“That’s a good brand of homesickness to cultivate,” laughed Madeline. “She’ll have to go to school here, won’t she?”
Betty nodded. “Mother says she can go to the public schools in a nice little town like this, but I shan’t have her. I’ve saved lots out of my salary and my share of the gift-room profits, and I shall pay her tuition at Miss Dick’s. She can prepare for college thoroughly there. And some day, if we keep on having such good luck at the Tally-ho, I can help put her through Harding. Won’t that be perfectly splendid, Madeline Ayres?”
CHAPTER XI
THE ADVENT OF THE PLOSHKIN
If you are busy enough, you usually don’t discover that you are homesick—especially if, whenever you do take time to think of your own private affairs, you can run to the calendar to count the days before the coming of the smallest sister. And between work and fun, Betty and Madeline were very busy indeed.
First there was Christmas dinner at Mary’s—as gay and lively as all Mary’s hospitalities. Next day there was a select lunch party at the Tally-ho, at which Mary was the only guest, and at the end of which, with much pomp and ceremony, she was officially designated the One and Only Perfect Patron, and initiated with the rite of the Secret Drawer.
“You’re not opening that the way you did before, Madeline,” Betty declared, as the three bent their heads together over the desk, while Madeline pressed one after another of the tiny, hidden springs.
“Oh, yes, I am,” Madeline assured her. “There couldn’t be but one way to open it. First you press this spring and take out this drawer; then you press another spring in the side wall, and out flies your secret compartment.”
“You did at least two more things before,” insisted Betty.
“Well, the woman I bought the desk of thought one push would do it all,” Madeline reminded her. “Before long we may discover the one magic touch.”
“Oh, I hope not,” sighed Mary rapturously. “I like to have it complicated, so that you forget exactly how it goes between times, and have to fuss and fumble around. Now please shut it and let me find it again all by myself.”