Betty Vivian Part 11

It was shortly after the clocks had done their midnight work that Betty Vivian raised herself very slowly and cautiously on her elbow, and touched Sylvia on her low, white forehead. The little girl started, opened her eyes, and was about to utter an exclamation when Betty whispered, "Don't make a sound, silly Sylvia! It's only me--Betty. I want you to get very wide awake. And now you are wide awake, aren't you?"

"Yes, oh yes," said Sylvia; "but I don't know where I am. Oh yes, of course I remember; I am in----"

"You are in prison!" whispered Betty back to her. "Now, lie as still as a statue while I waken Hester."

Soon the two little sisters were wide awake.

"Now, both of you creep very softly into my bed. We can all squeeze up together if we try hard."

"Lovely, darlingest Betty!" whispered Sylvia.

"You are nice, Bet!" exclaimed Hester.

"Now I want to speak," said Betty. "You know the packet?"

The two younger girls squeezed Betty's hands by way of answer.

"You know how _she_ spoke to-night?"

Another squeeze of Betty's hands, a squeeze which was almost ferocious this time.

"Do you think," continued Betty, "that she is going to have her way, and we are going to give it up to her?"

"Of course not," said Sylvia.

"I might," said Betty--"I _might_ have asked Mrs. Haddo to look after it for me; but never now--never! Girls, we've got to bury it!"

"Oh Bet!" whispered Sylvia.

"We can't!" said Hester with a sort of little pant.

"We can, and we will," said Betty. "I've thought it all out. I am going to bury it my own self this very minute."

"Betty, how--where? Betty, what do you mean?"

"You must help me," said Betty. "First of all, I am going to get up and put on my thick skirt of black serge. I won't make a sound, for that creature Fan sleeps next door. Lie perfectly still where you are while I am getting ready."

The girls obeyed. It was fearfully exciting, lying like this almost in the dark; for there was scarcely any moon, and the dim light in the garden could hardly be called light at all. Betty moved mysteriously about the room, and presently came up to her two sisters.

"Now, you do exactly what you are told."

"Yes, Betty, we will."

"I am going, first of all," said Betty, "to fetch the little spade."

"Oh Bet, you'll wake the house!"

"No," said Betty. She moved towards the door. She was a very observant girl, and had noticed that no door creaked in that well-conducted mansion, that no lock was out of order. She managed to open the door of her bedroom without making the slightest sound. She managed to creep upstairs and reach the Vivian attic. She found the little spade and brought it down again. She re-entered the beautiful big bedroom and closed the door softly.

"Here's the spade!" she whispered to her sisters. "Did you hear me move?"

"No, Bet. Oh, you are wonderful!"

"Now," said Betty, "we must take the sheets off our three beds. The three top sheets will do. Sylvia, begin to knot the sheets together.

Make the knots very strong, and be quick about it."

Sylvia obeyed without a word.

"Hester, come and help me," said Betty now. She took the other twin's hand and led her to one of the French windows. The window happened to be a little open, for the night was a very warm and balmy one. Betty pushed it wider open, and the next minute she was standing on the balcony.

"Go back," she whispered, speaking to Hester, "and bring Sylvia out with the sheets!"

In a very short time Sylvia appeared, dragging what looked like a tangled white rope along with her.

"Now, then," said Betty, "you've got to let me down to the ground by means of these sheets. I am a pretty good weight, you know, and you mustn't drop me; for if you did I might break my leg or something, and that would be horrid. You two have got to hold one end of these knotted sheets as firmly as ever you can, and not let go on any account. Now, then--here goes!"

The next instant Betty had clutched hold of one of the sheets herself, and had climbed over the somewhat high parapet of the balcony. A minute later, still firmly holding the white rope, she was gradually letting herself down to the ground, hand over hand. By-and-by she reached the bottom. When she did this she held up both hands, which the girls, as they watched her from above, could just see. She was demanding the little spade. Sylvia flung it on the soft gra.s.s which lay beneath. Betty put her hand, making a sort of trumpet of it, round her lips, and whispered up, "Stay where you are till I return."

She then marched off into the shrubbery. She was absent for about twenty minutes, during which time both Sylvia and Hetty felt exceedingly cold.

She then came back, fastened the little spade securely into the broad belt of her dress, and, aided by her sisters, pulled herself up and up, and so on to the balcony once more.

The three girls re-entered the bedroom. Not a soul in that great house had heard them, or seen them, or knew anything about their adventure.

"It is quite safe now--poor, beautiful darling!" whispered Betty.

"Girls, we must smooth out these sheets; they _do_ look rather dragged.

And now we'll get straight into bed."

"I am very cold," said Sylvia.

"You'll be warm again in a minute," replied Betty; "and what does a little cold matter when I have saved _It_? No, I am not going to tell you where it is; just because it's safer, dear, dearest, for you not to know."

"Yes, it's safer," said Sylvia.

The three sisters lay down again. By slow degrees warmth returned to the half-frozen limbs of the poor little twins, and they dropped asleep. But Betty lay awake--warm, excited, triumphant.

"I've managed things now," she thought; "and if every girl in the school asks me if I have a little packet, and if every teacher does likewise, I'll be able truthfully to say 'No.'"

Early the next morning Mrs. Haddo announced her intention to take the Vivians to London. School-work was in full swing that day; and Susie, Margaret, Olive, and the other members of the Specialities rather envied the Vivians when they saw them driving away in Mrs. Haddo's most elegant landau to the railway station.

Sibyl Ray openly expressed her sentiments on the occasion. She turned to her companion, who was standing near. "I must say, and I may as well say it first as last, that I do not understand your adorable Mrs. Haddo. Why should she make such a fuss over common-looking girls like those?"

"Do you call the Vivians common-looking girls?" was Martha West's response.

"Of course I do, and even worse. Why, judging from their dress, they might have come out of a laborer's cottage."

"Granted," replied Martha; "but then," she added, "they have something else, each of them, better than dress."

"Oh, if you begin to talk in enigmas I for one shall cease to be your friend," answered Sibyl. "What have they got that is so wonderful?"