Читать книгу Adele Doring at Boarding School - Grace May North - Страница 10

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The next day Adele wrote a long letter to Carol Lorens telling her the good news that five of the Sunny Seven were to attend the Linden Hall boarding-school, that is, if there would be room for them. Mrs. Doring had written to Madame Deriby to inquire, and eagerly the five girls awaited an answering letter.

Meanwhile little Betty Burd was trying to be brave, but it was very hard. The day after the meeting at the Secret Sanctum, she went for a long ride on her pony, and, with tears slipping down her cheeks, she scolded herself: “You just ought to be ashamed, Betty Burd, when you have so much to be thankful for,” she said aloud as she rode through a little wood, where everything was peaceful and quiet, save now and then a rustle in the dry leaves when a squirrel darted across the path. “I’m not going to cry another tear!” she continued, as she whirled her pony’s head toward home. “Uncle George has done so much for me, and I don’t want him to even guess how I have longed to go to boarding-school with the other girls.”

As she turned in at the drive, Mr. Drexel’s car stopped a moment at the gate and her Uncle George leaped out. Betty was about to ride on, but he beckoned to her. “How’s my little Puss?” he called, pretending not to notice the reddened eyes.

“Oh, I’m all right, thank you, Uncle George,” the girl replied, trying to smile brightly, then, fearing that she would cry, she whirled her pony about and galloped to the barn, but her young Uncle George followed her.

He stabled the pony and then leading her to a garden bench, he exclaimed gaily, “Betty Bobbets, what’s this I hear about you going away to boarding-school?”

“Me?” gasped Betty in surprise. “Why, Uncle George, I’m not going at all. It’s just the other girls who are going. Mamma says that you have done so much for us already that she couldn’t think of asking you to send me. I wasn’t going to say anything about it, Uncle George, how did you know?”

The young man laughed. “Why, Puss,” he replied, “you don’t suppose that you could keep a secret from your old uncle, do you? But the way that I found out was that Mr. Drexel just now told me that Doris was going away to boarding-school and he said that he supposed that I was going to send Betty, and I said, ‘Sure thing, if the other girls are going.’”

“Oh, Uncle George!” Betty cried, scarcely able to believe what she had heard. “Really, truly, are you going to send me? Won’t it take a lot of money? Mother says that we cost you ever so much as it is.”

Taking both of her small hands in his, the young man replied earnestly, “Pet, your father was my older brother and he went without many things that he might send me away to college, and now that I am a prosperous editor, do you suppose that for one minute I am going to neglect the education of his only little girl, and my only little girl, too? Indeed I am not, and from now on I want you to think of me as though I were your own daddy. I will give you an allowance, but, if you need more money, promise me that you will write and ask for it.”

“Dear Uncle George,” Betty said as she looked up with a joyous light shining through the tears that would come, “how can I thank you?” Then, impulsively she threw her arms about his neck and gave him a bear hug.

The other girls were glad to hear that their youngest member could go, if they did, but as yet they had not received a letter from the matron of Linden Hall.

The following afternoon the seven girls met at Adele’s to review some of their studies. Of course it had been the practical Bertha’s suggestion.

“We don’t want to get behind,” she told them, “even if we are going to a boarding-school.”

“Girls,” Rosamond Wright declared, “I have my trunk almost packed and I’ll be ready to take the train the moment that Madame Deriby writes, ‘Come.’”

“But what if she writes, ‘Don’t come’?” Peggy Pierce inquired mischievously.

“Then I’ll unpack it again,” Rosamond declared quite undisturbed by the teasing, “but there isn’t much danger of the matron’s telling us not to come,” she added. “Why, we six girls will be a small fortune to her and she will take us even if she has to build an addition to the school.”

“Hurray! Here comes the postman,” Betty Burd exclaimed joyously. “Adele, what if he has the fatal letter?”

“Then I suppose that he will give it to me,” Adele replied merrily, as she went to the gate to meet Mr. Drakely. Then, turning around, with eyes shining, she triumphantly waved a white envelope. “Here it is,” she called to the eager group on the lawn, “but it is addressed to Mumsie, and she is down-town shopping and so we shall have to wait until she returns.”

“Oh-h-h!” came in doleful chorus.

“How can we wait?” Betty Burd moaned.

“It won’t be long, methinks,” Adele exclaimed, “for unless I am mistaken, I hear Mother’s step just beyond the lilacs.”

In another moment that gracious lady appeared and the girls swooped down upon her.

“Well! well!” Mrs. Doring exclaimed gaily. “Why am I so popular?”

“Oh, Mumsie,” Adele declared lovingly, “you know that you are always popular, but just now we want you to open this letter from Madame Deriby and tell us if we may go to the Linden Hall boarding-school.”

They led Mrs. Doring to a rustic bench and then crowded about her while she read aloud:

“My dear Mrs. Doring:

“Your letter of recent date was received and I am pleased to inform you that I have ample accommodations for the five young ladies.”

“Oh!” wailed Betty Burd. “That’s not counting me in.”

“Shh! Don’t interrupt,” some one whispered, and Mrs. Doring continued:

“In fact I have room for eight more girls, as a very pleasant wing has just been completed. There are four double rooms, light and airy, overlooking the gardens and the orchard.

“If they prefer, the young ladies may have their uniforms made here at Linden. Since the fall term is already started, it would be better for them to come without delay.

“If this is convenient for you, please wire and I will have the school bus at the station to meet the young ladies next Saturday at four in the afternoon.”

“There!” Rosamond announced. “See how wise I was to begin packing my trunk!”

“We will go to our homes this instant and pack ours,” Peggy Pierce declared, for the next day would be Saturday.

“Gertrude,” Adele said when the other girls were gone, “I would be perfectly happy if only you were going with us.”

“I, too, wish that I might go, Della,” Gertrude said, returning her friend’s embrace, “but a minister’s salary is not princely, and there are so many of us. It won’t be long till Christmas, however, and then you and I will meet again.”

But they were to meet much sooner than that, and in a way they little dreamed.