Betty glanced inquiringly at the other girls, but they shook their heads decidedly—the mumbling old crone was getting on their nerves.
"Not to-day," said Betty, as kindly as she could. "We are expecting company and we haven't time. Some other time perhaps."
"Some other day may be too late," said the old crone, leeringly. "Oh, yes, you will have all the time there is to be miserable in. And you will be! You will be! The curse be on you for refusing an old woman like me the price of her bread!" and she hobbled down the long drive muttering to herself and stopping once to shake her fist at the startled girls.
"Oh, did you ever!" Mollie exclaimed. Just then there was a sound of jolly, masculine laughter and around a corner of the house came the boys.
"Oh, I've never been so glad to see anybody in all my life!" said Grace with a little shiver, as the boys paused to gaze after the retreating form of the old hag. "It is such a relief to have some boys around!"
"I say! who's your venerable friend, Grace?" Roy inquired as he and his friends joined the girls.
"Yes, what did you do to her, Betty?" It was Allen Washburn who asked the question. He was a young lawyer, liked and admired by every one in Deepdale, and let it be said here that Betty was no exception to the general rule. And as for young Allen Washburn himself, he never sought to conceal his genuine admiration for the Little Captain. "The last I saw of her, she was shaking her fist at the house. She didn't seem to be in any too sweet a temper, either."
"It was just because we wouldn't let her read our fortunes," Betty explained. "Oh, I wouldn't let that old thing touch me!"
"I could tell your fortune for you, if you'd only let me," whispered Allen, so softly that only Betty heard. But that was as it should be, since it was intended for her ear alone.
"She looked just like a—oh, what do you call them?—the people that wander around all the time and never have any homes—oh, I know, gypsies," said Amy eagerly. "Wasn't she a gypsy, Will?"