Sally overheard the questions. She had always been in Carrie’s classes and knew how prone that young lady was to ask impertinent questions about matters which were really none of her business. She came to the rescue now.
“I’m glad you can write fairy-stories, Beth. It is so hard to get anyone to do anything of that sort. The girls will recite and sing, but essays and stories make them nervous.” Slipping her arm within Beth’s she led her away, ignoring alike Carrie’s presence and her impertinent questions.
“I’ll bring my lunch with me, too,” continued Sally. “I believe you and I could get along very well. Let us eat together. I haven’t any particular friend. Mabel Reynolds was, but she is away. I’d dearly love to have you for a friend.”
“I’d love to be your dearest friend. I never had a real intimate friend, except Helen Reed, and she’s in the other division.”
In the joy of these friendly overtures, Beth forgot Carrie and her questions.
Just before the afternoon session, Tilly came in breathless. Her fat body was palpitating like jelly. She wore a net dress made over a lining of blue near-silk. Her ribbons were new and crisp; her shoes and stockings white.
“I’ve heard a piece of news,” she began the instant her eyes fell upon the girls. “There’s a whole party planning to motor over from Point Breeze to visit school. They’ll be here for our program. They’re swells everyone of them. Mrs. Laurens is one of them. I’ve seen her. They’ve been all the summer at the Point Breeze Hotel. Her room costs twenty dollars a week. I’m glad I’m dressed up. I’m awful sorry for you, Beth. If I were you I’d sit back so they wouldn’t see me. They may never notice that you’re in the room. It’s a good thing that I sit in front of you and that I could go home and dress. I’m glad I wore this sash. My mother bought it in New York. It’s imported. She paid ten dollars for it.”
“Perhaps the visitors will be looking at your sash and not see us,” said Beth dryly. “Thank you for your suggestion; but I’ll not sit back away from your view. If Mrs. Laurens and her friends do not like my looks, they can turn their eyes some other way. It is my school and my seat and my dress. If anything about it doesn’t suit them, they know what they can do.”
It was rather a fiery speech for Beth. Sally squeezed her arm to give her a sort of moral support. Harvey Lackard, the freckle-faced boy with the crimson topknot, chuckled aloud.
“Give it to her, Beth,” he encouraged. “I never knew you had so much spunk. You don’t strike often, but when you do, you give it to them under the belt.”