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It was Bobby whom Betty wanted to have the blue blouse just as soon as the shopgirl finished it. "Now, what do you think of that?" Betty demanded, after she had delivered, almost in a breath, a rather garbled story of the strange girl and the black mare from England. "Goodness, Betty, how wonderful!" exclaimed her friend. "I do so want to see that over-blouse you bought.
Betty was as much interested now in the other girl as she was in the orange silk over-blouse. "Why!" she exclaimed, "you are English, aren't you? And you and your family can't long have been over here." "I have been here only two months," said the girl quietly. There was a certain dignity in her manner that impressed Betty. She had very dark, smoothly arranged hair and a beautiful complexion.
The little bell over it jingled pleasantly at their entrance; but it was a tall and rather grim-looking woman who came from the back of the shop to meet them instead of the English girl with whom Betty had dealt on her former visit. "Humph!" said Mrs. Staples, for it was she, when she spied the over-blouse under Betty's coat.
The over-blouse of blue and white checked silk, slashed at the throat for the crisp black tie, and the gray corduroy riding skirt and smart tan shoes were at once suitable and becoming. "I'll have to have some new clothes for school," declared Betty, who had a healthy interest in this topic. "We can't wear very fussy things, though Bobby sent me the catalogue.
Although the bell stopped quivering when Betty closed the door, the girl did not look up from her work. Sharp-eyed Betty saw that the stranger was knitting, and she seemed to be engaged upon another over-blouse like that in the window, save that the silk in her lap was of a pretty dark blue shade. Betty saw her full, red lips move placidly.
She might have told the warm-hearted customer who had bought the over-blouse a story that would indeed have spurred Betty's interest to an even greater degree. But the English girl was naturally of a secretive disposition, and she was among strangers. She turned back into the store when Betty had gone and the door, swinging shut, set the bell above it jingling again.
And you, too, Louise and Esther? Goodness me! suppose Carter had broken down on the road and hadn't brought me back in time "Libbie! For goodness' sake don't sit down in that chair. That package has got the loveliest orange silk over-blouse in it. Wait till you see it, Bobby."
"Then, Betty," said Bobby, "you went to that little store afterward, you said, where you got the over-blouse." "Ye es. But I didn't notice it while I was there. I was so excited over the blouse and so interested in Ida Bellethorne that I don't remember of looking in my bag to see if my locket was safe." "'Ida Bellethorne'?" repeated Bob in surprise. "Why! that's the name of Mr.
"It seems to ring enough, but it doesn't ring any money into my cash-drawer as I can see." "I sold my over-blouse out of the window, Mrs. Staples," said the girl. "Humph! What else?" "Er what else? Why why, she said she might come back for the one I am making." "Humph!" ejaculated Mrs. Staples a second time. "I don't see as that will fill my cellar with coal.
The conference broke up and Betty ran out to join her mates on the lake. Ida could not skate. And, anyway, she preferred to sit indoors with Mrs. Canary. Ida had the silk for another sweater in her bag, and that very hour she began to knit an over-blouse for Libbie, who had expressed a desire to possess one like those Betty and Bobby had bought.
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