Miss Bonner brushed her napkin across her mouth rather hurriedly and excused herself from the table. Robbie Belle watched her retreating down the long vista of the dining-room.
“Would you honestly choose to go with her if you could, Berta?” she asked, “grand opera is only something to see and hear and then it is all over.”
“Oh, Robbie Belle!” groaned Berta, “how about the Dinner? That is only something to eat, and then it is all over too.”
“Why don’t you go if you want to?” inquired Robbie Belle as she reflectively picked up her roll again. “We can invite somebody else to take your place at the table. Bea and Lila are going to the hothouse for smilax and chrysanthemums.”
“Why don’t I go?” Berta leaned back and drew a long and melancholy sigh from the bottom of her boots. “Girls,” she turned to the others who were still lingering over their breakfast, “she asks why I don’t go to hear grand opera. And it costs two dollars railroad fare even on a commutation ticket, and seats are three dollars up, and I have precisely thirty-seven cents to last me till Christmas.”
“Oh,” commented Robbie Belle repentantly, “I didn’t think. I’d love to pay for all of you, only I haven’t any money either.”
Berta clutched at her heart and bent double in a bow of gratitude unspeakable. Robbie Belle continued to stare at her thoughtfully. “If you truly want to, Berta, we might save up and go to the opera some other day. I’m willing.”
“Willing! Dear child! Willing! Behold how she immolates herself upon the altar of friendship! She is willing to go to grand opera and sit listening to sweet sounds from dawn to dark——”
“Oh, Berta!” interrupting in alarm, “not from dawn to dark really? How about——”
“Luncheon?” the other caught up the sentence tragically. “Ah, no, but calm thyself, dear one. Be serene—as usual. There is an intermission for luncheon. We could go to a restaurant. It would be a restaurant with a vinegar cruet in the centre of the table and plates of thick bread at each end and lovely little oyster crackers for the soup. Perhaps if you had two dollars extra you might order terrapin.”