“Was it true?”
“Why, you see everybody made a lot of her after her adventure with the lynx and of course she liked it. Phil Selden has the very nicest sled in school and he took her on it ever and ever so many times, then Maria Black made a fuss over her and Leonora Stayman gave her a ring that was too small for herself and—and——”
“You and Bess were jealous, I see. So that much was true, and you said things to one another behind her back that you wouldn’t have said to her face. I suppose we might call that deceitful.”
Betsy nodded in token that she thought this true. “And Bess is fat,” she declared.
Mr. Tyson repressed a smile. “While no one can say truthfully that Elizabeth is lazy. It looks to me as if you had the worst of it, Betsy. The court convicts you on your own evidence and condemns you to pay Miss Elizabeth Hollins ten kisses in return for her injured feelings.”
“I’ve already paid them,” returned Betsy gravely. “We made up today after Corinne Barker called her a red-head. I wouldn’t stand that, you know; so I said what I thought and I am never going to have anything to do with her, with Corinne, I mean.”
“Not even to the extent of adopting her manner of wearing her hair,” said Mr. Tyson slyly.
“Oh, uncle Rob, did Miss Jewett tell you? Of course she must have. It was silly, of course, but I just wanted to see how it looked.”
“Did you find out?”
“It didn’t look nice a bit. Elizabeth told me on her sacred honor that I was a sight, though that isn’t the reason I gave it up, at least it isn’t the only reason. We have formed ourselves into two parties, Styles and Non-styles. Elizabeth and I belong to the Non-styles, so do Maria and Leonora. Bess belongs to the Styles, but we don’t care.”