"There it was, Betty, just the sweet way you thought about it and not the way Mathilde told me. You were right. I don't believe Peggy Pollard _would_ say mean things about a girl she knows as well as she does me, and maybe not about anybody, though you are _too_ trustful of your friends, Betty!"

"Am I?"

"Yes, I'm afraid so; but I think it's a good fault and I'm going to cultivate it."

Kathryn slipped her hand through Betty's arm as she spoke. "Well, just then Carolyn spoke up. 'Mathilde Finn didn't say it that way when she repeated it to Kathryn,' she said."

"'What do you mean, Carolyn?' Peggy asked. She looked just as surprised as could be. Then she whirled around to me. 'Kathryn, _what_ did Mathilde tell you?'

"I sort of hesitated, you know. A body would. And Peggy asked me again.

'From what Carolyn says, I imagine that Mathilde has said something horrid,' she said.

"Well, I just got the impression, Peggy, that you were criticising my looks and while I'm not posing as a beauty, it wasn't awfully pleasant to think that you would say what Mathilde said you did."

"'Kathryn!' Peggy said. She looked sort of helpless, you know, as if she didn't know what to say and probably thought I wouldn't believe her.

Then, I don't remember how it all came around, but Carolyn helped out and quoted what Peggy had just said and asked me to believe Peggy and I said I would and Peggy said a lot of things and I hated to have them think I wanted to be thought pretty and so I said so and I told just exactly what Mathilde had said and Peggy told as nearly as she could remember just exactly what she had said, and the girls all said that they didn't think me sensitive about my looks and knew that I just cared about having Peggy like me. So it turned out all right and it was Carolyn that did it after all. You can like Carolyn better than me any time, Betty!"

Betty laughed and squeezed the arm in hers. "How we do change," said she. "But I told you all about how I feel about my dear friends. And you said '_all_ the girls.' Was any one there beside you and Peggy and Carolyn?"

"Sure enough--I didn't tell you. I think from what Carolyn said she did mean to have just Peggy and me--and you, of course, if you could have come. But then, not being sure about Peggy after all, she thought perhaps she'd ask somebody else in your place. So on the car there were Dotty Bradshaw and Mary Emma Rowland and she asked them to come. They accepted after a little hesitation on account of being expected at home.

But Carolyn said that they could telephone home from her house and that she would herself to let them know that it was all right, if they wanted her to. You know how hospitable Carolyn is, and her mother lets her do these things. I imagine that they knew it was the first of school and she would be wanting to see some of us. Anyhow, there was a special lunch for us, outdoors on the big porch. I'm sorry you missed it."

"So am I. But under the circ.u.mstances I couldn't. And now that is all over and you haven't a worry have you?"

"No. I'd a little rather Dotty hadn't heard what Mathilde said to me, for she almost despises Mathilde anyhow. But it can't be helped and everybody said they wouldn't say a word and would treat Mathilde 'the same as ever.' And you would have laughed to hear Dotty, when Carolyn used that expression."

"'The same as ever?' she asked. 'Then that doesn't bind me except about this little trick of hers. _Sure_ I'll treat Mathilde the same as ever!'" Kathryn was laughing now.

Betty looked thoughtfully at Kathryn. "Dotty speaks too quickly and sharply, I'm afraid. I felt real uncomfortable when she had that pa.s.sage at arms with Mathilde that day. But Dotty is a sincere person and she may have some reason of her own about Mathilde."

"I haven't a doubt. But I thought about you, Betty, when I said to the girls I'd rather not have it make any difference with the way they treated Mathilde. You're always so fair to everybody, and this wasn't so much after all."

"It was the spirit it showed or you _thought_ it showed on Peggy's part that worried you, and that is important when it comes to a nice friend like Peggy; but I think you were wonderfully nice about it, and--thank you for your opinion of me. That's another thing for me to live up to!"

"I don't think you need worry about that, Betty Lee. But to change the subject, you're going to go on the G. A. A. hike a week from Sat.u.r.day, aren't you?"

"Why, I don't know, Kathryn. I hadn't thought about it much. There's so much to do at home, and Sat.u.r.day is the only day there, that I'm not sure I can. I ought to help Mother, for with three of us to get ready for fall and winter in school, to say nothing of Amy Louise, and meals now for everybody, Mother is just as rushed with work as _we_ imagine _we_ are in school."

"We really are," insisted Kathryn. "I think your mother will want you to have some outdoors on Sat.u.r.days, and I know that you help some every day. So do you mind if I ask her about it, if we manage to have the mothers see each other down town?"

"I don't mind a bit, and I think the G. A. A. hike will be great fun.

Suppose Lucia Coletti will want to go?" Betty looked roguishly at Kathryn as she spoke.

"And if Lucia, then our friend Mathilde, to be sure. Well, anyhow we must be sure to ask Lucia. She'll probably want to be a G. A. A. If she lives in Italy, she probably will know how to swim, and don't they walk and hike a lot in Switzerland?"

Betty asked Kathryn why she was sure Lucia could swim if she lived in Italy and Kathryn replied that she might live on a hill-top for all she knew, but that rich foreigners always took trips to the water, "and isn't the Mediterranean right there?"

