“I don’t know. I am reckless—or inspired!” and Beth laughed shakingly. “A way may be opened. I’ll take a chance.”
“Where can you get work for the summer?” her mother asked gravely.
“Well—I would go into the factory for a short time——”
“Oh, no! what would Larry say? You cannot do that,” her mother cried, with an energy that quite surprised Beth.
“Indeed!” sniffed the girl. “I guess you mean, what would Larry’s mother say? I am not beholden to Mrs. Haven.”
“No,” said Mrs. Baldwin, seriously. “But you would not wish to offend Larry’s mother.”
Beth showed herself puzzled. “Why, not deliberately,” she said. “Of course not. Nor Larry either. But why worry about them more than our other friends? Lots of folks who know us, and in no better circumstances than we are, either, will turn up their noses at me if I go to work in the dye factory. But you know how it is, Mamma. A position in a store or an office is awfully hard to find in Hudsonvale. You wouldn’t want me to go to a summer hotel to be a waitress or a chambermaid?”
“Mercy me, Beth! What are you thinking of?” almost screamed Mrs. Baldwin.
“I’m thinking of making money to pay for my schooling at Rivercliff,” laughed her daughter. “I’ve read of lots of girls who earn their tuition fees by doing those things.”
“But you!”