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Page 31
"No, I believe not, thank you," said Eugenia, languidly. "It's so hot
this morning."
Betty's mouth and eyes both opened in astonishment at the excuse Eugenia
gave, and her godmother smiled at the sight.
"Well, Elizabeth," she said, playfully, "I see that you are not going to
leave me in the lurch. I knew that I wouldn't have to go begging far for
company."
"Oh, I'd love to go, godmother," cried Betty, "if it was only any other
time. But I've just been invited to ride over to the gypsy camp with the
girls."
"To the gypsy camp!" echoed Mrs. Sherman, in surprise. "Why are you
going there?"
"To have our fortunes told," answered the unsuspicious child, adding,
gratefully, "Isn't it good of Eugenia? She is going to pay for all of
us."
A smothered exclamation broke from Eugenia's lips, and she darted an
angry look at Betty. There was a shadow of annoyance on Mrs. Sherman's
face as she saw it.
"But you mustn't go there," she said. "I am sorry to have to disappoint
you, but I couldn't think for a moment of allowing Lloyd to go there.
They are a rough, low set of people,--gamblers and horse thieves. It
wouldn't be proper for you little girls to go near them. I intended to
mention the matter to Lloyd when I first heard that they had camped in
the Valley, and tell her to avoid taking you on any of the roads leading
to the camp. But I forgot it until you had ridden away. It would have
worried me all the time you were out had I not known that Lloyd is a
discreet child for her age, and she heard so much said about them when
they were here last summer. I have never thought to mention it since
that first day."
"I'm _so_ sorry," said Eugenia; "I had set my heart on having my fortune
told."
Mrs. Sherman tapped the wheel of the dog-cart with the lash of her whip,
and sat considering. Presently she said, "Of course there isn't any
truth in the fortunes they tell. One person knows just as much about the
future as another. But I am sorry for your disappointment, for I know at
your age such things are entertaining. How would it do for me to call at
Miss Allison MacIntyre's while I am out, and ask her to come up to
dinner to-night? She is a great friend of mine and knows enough about
palmistry to tell some very interesting fortunes. She can amuse young
people better than any one I ever knew. Her two nephews, Malcolm and
Keith MacIntyre, came out from Louisville for a short visit yesterday,
and I'll invite them, too. They are jolly boys, and I'm sure you will
find them far more entertaining than any of the gypsies. What do you say
to that plan? Will it make up for the disappointment?"
"Yes, indeed!" answered Betty, and Eugenia smiled her approval, for she
had heard Lloyd talk about the MacIntyre boys, and had been hoping to
see them. But when Mrs. Sherman had driven on, she turned to Betty with
an angry face.
"Tattletale," she said, in a sneering tone. "Why did you go and spoil
everything? If you had kept still we could have gone and nobody would
have been the wiser. Now it will be no end of trouble to get there
without her finding it out."
"You don't mean that you are going after all that godmother has said?"
cried Betty, with a look of horror in her big brown eyes. "Why, a wild
Arab wouldn't treat his host with such disrespect as that after he'd
eaten his salt."
Eugenia's black eyes flashed dangerously. "Yes, Miss Prunes and Prisms,
I am going, I don't care what you say. I have made up my mind to have my
fortune told by the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter, that was
born on the banks of the Nile, and all the king's horses and all the
king's men can't make me change it again. It is foolish of Cousin
Elizabeth to be so particular, and I am going to do as I please. I
always do at home, no matter what papa says. I've never had to mind
anybody all my life, and I'll certainly not begin it now that I am in my
teens. It is all nonsense about it not being proper for us to go to the
camp. Cousin Elizabeth is mighty nice and sweet, but she's an old fogy
to talk that way. And she needn't think she has stopped me. I may not
get there to-day, but I'll go to that camp before I go back to New York
if it's the last thing I do."
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