Mr. Wales threw back his head and laughed. “Goodness, Betty, but you come right to the point! Suppose I deny that ‘awfully.’”
“You mean because it’s slang?” asked Betty anxiously. “And isn’t it a good thing to come right to the point?”
“Wouldn’t that depend on the point, little girl? Suppose it was a point you had never expected to come to, and didn’t want to come to,—what then?”
Betty’s face wore its most intent expression. “But if you had come to it all the same, father——”
“Then you’d better get away again as fast as possible, and ask little girls not to bother their heads about you in the meantime.” Father’s tone was very brusque and final—the one he used when he meant “no” and was not going to change his mind, no matter how much you teased.
“All right, father.” Betty tried not to show that she felt hurt. “I won’t bother you again. Only I thought that if I understood perhaps I could help a little. I don’t think mother really knows how much we ought to try to save this winter, and I’m sure Nan and Will don’t. You’ve always been so generous and let us have just whatever we wanted. I want lots of things just now, but I can be happy without them.” Betty stopped suddenly, not quite sure where she had meant to come out.
There was a long pause. “Are you quite sure of that—quite sure you can be happy without them, little girl?” father asked at last.
“Perfectly sure, if I know I’m helping you out, daddy.”
“Well, then—— But I can’t have your mother worried, not any more than she is now at least.”
“Oh, but I won’t worry her!” Betty promised eagerly. “It will just be a secret between us two.”