Betty could not answer that it was not and so they dropped this subject, not forgetting the G. A. A. hike in prospect.

CHAPTER VIII: THE G. A. A. BREAKFAST HIKE

Dear me--the hosts of things to be decided during these first weeks of school! But wasn't it interesting?

There was talk of a new sorority. There was the revelation of some that had existed before, _sub rosa_. Indeed everything was secret and the way the rules were substantially avoided without breaking the letter of the law was another astonishing feature. Betty Lee did not quite understand that yet. The sorority fever had not struck the little group of her especial friends in their freshman year. There had been some of the girls who were what the rest called "snooty" or "high hat," the terms in common parlance for a species of sn.o.bbery. But as "little freshmen"

their a.s.sumptions made small impression on their a.s.sociates of the freshman cla.s.s.

Prominent juniors had been paying some attention to Lucia Coletti and incidentally to Betty and Mathilde and Carolyn. Peggy and Kathryn seemed to be left out. Nothing had been said so far, but notice had been taken, no doubt. Betty was thoughtful. She had been thrown with Lucia first because she could be of service to her. Now no delicate withdrawal was possible because Lucia, naturally depending upon Betty for much information and liking Betty very much, a fact that Betty did not realize, turned to her for companionship whenever their work made it possible.

Betty saw that her first impression of Lucia had not been entirely correct. To be sure, Lucia had been spoiled, as an independent American girl would view her upon first acquaintance, adding the feeling of rank to that of the superiority of wealth and opportunity. But in some respects Lucia was timid, and Betty had some idea now of how she had dreaded the new environment. Any timidity was hidden, however, behind a reserve which had a little dignity and which Betty told herself was a bit of the Count Coletti.

Then again Lucia would be impulsive and in high spirits with Betty's friends and tell them little things about her old schools abroad, for she had been in several, owing to the travel of her parents. This was all very interesting and Betty was becoming fond of Lucia, though she was sure that Carolyn, Kathryn, and Peggy would always stand first. But Betty liked "lots of friends."

How high school affairs were impressing themselves upon Lucia Coletti she did not say and the girls did not ask, though they could see that she was interested. She spoke English very well indeed and made excellent recitations in her different studies. To every one she was uniformly polite, but not even Betty was invited to her confidence, though it must be said that Betty, absorbed in putting through her own work, did not notice it.

Among other things difficult to get started early, the G. A. A. hike was numbered. The heavy work of the opening weeks hindered the teachers who were in charge of athletics. Then _Jupiter Pluvius_ took a hand and there was a week of almost steady rain. But warm days in October with bright sunshine came along and at nearly the end of the month the day was "actually appointed," said Peggy.

"It's a shame that we couldn't have had it when it was so nice and warm," said Mathilde, who was privately intending to offer Lucia a ride to the spot chosen for the breakfast.

"But it would have been too warm for the hike," answered Lucia herself, who was a member of the Girls' Athletic a.s.sociation by this time and on one of the committees. "I think that I shall enjoy that."

"Won't it be too far for you?" asked Mathilde, who was lazy, and only "going in" for the easiest form of athletics she could find, though she was fond of games, which saved the day for her, and she liked the interpretive dancing, in which she was quite graceful.

"Only five miles?" asked Lucia. "Why, we think nothing of that in----"

Lucia broke off, for her mother had warned her not to compare anything to her life abroad. She made an excuse of speaking to Miss Fox, who had this expedition in charge, and moved away from Mathilde quite naturally.

Lucia, however, was quite friendly with Mathilde. What girl would not like another who was flatteringly attentive and evidently impressed with her? Moreover, Mathilde was a fair, prettily-dressed girl, attractive enough when she chose to be.

"Listen, Finny," said Dotty Bradshaw, coming up to Mathilde. "You can be on the soup committee if you like and ride out with us."

"'Soup Committee!' I hope you are not going to have soup for breakfast!"

"Don't be so literal, Finny. Of course we are not going to have soup or anything like it. Can you cook wieners?"

"I should _say not_!" Mathilde started away in disgust. "Besides, I want to take the hike and get credit for it."

"Haw, haw, haw," said Dotty in low tones to her friend Selma, who knew Mathilde almost as well as Dotty did. "When I get outdoors I shall indulge in 'laffcher,' I think. But wouldn't I have been sold if she had taken me up? It would just about have spoiled the fun the committee is going to have!"

"Dotty, Dotty, Dotty!" reproved Selma; but a smile and dancing eyes showed that she did not blame the irrepressible Dotty too severely.

This took place at a meeting of various committees on the Friday before the breakfast hike. Betty had been persuaded to be on the committee for refreshments, though she, too, would have liked to take the entire hike and earn the points for it. But it would be fun. Kathryn said that any girl who had really done any cooking was capable of bossing the entire affair and if Betty would be chairman of the committee, she would impart all her own valuable knowledge of what to cook and how on picnics.

"Kathryn Allen, I've never been to a camp and all you other girls have.

I simply can't be chairman!" This was Betty, in the corner of the big room where the refreshment committee was getting together to discuss arrangements.

"Listen, Betty. The chairman _bosses_ the rest. _They_ do the work!"