“I haven’t any date at all, Chet, but it would be awkward, wouldn’t it, since Jack said he was waiting?”
“I suppose it would. So long, then Betty. Say, Betty——,” Chet turned back hesitatingly. “I’d go a little slow with Jack Huxley. What little I know about him isn’t so good.”
“What is it, Chet? He’s smart and a perfect gentleman whenever I see him.”
“Oh, I don’t suppose there’s much out of the way. He runs with a pretty wild crowd, though, and he hasn’t been here long.”
“Well, I scarcely think that he would be invited by the countess to a party for Lucia if he weren’t all right.” Betty spoke with some decision and Chet looked at her soberly.
“Don’t you think so? Maybe not. Did you meet him there?”
“Yes. Good-bye, Chet. I’ll be ready tomorrow night and tell your mother that I’d love to dress up and be in a booth.”
Betty, who rather regretted a bit of steel that she had put into her tone before, made this farewell as friendly as possible. But Chet’s answering smile could scarcely be called one and he hurried down the hall to another exit, in order to avoid Jack, Betty supposed. Oh, well, she couldn’t help it. Jack must be all right! Why, he was a perfect dear, as Mathilde called him. Not that Mathilde’s opinion of any one would be a recommendation, however. He did have some different ideas of things and they had had a few discussions, not about anything very important, but about social life and kinds of girls and boys and the “puritanic ideas” of some parents. That was Jack’s expression, and Betty had wondered if her own parents could be a little too strict sometimes.
Anyhow, Jack was a nice friend. He had invited her to his birthday party at the Huxley new home and she certainly was going with him when he invited her. Chet need not think that he could tell her what society to choose. She had been to things with Budd and Brad and Chauncey through the year and she simply was not going to let Chet take her to every party the way it had been for a while. This would be an interesting party, for Jack had just told her that he was not inviting many from the high school. “It will be mostly from the old families that Mother knows,” he had said, “and you will receive a note from her. But I wanted you to be sure to save the date.”
Jack was waiting for her on the steps and joined her with a touch of his cap and that attentive way of bending over her that was so nice. Jack seemed to be considerably older than some of the junior boys. He must be all right! That story about his having been dismissed from the eastern school was all nonsense. Of course his mother wanted him near her!