Lady Betty Across the Water

								


LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

"I found myself chatting away with those cadets as if I had
grown up with them"                                    Frontispiece



                                                               FACING

                                                                PAGE
"He turned around quickly, glanced up and caught my eyes,
as I was looking down, quite distressed"                           34
"When I turned to speak to him he was gone ... and I
was immediately surrounded by other men asking me for
dances"                                                           196
"I swept past him with my nose in the air, trying to
look like mother"                                                 206
"Mr. Trowbridge took me to the beehives to get some
honey and show me what a queen bee is like"                       258
"Jim smiled and kept his seat without the least apparent
effort"                                                           302

LADY BETTY ACROSS THE WATER

I
ABOUT BEING BANISHED

I don't know yet whether I'm pleased or not, but I do know that I'm
excited--more excited than I've ever been in my life, except perhaps
when Miss Mackinstry, my last governess, had hysterics in the
schoolroom and fainted among the tea things.
I suppose I shan't be able to decide about the state of my feelings
until I've had more of them on the same subject, or until I've written
down in this book of mine everything exactly as it's happened. I like
doing that; it makes things seem so clear when you try to review them
afterwards.
The excitement began at breakfast by Mother having a letter that she
liked. I knew she liked it by the way her eyes lighted up, as if they
had been lamps and the letter a match. All the other letters, mostly
with horrid, tradesmanny-looking envelopes, which had been making her
quite glowery, she pushed aside.
Mother won't have a crown on her envelopes; she thinks it's vulgar;
besides, putting it only on the paper saves expense. This envelope had
a great sprawly gold crest, but she didn't seem to disapprove of it.
She read on and on, then suddenly glanced up as if she would have said
something quickly, to Victoria; she didn't say it, though, for she
remembered me. I am never taken into family conclaves, because I'm not
out yet. I don't see what difference that makes, especially as I'm not
to be allowed to come out till after Vic's married, because she was
presented four years ago, and isn't even engaged yet; so for all I
can tell I may have to stay in till I'm a hundred, or leak out slowly
when nobody is noticing, as Vic says girls do in the middle classes.
This time I didn't mind, however, for I couldn't see how the letter
concerned me; and as I was dying for a sight of Berengaria's puppies,
which were born last night, I was glad when Mother told me not to
fidget after I'd finished breakfast, but to run down to the kennels if