Banning High School - San Gorgonian Yearbook (Banning, CA)

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family had hardly been on friendly terms with her until about three years ago when Mr. Blythe was not expected to live. Aunt Matilda had then shown that she could be human because her nephew was one person whom she cared for. Since then things had been better. They had visited back and forth. She grew to have a real affection for Mrs. Blythe and all the children but Betty. She and Betty met nearly as strangers. One day years ago when Betty was seven or eight she had had an outburst of temper before Aunt Matilda. In fact she had acted disgracefully. Of course she had apologized, but try as she might, Aunt Matilda remembered and they always met coolly. Betty had given up trying to be anything but polite to Aunt Matilda and Aunt Matilda was in turn icy to Betty. The other children she admired and petted. Betty she tolerated. Betty hated her house, too. A beautiful mansion, to be sure, but dark and gloomy. Aunt Matilda did not approve of gadding for young people either. Betty saw her good time fading away in the distance. Well, she'd spend Thanksgiving Day with Aunt Matilda, and then she’d ask mother if she couldn’t go back to school on Friday. She could at least dance and have a taffy pull there. Hearing a deferential voice she glanced up and saw James who had come for her. Dabbing her eyes she followed him to the car. Sinking back into the luxurious pillows of the limousine she wondered how she would be received. Upon arriving she was ushered into Aunt Matilda’s presence. Aunt Matilda submitted to her kiss on the forehead and then viewed her through her lorgnette. “Hum! So you have arrived. Very well. Most unfortu- nate about Robert, but it cannot be helped, of course. Hilda, show Elizabeth to her room. My, Elizabeth, you have tracked some dirt in. