"I don't do enough," Betty replied--"but I have a dear family and we go out together in the machine a lot."

Going out with Ted was a great event, for Mrs. Lee said that she might, "though this is not to be taken as a regular break in our ideas,"

Betty's mother was careful to add.

"I don't care, Mother," said Betty, "only I wish I didn't have to say that my mother doesn't like to have me do it."

"You can make your own excuses, Betty."

"Of course. But if the boys think you don't want to go with them it makes them mad and you won't get asked again."

"And that would be terrible," laughed her mother, who had little fear but that Betty would have enough "dates" to keep her happy.

"Yes, it would," Betty answered, but a little smile crept about her lips.

"How would it do just to say that you are allowed very few engagements, especially at night?"

"I might work out something else. You should have seen--or heard--how _dumb_ it sounded, what I said to Ted!"

"There he is, my daughter," said Mrs. Lee as the bell rang. Betty looked in the gla.s.s, patted a refractory lock, and walked sedately through the hall and into the front room, where Ted, all correct, in a new top-coat, and carrying hat and gloves, waited, having been admitted by d.i.c.k.

Ted rose and shook hands, as Betty entered, but said that he was late and that if she would put on her wraps he "thought they'd better start."

Mrs. Lee came in then and Betty ran back for her wraps, thankful that they were new, this year, and that her gloves were everything that could be desired. She had worn her prettiest dress and hoped that Ted, who was accustomed to taking out girls, would find nothing lacking in her _ensemble_.

"Betty's beginning rather young," said Mr. Lee thoughtfully, coming in from the garage where he had been putting in his car. "That is a good car young Dorrance is driving. Do you suppose it is his own?"

"Very likely, though I do not know, either."

"There were some others, so I imagine it is a 'theatre party.'"

"All the better--but I'd like to keep Betty from all that till she is older. I shall, too. She is obedient and sensible. We shall have this the exception rather than the rule."

"I'm glad to leave it to you, Mother," replied Mr. Lee.

"I'll warrant," laughed his wife.

Betty need not have worried about Ted's superior knowledge of the ways of society. He was only a high school boy after all, and though Mrs.

Dorrance had been left a widow with plenty of means, she was a woman of culture and of a certain both practical and realistic sense when it came to social affairs. Real things that mattered and not foolish forms of convention governed her and provided for her boys a certain freedom, while asking of them the ordinary courtesies and consideration of gentlemen.

Another senior boy and a senior girl were in the car, Betty found, and she was glad to settle beside the senior girl in the back seat while Ted and his old friend Harry sat in front.

The "theatre party" was a very modest one, for Betty was not led to a box. But they had good seats, well in front in the balcony, and Betty enjoyed all the little attentions that Ted knew so well how to give, though as a matter of course.

The playing of the orchestra happened to be just what Betty liked best, not so much of the musical fireworks, but the lovelier selections from the cla.s.sics. Even Ted was forgotten during one number till as she leaned back with a little sigh after it was over he said, "You liked that as much as I did, didn't you? Do you do much with your violin now?"

"Scarcely a bit," she whispered, "but I love to hear it. How did you know I played?"

"A little bird told me," said Ted.

CHAPTER XVII: "JUST LIKE A FISH"

"Look at Betty!" cried Kathryn, who was not taking part in the swimming meet, but was a part of the audience. "Isn't she graceful? What a dive!

Betty's a regular fish for the water!"

"She went into the water like a bird _catching_ a fish," replied Carolyn, who had memories of a northern lake in summer.

"Yes; but she says she likes the water and feels at home in it. She is a natural swimmer, I suppose, if there is such a thing."

The seats around the pool were full of spectators, some mothers as well as girls from the different high schools concerned in the meet. Others leaned forward, all interest, from the balcony above, among them Mrs.

Lee and Amy Lou. Betty had located her mother before the meet proper began and welcomed her with a smiling salute from a distance. To Amy Lou, who waved wildly at her older sister, she gave a separate salute, and blew her a kiss. Betty looked happy and unworried, a trim little figure in her tight, dark blue bathing suit.

A group of soph.o.m.ore girls were equipped with Lyon High banners and sat together on one side of the pool, ready to root for their own school and their own cla.s.s swimmers as well. When Betty came out for the diving events, they cheered for her. Amy Lou was frightened and squealed out a little when Betty made a "back" dive that was greeted with general applause. Mrs. Lee held her breath for a minute, afraid that Betty would hit the diving board and gave a sigh of relief when that did not happen.

Carolyn, who sat beside Mrs. Lee, turned to her enthusiastically to say, "Wasn't that _splendid_? Betty is getting better and better!"

"I hope she won't do that again, though," said Betty's mother.

"Oh, that's perfectly safe for Betty, Mrs. Lee. They wouldn't let her try it if she weren't used to it and Betty can just do almost anything.

Besides, it isn't as close to the board when she does it as it looks. If you were right up at that end you'd see."

"I see. I have heard Betty talk about all this so much, but I must say that all the remarks about this and that sort of a stroke and the different kinds of diving have rather gone over my head. I've not been able to get to the little meets the girls have had. This is delightful, the big pool and all the excitement. No wonder the girls like it, but Betty did not seem to be excited over it or care about taking first place. I wonder why?"

"Betty's pretty level-headed," laughed Carolyn. "She's getting ready to do big things in her next two years, you see, big things for the G. A.

A. So she isn't going to get all worked up now. I shouldn't wonder if she did get the best record for the diving, though. Those other girls weren't half so good on that event, though that senior girl from North High is a wonder in swimming. Wait till those speed tests--or events--come off and watch her. Without her cap Betty'd be a goldfish, Kathryn!"

Mrs. Lee consulted her program. It was a help to see everything down, in black and white. Here was a certain sort of a stroke, and she could see it being done. "Amy Lou," said she, "watch how they do it. Some day you will be doing that perhaps."

"Oh, yes," soberly said Amy Lou, watching the next group of contestants come in from out behind the curtains and stand in readiness. "I'm going to be a G. A. A."

"The whole a.s.sociation, Amy Lou?" asked Kathryn, who liked to tease a little.

Amy Lou smiled a little. She didn't mind Kathryn, who was always remembering her in some little way. "Yes," said she. "I can swim now a little, up at Grandma's, can't I Mamma?"

"Yes, dear--but watch and keep still. The girls are going to start."

Amy Lou had stopped jumping at the pistol shot and now leaned over with the rest, though she had to stand up to do it, to see the slim young bodies cleave the clear water of the pool, swim the length of it, turn, pushing their toes against the concrete wall of the pool and start for the other end.

The diving included "front, back and running," the program said. Then there were a "twenty-yard back stroke for speed, a twenty-yard side stroke for speed and a twenty-yard free style for speed," and Carolyn explained that "free style" meant "do it any way you want to--just get there!"

"Will Betty try to win on speed?" asked Mrs. Lee.

"I doubt it. Betty's working on trying to do everything just right, and grace and ease in the water, and keeping your head, I guess, from what I hear her say. You see, you have to do your breathing a certain way, though that doesn't seem to be any trouble to Betty."

"It looks painful to me," said Mrs. Lee.

"Watch Betty and you won't think so."