ould like it," she said. "I've never been to the circus and it must
be lovely, but--but----"

"Oh, Betty, you must go!" cried Jack eagerly. "It'll be so nice, and you
can tell me all about it when you come home."

The time had been, and not so long before either, when Mrs. Randall
would have been inclined to regard this invitation as an attempt at
patronage, but she had been learning more than one lesson in these days
of her convalescence, and Mrs. Hamilton's kindly advice was beginning to
bear fruit.

"Lulu says her mother doesn't want us to wear anything especially nice,"
Winifred went on, "because we shall go around to see the animals before
the circus begins, and it may be dusty. I've got a lovely new book out
of the library; it's called 'Dorothy Dainty,' and I'm going to bring it
up for Jack to read this afternoon. I know he'll like it."

Matters being thus happily arranged, Winifred hurried away to telephone
her friend that Betty would be delighted to accept the invitation, and
Betty made herself very useful, helping Mrs. Flynn with the Saturday
cleaning, feeling all the time as if she were about to enter upon a new
and very interesting experience.

"You're sure you don't mind, Jack," she said, stooping to kiss him at
the last moment before going downstairs to join Winifred.

"Not a bit," said Jack heartily. "I hope you'll have a lovely time, and
it'll be such fun to hear all about it."

"You're not a single mite jealous, are you?" said Betty, with a sudden
recollection of her own feelings on another occasion.

"No, of course not. What does it feel like to be jealous?"

"Well, you know, I never went away and left you for a whole afternoon,
just to have fun before, and I'm going to have a good time, and you're
not. You wouldn't like it if you were jealous."

"But I am going to have a nice time," said Jack, looking rather puzzled;
"I've got that nice book Winifred brought, and mother's going to play
for me. I wonder what being jealous really does feel like."

"It doesn't feel nice," said Betty, blushing, "but I don't believe
you'll ever know anything about it, you're too dear."

It was about twelve o'clock when the two little girls, accompanied by
Mrs. Hamilton, left the apartment house, and started on their walk
across the park, to the Bells' home on Madison Avenue. It was a
beautiful day, and the park was full of children, all making the most of
their Saturday holiday. They met several May parties, an