"I am sure that it is a perfectly proper friendship, Betty," a.s.sented Betty's mother. "The Gwynne place has been mentioned more than once in the paper and I read of a large garden party given there by Carolyn's mother, about two weeks ago, I think."

"Oh, was that the gorgeous place that had the pictures of it in the Sunday paper?" Betty looked a little dismayed. "Why, they must be very stylish and wealthy folksbut Carolyn likes meI know she does."

"To be stylish and wealthy, my dear, does not always make people sn.o.bs, and there are other a.s.sets that they may recognize in other people, too.

If you and Carolyn are congenial, there is no reason why there should not be a pleasant friendship between you, at least now."

Betty looked thoughtful. "You mean that after a while their way of living might make a difference and that Carolyn would have different friends!"

"Perhaps. I don't know, Betty. Separation sometimes makes it impossible to keep in touch. But don't let me start unhappy thoughts about this. I shall do everything I can to let you have friends and a happy time. You always have; why not here in the city? Just so you have none that will hurt you. But you are not likely to choose that kind, I think. Please remember, Betty, that you can't touch coal without getting black."

"But you ought to be friendly with everybody, oughtn't you?"

"Certainly, so far as being kindbut let the older folks do the reforming, Betty. Well, all this about one innocent party? What should you wear, Betty?"

"Just what I was going to ask you! But I'll find out from Peggy. They are going to play tennis and things. I wish I had a real 'sport costume,' for I don't suppose they'll wear 'party dresses' to an outdoor party like this."

"Perhaps we can fix something up, Betty. If you only hadn't outgrown everything so! We can't afford new clothes right now, after all our moving and what we have had to buy to fix up this place. And social prominence does not enter into our plans right at present." Mrs. Lee smiled at Betty, who was sitting in a low chair now with her hands folded on her knees.

"It never does," laughed Betty, "but you usually can't help having it. I should think it would be a rest not to be president of a club or responsible for church things. Nevertheless, Mother, don't hide your light under a bushel!"

With this advice, Betty jumped up to run out into the kitchen and pantry, for investigation of the cooky jar. Crumbs about showed that Doris or d.i.c.k had been there before her, and she heard Amy Lou's childish laughter coming from the back yard. But Betty's lessons were hard for the next day and she returned to the living room to take one of her texts back to her room and study a while by herself.

CHAPTER VII: CAROLYN'S GARDEN PARTY

The rest of the week went by in pleasant antic.i.p.ation of the garden party, Betty's first. To be sure there had been "loads of picnics," and lawn fetes for the church, usually in the spring or early summer. But a real "garden party" _must_ be different. There was much consultation about clothes between Betty and her mother. One of the girls had said that of course one wouldn't wear her _old_ clothes, or her Girl Scout or Camp Fire Girl suits, as you would on a picnic to the woods. _She_ was going to play tennis, and her mother had gotten her an "_awfully pretty_" white sport suit!

Well, what _was_ a sport suit anyhow? Mrs. Lee took Amy Lou down town, one morning when Mr. Lee could drive them down, and spent a rather trying morning trying to shop with a child. She looked at dresses and patterns, with a view of fitting Betty suitably for the occasion. But the new things were expensive. Finally, by letting down a skirt Betty had and arranging a suitable blouse, or upper part, what Betty called a "near-sport" frock was evolved.

Then, after all the effort, Betty came home one afternoon with a new idea. "Mother, it's turned so awfully hotIndian summer, I supposethat Peggy says she isn't going to play tennis or anything on a court, and she's going to wear her light green flat crepe that is her second best, or else some real cool summer dress, whatever happens to be ready. Peggy doesn't care! I believe I'll just wear my pretty thin blue and let it go at that. I don't want to play tennis either, especially when I don't know anybody much and not so very many can play. Carolyn says she's going to pay all her social debts at once and have a big party, so I'll be lost in the mult.i.tude."

Like Janet, Mrs. Lee privately thought that Betty would never be "lost in the mult.i.tude," but she did not say so. "So Carolyn is paying all her 'social debts,' is she?" asked Betty's mother, amused at the "social debts" expression. "It is just as well that you have decided on the blue. It will look pretty in the gardens and _I'd_ dress for the flowers instead of the tennis court."

"Aren't you poetic, Mother! It's a shame that you went to all the trouble about the other dress, though."

"That will be so much clear gain, child. You now have another frock, which will come in for service at some time, no doubt."

When the day and the hour arrived, Betty's father arrived home late for lunch, as he could do on Sat.u.r.day, unless there were some executive meeting. That settled the question of how to get to the party, and Betty called up two of her friends to say that her father was going to take her and that she would stop for them if they liked. Naturally they were glad of the opportunity, for the Gwynne estate was out at some distance, _almost_ a "country estate," Peggy had said. "Call up," said Betty's father, "when you want to come home, or rather, when I should start from home in time to reach you. We'll take note of the time we spend getting there. Then I'll bring a machine full of whomever you like."

"Oh, that is so good of you, Mr. Lee!" exclaimed Dotty Bradshaw, one of the freshman girls whom Betty had invited to ride with them. "But perhaps Betty will want somebody else, though," added Dotty, happening to think that perhaps she was taking too much, for granted.

"Why, Dotty, of _course_ if we call for you we'll see you back home.

We're sort of new to the city, though, so perhaps you can tell me who live places that wouldn't be too far away."

"Most anybody that attends our high school would be all right," answered Dotty, "because girls that live in other parts of town would go to other high schools."

"Of course! I didn't think!"

"Well, I don't know about that," said Selma Rardon, the other freshman in the car. "There are sometimes people way out, like Carolyn herself."

Betty was already a.s.sured by the very different dresses of the girls with her, and when she arrived at the beautiful place where Carolyn lived she thought how silly she had been to worry about clothes. Still, you wanted to be suitably dressed, and when you knew hardly anybody, there was some excuse. And oh, there _were_ boys, too. She saw a number of lads whose faces she knew by having seen them in the different freshman cla.s.ses. Then there were others whom she did not know at all.

By the time Betty and her friends turned into the drive which led to the house, most of the boys and girls had arrived, it seemed and were dotted in groups all over the closely clipped lawn which still looked like velvet between its flower beds and shrubbery. Oh, wasn't it beautiful?

Betty was so glad that her father could see where the party was.

"I was afraid you weren't coming at all, Betty," said Carolyn, squeezing Betty's hands, "but there are still a few that haven't gotten here."

"I waited for Father to bring us," replied Betty, "and we didn't quite know how long it would take to drive out."

"Well, you're here now and I'm going to ask Peggy to see that you meet everybody. I'll have to be darting here and there and everywhere to see that they all have something to do."

Carolyn looked so pretty, Betty thought, and she wore the simplest of summer dresses, to all appearances, though the material was fine and sheer, a sort of chiffon, Betty thought; for Betty was just becoming aware of styles and materials, matters which she had left to her mother, and most wisely.

There was the usual tendency of the girls and boys to separate into groups of boys and groups of girls, but Carolyn had announced that first they would stroll to see the flowers and go to the pool and the greenhouse and that each boy must join some girls, not necessarily _one_ girl. In consequence the groups were mixed by the time Betty and her friends began their stroll around the grounds and Peggy took Betty into the midst of one. Dotty Bradshaw accompanied them, though Selma had been drawn away by one of her special friends. Dotty was "cute," Peggy said.

Here were Mary Emma Howland and Mary Jane Andrews, the two Marys of Betty's algebra cla.s.s. Then Chet Dorrance, whom Betty afterward found to be Ted's brother, was feeding the goldfishes in the lovely pool from a box of something held by Kathryn Allen. Budd LeRoy perched on the stone arm of a seat that curved artistically in grey lines, back a little from the pool, and talked spasmodically to Chauncey Allen, Kathryn's brother, and Brad Warren. Budd, Chauncey and Bradford were not freshmen, Betty thought, but she wasn't sure. Who _could_ be sure about all the freshmen there were? Chet Dorrance looked a good deal like his brother, though his hair was lighter and Betty decided that he didn't look quite so smart, but not many of the boys could touch Ted for looks.

The boys all wore coats, though she knew that some of them, at least, would have felt more comfortable without them, as she had seen them Friday at school. Later on, however, when games and sports began, many a coat was to be found hung on the back of a garden bench or over the slats of a trellis. Carolyn may have given the word. Betty did not know.

She usually kept her eye out for what boys did, on account of d.i.c.k, whose social etiquette she helped superintend, little as she knew herself. Between three and four o'clock it was very warm indeed. Later it began to cool off and seem like early October.

"Isn't this the loveliest place?" she said to Chauncey Allen, by way of making conversation. After introducing Chauncey to Betty, Peggy had darted off to start Budd and Bradford in tennis, about which they had inquired. Chet Dorrance and Kathryn Allen had finished feeding the goldfish and sauntered to the big stone seat, where Chauncey suggested that he and Betty also sit. Kathryn was a pretty, slight little girl with an olive complexion, very black hair and dark eyes. Chauncey was as dark in his coloring but was of a much larger build.

"Pretty nice," replied Chauncey. "They've got fine gardens and a good tennis court, that much is certain; but their house is pretty old."

"But it looks sodistinguished," said Betty. "Those big pillars and the wide porch and the drive with that sort of porch built over itI never can remember the name for it."

"You can't prove it by me," grinned Chauncey. "I don't know either, although we have one. Yes, the Gwynne place is considered a fine old estate, so my dad says. Mother says she wouldn't have it for it isn't modern enough to suit her. She doesn't like high ceilings and great rooms that are hard to heat in winter."

"Oh, I _love_ them," cried Betty, "though maybe it's because I never have to bother about furnaces and things like that. I'd just love to have a great house and big grounds like this."

"Where do you live?" asked Chauncey.

"In an apartment. My father's just come to the city this fall and we took the best place Mother could find. We still have a home in my home town, but I don't suppose we'll ever go back there to stay."

"Would you like to?"

Betty shook her head negatively. "I'm thrilled to death to be in our big high school!"

Chauncey grinned pleasantly. "It is pretty good," he acknowledged, "but I hate to study sometimes. I hope football will go all right for our team this year. There's one of the big high schools that is our greatest rival, and O, boyif we don't beat them this year!"

Betty had not heard about that, but she loyally echoed Chauncey's wish.

"How about going up to the house for that fruitade Carolyn said would be ready pretty soon?" asked Chauncey, including the group, for two other girls had come up to the pool and were now joining Kathryn and Chet.

The suggestion was promptly acted upon and Betty now found herself walking between tall pampas gra.s.s and well trimmed bushes of all sorts along a path to the house and talking to Chet Dorrance, who asked her if she had bought her season ticket for football yet.