But Betty looked at Martha curiously. She couldn’t quite understand her to-day. Several times Martha had started to say something to Betty, and then stopped, as if afraid the others would hear.
“What is it, Martha?” asked Betty, at last, dropping a little behind the others. “What are you trying to say?”
“Oh, nothing,” said Martha, turning red and looking embarrassed. Then, as if with a sudden determined effort, she turned to the whole group and said:
“Will you—won’t you—all come in and have ice-cream with me?”
It was a pleasant invitation, but Martha stammered so and seemed so nervous about it that Irene hesitated before replying. Betty hesitated, too, for she knew that Martha had little, if any, spending-money, and she wondered at this unexpected hospitality.
But Martha turned pleading eyes upon her.
“Make them come, Betty!” she said. “I’d be so glad if they would.”
“Come on, girls,” said Betty. “Indeed, Martha, we’re very glad to accept your invitation; it’s so warm and dusty.”
Dorothy, though mystified at Martha’s sudden rôle of Lady Bountiful, took her cue from Betty and said:
“Oh, how lovely! I’m just famishing for ice-cream.”