"You pick your posies," he said, "and I'll get some tea for you and bring it right out here. You make her stay, Mrs. Martens; she needs a rest."
Sophie smiled at the little teacher. "You ought not to be out at all," she said, sympathetically.
"School closes in four days," explained little Miss Matthews; "after that I think I shall fall down and die, but I've got to keep up until then."
As the two women stood there at the gate together, they presented a striking contrast: Sophie in her black, modish garments, with the look upon her face of the woman who has been loved, and who has bloomed because of it; Miss Matthews, a faded shadow of what she might have been if love had not passed her by.
"How's Betty?" Miss Matthews asked, as she sat down on a bench on the little covered porch, and watched Sophie's slender fingers pull the sweet peas.
Sophie straightened up. "I'm worried about her," she said. "She and Anthony Blake went to see the air-ships, and I had a telephone message from Anthony that he had had a hurry call, and that Justin would look after Betty. That was two hours ago, and Betty hadn't returned when I left to come here——"
Captain Stubbs, appearing with a big loaded tray, gave important information.
"Did she have on a white dress?"
"Yes."
"Then she's gone flying with Justin Ford."