she will feel it necessary to limit us all to fewer friends on graduation day?”
But that fondly-looked-forward-to day still seemed a long, long way ahead to Beth and her class at Rivercliff School. First, much chatter and wonder had to be expressed over the discovery that Cynthia Fogg was a “millionairess”—Molly’s designation, of course.