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can't tell you about what we said just now." To
Betty's own surprise her voice shook and at
her mother's sympathetic look the tears came.

"I think I've got to go off and cry," she said
in a squeaky tone and as she fled toward her
room she heard her mother say that she would
keep Doris away if she came home too soon.
One lovely thing about Mother was that she
wasn't curious! She could wait until her chil-
dren felt like telling her things.

Betty, however, had some repentant thoughts.
It would have been better, perhaps, to have
braved the opposition, or criticism, or disagree-
able circumstances at the party, as her father
had suggested, to telephone to him at home,
rather than to have risked coming home so late
and alone. A city was no place for that. But
if she wrote an apology to her hostess it might
"mess things up worse than ever," she con-
cluded. Hereafter she would try to "keep her
head," but also never to get caught in such a
situation.



 [[232]]