“Oh, I thought you were coming to them! They are to meet to-night, are they not, in Susie Rushworth’s room?”
“That is correct.”
“And I am to be present?” said Betty.
“You are to be present, if you will.”
“Why do you say ‘if you will?’ You know quite well that I shall be present.”
“Martha West will also be there,” continued Fanny. “She will go through very much the sort of thing you went through last week, and she will be given a week to consider before she finally decides whether she will join. Betty, have you made up your mind what to do? You might tell me, mightn’t you? I am your own—your very own—cousin, and it was through my father you got admitted to this school.”
“Thanks for reminding me,” said Betty; “but I don’t know that I do feel as grateful as I ought. Perhaps that is one of the many defects in my nature. You have praised me in a kind way, but you don’t know me a bit. I am full of faults. There is nothing good or great about me at all. You had best understand that from the beginning. Now, I may as well say at once that I intend to be present at the Specialities’ meeting to-night.”
“You do! Have you read Rule I.?”
“Oh, yes, I have read it. I have read all the rules.”