t to know her soon."

Mrs Vanburgh tripped downstairs by Betty's side, and shook hands with
the geniality of a lifelong friendship.

"Remember Saturday!" she cried. "Three o'clock punctually, and bring
all your stores of small talk with you, for the first half-hour."

Betty ran across the darkened street and let herself into her own house,
aglow with pleasurable excitement. Life looked quite a different thing
in the last few hours, wherein a friend and a vocation had alike sprung
into being. After all, it was a delightful old world! She would never
grumble again, since at any moment such delightful surprises might
arise.

The door swung open. How cold and grey the hall appeared after the
glowing richness of Mrs Vanburgh's carpets and hangings! Betty made a
little grimace at the linoleum, and lifting her eyes was suddenly aware
of a wrathful figure confronting her from the threshold of the dining-
room--Jill, standing with arms akimbo, flushed cheeks, and flashing
eyes.

"So you have deigned to come back, have you? What business had you to
go to tea with her at all, I should like to know? She's my friend! I
knew her first! What right had you to go poking yourself forward?"

"I didn't poke. She asked me! Mother can tell you that she did. I'm
going again on Saturday."

Jill's wrath gave way to an overwhelming anxiety.

"And me? And me? I am sure she asked me too."

"No, she didn't. It's a grown-up party. She'll ask you another time
with Pam. She said she wanted to know Pam."

It was the last straw to be classed with Pam, a child of eight summers!
Jill stuttered with mortified rage.

"S-neak! Just like you! Mark my word, Elizabeth Trevor, _I'll be even
with you about this_!"

CHAPTER NINE.

A VISIT TO THE VICTIM.

During the next week Betty's thoughts were continually winging across
the Square to her new friend, Mrs Vanburgh, though her own time was so
fully occupied, that, with the exception of a sudden encounter in the
street, they did not see anything of each other until the great Saturday
arrived.

Meantime it rankled in Jill's mind that she had been unfairly treated,
and, in consequence, she was constantly endeavouring to hit on some
scheme which would at once vindicate her own importance and put Betty's
adventure in the shade. General Digby, as a new and striking
personality in her small circle of acquaintances, naturally suggested
himself as a fitting object for the enterp