Betty hesitated, and glanced a little uneasily at Jack.
"I should like it," she said. "I've never been to the circus and it must be lovely, but—but——"
"Oh, Betty, you must go!" cried Jack eagerly. "It'll be so nice, and you can tell me all about it when you come home."
The time had been, and not so long before either, when Mrs. Randall would have been inclined to regard this invitation as an attempt at patronage, but she had been learning more than one lesson in these days of her convalescence, and Mrs. Hamilton's kindly advice was beginning to bear fruit.
"Lulu says her mother doesn't want us to wear anything especially nice," Winifred went on, "because we shall go around to see the animals before the circus begins, and it may be dusty. I've got a lovely new book out of the library; it's called 'Dorothy Dainty,' and I'm going to bring it up for Jack to read this afternoon. I know he'll like it."
Matters being thus happily arranged, Winifred hurried away to telephone her friend that Betty would be delighted to accept the invitation, and Betty made herself very useful, helping Mrs. Flynn with the Saturday cleaning, feeling all the time as if she were about to enter upon a new and very interesting experience.
"You're sure you don't mind, Jack," she said, stooping to kiss him at the last moment before going downstairs to join Winifred.
"Not a bit," said Jack heartily. "I hope you'll have a lovely time, and it'll be such fun to hear all about it."
"You're not a single mite jealous, are you?" said Betty, with a sudden recollection of her own feelings on another occasion.
"No, of course not. What does it feel like to be jealous?"