“Oh, no, you don’t,” Betty assured her earnestly. “Think how ashamed I should have felt, and how all the college would have been talked about and laughed at on your account.”
Marie brightened visibly. “I thought of that myself. That’s exactly why I wouldn’t go on. Out in Montana lots of girls just ride off and get married on the spur of the minute. But it’s different here, isn’t it? I felt that it was, after we’d started. And it’s different with me. After you’ve been to school in Paris, and to college for nearly a year, and have traveled a lot, you can’t do the way you could if you’ve lived your whole life in a mining camp. I thought when I put on my Western togs that I’d get into the spirit of the occasion, but I didn’t. I felt silly.”
“Was it your idea?” asked Betty curiously.
“Oh, yes,” acknowledged Montana Marie, “it was every bit my idea. Don’t you blame it on Fred. His only reason for coming East was to make sure that nobody had cut him out. You see he didn’t understand about the businesslike nature of the Prom. Man Supply Company. Miss Wales——”
“Yes.”
“Do you suppose you could possibly persuade Ma to let us be married?”
“If you’ll send Fred home and finish your year’s work here properly, I’ll try.”
Montana Marie considered. “All right. I can promise that much without any trouble. I told Fred that I’d rather elope out West than here, if we had to do it at all. Ma wants to take me to Europe again for the summer, but I shall just put my foot down that I’ve got to see my father first. Then if you haven’t persuaded her by that time—— Oh, Miss Wales——”
“Yes,” encouraged Betty smilingly.
“If Georgia Ames sent Ma an invitation to commencement, I think she’d come. That would give you a chance to talk to her, and talking is better than writing any day.”