rest if there's any rest,
so I'll know what to bank on. Who is the other guy, the one you didn't
mind marryin'? What became of him?"

"Why, that's the queer part," said Betty, troubled again. "He didn't
seem to be anywhere, and when they carried me into the room back of the
church and fanned me and got water to bathe my face, a doctor came and
gave me some medicine and sent them all out, and I asked him to send
Bessemer to me. I wanted to find out why he hadn't been standing up
there by the minister the way I expected. I heard the doctor go out and
ask for Bessemer and I heard my stepmother's voice say, 'Why Bessemer
isn't here! He's gone down to the shore!' and then somebody said,
'Hush,' and they shut the door, and I was so frightened that I got up
and tried all the doors till I found one that led down some stairs, and
I locked it behind me and ran and found you!"

"You poor little kid!" cried Jane, cuddling her again. "I sure am glad I
was on the job! But now, tell me, what's your idea? Will they make a
big noise and come huntin' you?"

"Oh, yes!" said Betty wearily. "I suppose they will. I _know_ they will,
in fact. Herbert won't be balked in anything he wants----Bessemer won't
count. He never counts. I'm sort of sorry for him, though I don't like
him much. You see they had been making an awful fuss with him, too,
about some actress down at the shore that he was sending flowers to, and
I knew he didn't have a very easy time. So when he came in one day and
asked me why I didn't marry _him_ and settle the whole thing that way, I
was horrified at first, but I finally thought perhaps that would be the
best thing to do. He said he wouldn't bother me any, if I wouldn't
bother him; and we thought perhaps the others would let us alone then.
But I might have known Herbert wouldn't give in! Bessemer is easily
led--Herbert could have hired him to go away to-night--or they may have
_made_ him ask me to marry him. He's like that," sadly. "You can't
depend on him. I don't know. You see, it was kind of queer about the
invitations. They came with Herbert's name in them first, and my
stepmother tried to keep me from seeing them. She said they were late
and she had them all sent off; but I found one, and when I went to my
stepmother with it she said it was a mistake. She hadn't meant me to be
annoyed by seeing it; and she didn't know how it happened; she must have
misspoken herself--but it had been corrected and they would rush it