“Not to talk about it in the school,” concluded Betty. “If she asked you not to talk about it to your mothers and big sisters, why, she isn’t a good kind of chum for you. She can’t be.”
Dorothy flushed an angry pink. “Just wait till you see her. She’s lovely. She’s the nicest chum I ever, ever had.”
Betty got up quietly and handed the Smallest Sister her hat and coat. “You’d better be going back, I think,” she said very cheerfully.
“Back where?”
“To school, of course, for supper.”
“I can’t do that,” Dorothy interposed hastily. “Why, I asked Miss Dick for permission to come and stay with you till the evening study hour. She’d think it was very queer for me not to stay.”
“I’ll telephone her and explain,” said Betty inexorably.
“I shan’t go if you do,” declared the little rebel. “So now! I shan’t go!”
“Dorothy Wales,” began Betty gravely, putting one arm around the Smallest Sister’s waist and drawing her stiff little figure closer, “if mother were here and you acted this way you know as well as I do what she’d do. She’d send you straight to bed to stay all this lovely long afternoon. Now I’m not mother, so I can’t do that. It’s not my place. But I can see that I’ve made a mistake in bringing you here. I thought you loved me enough to do as I want—as I think best, I mean. You don’t, so I must send you home to mother at once. Now I want you to go right back to Miss Dick’s, and tell her that I can’t have you to tea to-day. You needn’t say why. And I shall write to mother to-night.”
“But Betty——”