“Oh, I’ve thought that all out,” began Betty eagerly. “I’d wait till the last minute and then just turn things over to the waitress,—we’d have to find a very accommodating waitress, of course,—whisk off my laboratory apron, and appear in the bosom of my family arrayed in my best dress.”
Mrs. Wales shook her head. “That sounds very simple, but I’m afraid it wouldn’t work. You’d be red in the face from bending over the fire, and your hands would be spoiled. I’m sorry, dear,” as she noticed Betty’s expression of disappointment, “but I’m afraid you’ll have to think of some other more practical ways of saving money.”
Betty stabbed viciously at the biggest hole in her second stocking. “All right, mother,” she said at last. “But please don’t say no to my being cook just until you can find one. You haven’t found one yet, have you?”
Mrs. Wales shook her head. “A friend of Maggie’s is coming to see me this afternoon, but I don’t imagine she’ll do.”
“Don’t engage her unless she sounds perfectly splendid,” urged Betty, folding up Will’s stockings and tossing them on top of the pile of finished mending.
A few minutes later she danced back, enveloped in a long, checked gingham apron. “The new cook, mem,” she announced, curtseying gravely. “And the ould wan is gone, mem, so wad yuz plaze be so kind as to lave me have the ordhers for the dinner.”
Betty’s first dinner was a great success. It was agreed not to tell father and Will who cooked it; and when father praised the roast, and Will loudly lamented the imminent departure of a cook who could make such “dandy” lemon ice, Betty blushed pink with pride and pleasure. Next morning it was only fun to get up early and dress in a hurry. But the first relay of toast burned up, and the eggs were done too hard, because the coffee wouldn’t boil at all and then boiled over. Will grumbled, father read his paper in gloomy silence, and though mother tried to smooth things over, she wore an “I-told-you-so” expression, and Betty felt sure she would be on hand to help with the next breakfast.
But before that there was luncheon, and Will, who was going out to see about his new position, announced that he would come home for it. Just as Betty was putting on her big apron to begin operations, Mary Hooper rang the bell. Betty discovered that Maggie had said she was at home, so she slipped off the big apron, and went down. Mary was chairman of the play committee, and she wanted to get Betty’s ideas about the cast and the costumes before she called the rest of her committee together.
“College girls are so clever at plays,” she explained. “I thought you and I could save a lot of time if we got everything decided beforehand.”
This wasn’t exactly Betty’s idea of good committee work, but Mary hadn’t asked her advice on that point, so they set to work. At half-past twelve Mary discovered that it was raining.