u know why?" asked Rob in an aside. They were rising from the
table now, strolling out to the chairs and hammocks on the shady porch.
He spoke in a low tone as he walked along beside her.

"It is very ungallant for me to say such a thing, but between you and me
and the gate-post, Betty, he was roped into being so attentive. Bernice
Howe beats any girl I ever saw for making dates with fellows, and
handling her cards so as to make it seem she is immensely popular. It is
an old trick of hers, and that night it was very apparent what she was
trying to do. Alex Shelby was there, you remember, and when she saw him
talking to Lloyd every chance he got, she didn't want it to appear that
she was being neglected by the man who had brought her, and with a
little skilful manoeuvring she managed to bag the lieutenant's
attention. I've been wanting to ask you for some time, why is it that
she seems so down on the Little Colonel?"

"She isn't!" declared Betty, much surprised. "You must be letting your
imagination run away with you, Rob. There isn't a girl in the Valley
friendlier and sweeter to Lloyd than Bernice Howe. You watch them next
time they are together, and see. They've been good friends for years."

"Then all I can say is that some girls have a queer idea of friendship.
It's downright _catty_ the way they purr and rub around to your face,
and then show their spiteful little claws when your back is turned.
That's what I've noticed Bernice doing lately. She calls her all the
sugary names in the dictionary when she's with her, but when her back is
turned--well, it's just a shrug of the shoulders or a lift of the
eyebrows or a little twist of the mouth maybe, but they insinuate
volumes. What makes girls do that way, Betty? Boys don't. If they have
any grievance they fight it out and then let each other alone."

"I'm sure I don't know why," answered Betty. "I'll be honest with you
and confess that you are right. Half the girls at school were that way.
They might be fair and high-minded about everything else, but when it
came to that one thing they were--well, as you say, regular cats. They
didn't have the faintest conception of what a David and Jonathan
friendship could be like. Even the ordinary kind didn't seem to bind
them in any way, or impose any obligation on them when their own
interests were concerned."

"Deliver me from such friends!" ejaculated Rob. "I'd rather have a sworn
enemy. He wouldn't do me half the harm." T