Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 297, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 December 1911 — Miss Betty’s Bravery [ARTICLE]

Miss Betty’s Bravery

By VIRGINIA BLAIR

' - (Copyright, wi. hr Associated Literary Press.)

“Midget!” •; "Yes.” - fS ... “I am going to make fudge. Miss Beulah has gone to town, and there’s nobody but Miss Betty on guard. Buaanne has the chocolate, and I am going to contribute the milk. You needn’t bring anything but your sweet self.” Midget came trailing out into the dimness of the hall; her pink kimono gathered about her shivering figure. “I’m glad.” she said wistfully, “that we are going to do something exciting. This school is the limit, Margaret I’m so blue I could weep on your shoulder if you weren’t so unsympathetic.” “Fm unsympathetic because you haven’t any real woes,” was Margaret’s calm response. “You needn’t pose as an ill-used heroine simply because you can’t spend the week end with Mary Tempest” “It isn't just that” Midget hesitated. “If you only knew, Margaret” "I do know. Arthur Tempest is to be there, and your heart will break if' you don’t see him.” , “Perhaps his heart will break.” said little Midget, with a dignity -Which made Margaret stare at her. “We—we are engaged, Margaret” Margaret took her friend by the shoulders and shook her. “And you haven’t told us,” she cried; “yol haven’t told Suzanne and me —oh, Midget!” j “Well, you'see,” Midget explained, hastily, “it didn’t happen until today.” “But you haven’t seen him and yon didn’t get any letters, for I brought up the mail.” * “I know. But—Arthur proposed by telephone.” “Of all things!” Margaret clutched Midget’s arm. “How perfectly romantic, Midget Middleton.” “It wasn’t romantic at all,” Midget declared, miserably. A“I Wanted it to happen in a garden among the roses, or out in a boat in the moonlight.”

“Well, I wouldn’t care where it was, so that the man was Arthur Tempest,” said practical Margaret. “You’re a lucky girl. Come on up and tell us about it” , Curled up comfortably on the foot of Suzanne’s couch. Midget told her story. “I used to know Arthur when A whs a tiny little thing. Our families lived next door to each other, and that’s how I c&me to be so intimate with Mary Tempest Arthur .was educated abroad, and I haven’t seen him for years. He came back a month ago and Mary invited me down to help celebrate biß homecoming. And—be fell in love with me, and he’s going back to London this week, and Miss Beulah has chosen this time of all others to go and Miss Betty doesn’t dare give any of us permission to ledve the school while Mfss Beulah is gone—and so — I—l shan’t see him.” "Couldn’t you write to your mother and get permission?" Buzanne asked. “There isn’t time, Fve told Mumsie all about it, and I know she will say ‘bless you, my children,’ but that wop’t help me out —Arthur leaves tomorrow morning.” V “Why don’t you meet him somewhere and have it over?" Midget shook her head. “Mother wouldn’t like it She hates anything clandestine, and a man can’t think much of a girl who suggests a thing like that” Margaret, who was stirring the fudge energetically, suggested, “Why don’t you go down and explain things to Miss Betty?” “Do you think it would 'do any good?” “Try it.” When Midget entered the big school room she found Miss Betty sitting alone, her big yellow Cupid in her lap. Midget, standing In the door, asked, in a meek voice, “May I speak to you a minute, Miss Betty?” “Certainly,” was the gentle response. “I don’t want to do anything.” Midget began with great embarrassment, “that would be against the rules. But —but were you ever in love. Miss Betty?” v

The pale little lady opened her mouth, but not a word came. “I suppose I shouldn’t ask such a question,” Midget apologized, "but It did seem that If —If—you had ever cared very much for any one that you—you’d sympathise with me now. And Midget, whose feelings had been much wrought upon by the excitement of the day. broke down and wept "There, there, dearie," little Miss Betty quavered, patting the girl's hand; "tell me all about It.” Midget told her. sitting on a little stool at Miss Betty's feel, with Cupid smuggled between them. “And—lt seems as If I must see him Just once before he gofs.” she whispered, "and 1 know mother wouldn't object.” . “Beulah would be very angry," demurred poor Miss Betty. “She hasn’t much sympathy with sentiment" "But Miss Beulah isn't here —and— and if you only could. Miss Betty.” "What is it you want me to do?" h« little lady asked. V /“Let Arthur come to say good-by. ' can telephone, and he will be here

in hia'dfcr in fifteen minutes—and ft's only half-past eight, and it will be perfectly proper.” “But If Beulah should come,” faltered Miss Betty. “She won’t. She Isn’t due until morning, and—oh, please. Miss Betty” At last Miss Betty gave in and Midget kissed her and cried, “You’re a darling.” “It’s sweet of you to Isay so, my dear,” faltered Miss Betty, "but I don’t know what Beulah would say” But Midget was already at the telephone, calling up a number eagerly. In quick sentences she told the' glad news, hung up the receiver, hugged Miss Betty, flew upstairs and confronted the amazed girls with the cry, “He’s coming; he’s coming! Help me to get into my pink dress, Suzanne!” Midget in pink, with a wide, rosy ribbon bound about her bright locks, was a joy forever. “Finish the fudge, Margaret,” she commanded, “and I’ll take a plate down to MISS Betty and Arthur with your compliments.” So it was with the plate of sweets in her hand and with her pink slippers positively dancing down the polished stairway that Midget descended to meet at the bottom —Miss Beulah! * Miss Beulah put up her lorgnette and gazed at the radiant figure above her. 'y“What does this mean?” she demanded. v/ “Oh!” was all the reply made by the detracted Midget. ‘1 ask you Again, what does this mean?” “I —I,” Midget began, desperately, "was just bringing a plate of fudge to Miss Betty.” “Humph, and you donned your best gpwn to do it?” Silence. “Betty,” Miss Beulah’s voice was raised to summon her sister from the shadows where she w;as shrinking. “Betty, what does this mean?” , Mfss Betty came forward. She was ipo white that Midget placed herself by her side as if to shield her. “You mustn’t blame Miss Betty for anything,” she protested; “It’s all my fault.”

“What Is your fault?" And Midget, with her head held high, told the truth. “So you consented to this,” Miss Beulah asked her sister. "You allowed the discipline of the school to relax in my absence?” Befpre Miss Betty could answer there came outside the purr of a motor. ‘lt’s Arthur,” said Midget; “oh. It’s Arthur.*' She looked froth pale Miss Betty tQ wrathful Miss Beulah. “May I see him,” she asked meekly. “No,” thundered Miss Beulah. But Miss Betty, down-trodden Miss Betty, holding Cupid tightly in. her arms as if to defend herself from the shafts of her lister’s anger, sent back a flaming answer. “She shall see him, Beulah! Twenty years ago you sent away my lover without a word from me. You told him that if he came back with money he might marry me. He never came back—he died —In a far country. And since then I’ve had no one to love me but Cupid. You were hard then, and you are hard now. And there’s no harm In this —and she loves him— Beulah.” Miss Beulah stood as one petrified, then she waved her band to Midget and said in a choked voice, “Let him in.” Arthur was at the door, demanding entrance, but before Midget opened it she turned and gave Miss Betty a swift hug. “You’re a dear,” she said eagerly, “and you needn’t think that only Cupid cares for you—for Arthur and I shall love you all our lives, and —and—” with her voice close to Miss Betty’s ear, “when you can’t Btand Miss Beulah you shall come to us, and we’ll all live happy ever after, dearest.”