CHAPTER V
BETTY MAKES A PROMISE
On the following Monday, I was in the store, feeling kind of blue over the general muddle I had made of things, when who should go by but Betty and Stigler! If there was one man in the town I disliked, it was Stigler. He was one of those narrow-faced individuals who goes around with a perpetual sneer. I never heard of him saying or doing anything good to any one. It was said of him that he was so mean that he grew a wart on the back of his neck to save buying a collar button!
Stigler was in love with Betty. I didn't blame him for that; but what she could see in a fellow like him got me! I was jealous—I know I was jealous, and I told Betty so when she accused me of it that night.
"Dawson," she said, "you act like a jealous, spoiled child."
And then the love, that had been growing in my heart, became too great to contain.
"Betty," I cried hotly, "you know how much I love you! Do you wonder that I'm jealous, when I see you with that man?"
"And why shouldn't I be with him?" she said archly.
"Well, you can't be with him any more," I said.
"Hoity-toity! and who are you to tell me whom I shall or shall not go with?"
Her words were discouraging, but something in her eyes. . . .