“There’s a ‘Lone Guide’ she could be. It’s in the Guiding Book. We were just telling her, Sybil,” burst in Mona informatively, “she could work up alone, and——”
Perhaps Sybil felt the sudden shrinking in Betty’s form at the mention of the word as the child stood there under the protection of the head girl’s arm. Perhaps not. But, whether or no, there was suddenly a flash in Sybil’s eye as she spoke.
“A ‘Lone Guide,’ Mona! What an idea! A Lone Guide at St. Benedick’s! With thirty-two Guides here already, who are only too delighted to welcome another! Why, if Betty lived all alone at the North or South Pole, or away at the Back o’ Beyond, she might be a Lone Guide, just till she had a chance to join a company. But here! Just as though any one of us would let Betty work at Guiding on her lonesome!”
The strong, gentle arm felt very protective and kind.
“Sorry, Sybil,” murmured Mona, suddenly remembering her brush.
“It was me that thought of the Lone Guide,” piped up Rene. “I was reading about it in the holidays; Mona only followed on, Sybil. And it’s not that we don’t want Betty in the Daisies.”
“Want! I should rather think we do want her when Guides are friends of the whole world.” Sybil spoke quite indignantly. “The Cowslips want her, and the Foxgloves too, and the Buttercups, as well as the Daisies—-in fact, the whole company wants her. So she mustn’t think of being a Lone Guide again! The only difficulty is—or rather, was—that we wondered which patrol she should be attached to as a recruit while she works up for her Tenderfoot badge.”
The words were still strange to Betty, but she didn’t mind now. She was listening breathlessly and happily. “Recruit; Tenderfoot; patrol.” Well, Sybil was there now, ready to help, and already Sybil had promised that she should not be a Lone Guide!
“And then—” the head girl’s voice broke in on Betty’s thoughts. There was quite a joyous sound in Sybil’s tone, as though she had something joyous to say—“it was Gerry who thought of a way.”
The eyes of Mona and Rene turned enviously and wonderingly towards Gerry: Gerry’s eyes were fixed on Sybil. Sybil, addressing her remarks to Betty alone, with her arm still round Betty’s waist, went on,—