“She remembered you,” said Bob significantly.  “And you were within one of asking her to let the girls come over to the game, too!  Didn’t you know, you poor fish, that she would jump for joy if she could have a chance to turn you down?”

“Well, anyway,” replied Tommy more contentedly, “Betty will let us know.  She can find a way.”

Betty lost no time in putting the invitation before Mrs. Eunice when she returned from her town expedition.  The principal knew all about Bob through Mr. Gordon’s letters and those from Mrs. Littell, and she knew most of the parents of the other lads Betty mentioned.

“I see no reason, my dear,” she said graciously when she heard of the morning’s visit, “why you should not go.  Get the consent of your chaperone and then settle on the afternoon.  How many of you are invited?”

“Seven,” answered Betty truthfully.  “But I want Constance Howard to go, Mrs. Eustice.  The boys didn’t know about her.  She is Louise’s roommate you see, and we eight always do everything together.”

“All right, Constance may go, too,” acquiesced Mrs. Eustice.

Betty thanked her warmly and danced off to find Bobby.  Then they flew to ask Miss Anderson to be their chaperone, a duty that young woman assumed cordially, and before bedtime Betty had written Bob a note to say that they would be over Friday afternoon about half-past four.

Watched a little enviously by the others, the eight piled into the school bus the next Friday afternoon.  Miss Anderson tripped down the steps, took her place among them, and they were off.

“Did you see that lovely blouse Ada had on?” Norma Guerin whispered to Betty.  “I do wish I could have one like that to wear with my suit.”

“You look fifty times prettier than she does,” flared Betty loyally.  “And you know I’ve told you to borrow anything of mine whenever you want to.”

“I know it,” admitted Norma.  “But I can’t borrow clothes!  Silly or not, I just can’t seem to!  I don’t mean to complain all the time, either, but I don’t believe mother or granny realized how difficult it was going to be.  Alice cried so hard this afternoon when she started to get dressed I thought she’d never get her eyes right again.  They look red yet.”

Sure enough, Alice’s eyes were suspiciously pink about the corners.  Betty knew that the Guerin girls were unhappy, not alone because they could not have as many or as pretty frocks as the other girls, but because they were constantly worried about financial affairs at home.  They had both been made the confidantes of their parents to a greater degree than is customary in many families, and Betty shrewdly suspected that Norma had kept her father’s books for him.

“I wish I could get hold of that treasure, or a part of it,” Betty thought.  “Isn’t it maddening to think of a string of pearls at the bottom of a chasm and the girls to whom it should go struggling along on next to nothing!”