“And take the man myself?” asked Katherine. “Not by any means.”
Rachel considered. “Of course it would be against the rules of the game to leave Alice in the lurch, but perhaps Betty will take him. I heard her say that her concert man had broken his collar-bone and couldn’t come.”
So Georgia wrote Alice that she had been having bad headaches, for which her doctor prescribed a week of rest on a farm outside Harding. She was extremely sorry to miss the concert, but her dear friend Betty Wales had promised to help Alice out in her stead.
Alice hurried straight over to Betty to say how glad she was. “I’d a lot rather have you take Tom,” she declared. “I was worried about Miss Ames. Lots of people seem to know about her, but no one really knows her except you and Katherine. I think she must be just a little queer, and Tom hates queerness.”
“Well, she is a little bit queer,” admitted Betty, trying hard not to laugh.
“There’s just one thing——” Alice puckered her smooth forehead as she tried to settle it. “Betty,” she ventured at last, “now tell me honestly, do you mind if I slur over your name and let Tom Alison think it’s Ames, if he wants to? You see I had to explain that I wasn’t going to take him to the concert myself, and it was a little awkward; so I told him what a fine girl he was going with,—how pretty and popular she was, and all that. It just fits you, Betty, and it does seem as if I couldn’t write it all over and think of new things to say.”
“Oh, Alice,” laughed Betty, “it’s too absurd. You see—oh, if you knew Georgia you wouldn’t suggest such a thing.”
“You mean she is the kind that wouldn’t like it?” asked Alice anxiously. “But couldn’t you explain it to her, Betty? Tell her how busy I am, and how I hate to write notes, and how I praised her to Tom until I haven’t any adjectives left. Couldn’t you?”
Betty considered, still laughing with a heartiness that puzzled Alice. “Why, perhaps I could,” she said at last. “Georgia is awfully good-natured. I think she would understand, and of course my feelings don’t count at all, so long as Mr. Alison has some one to take him to the concert.”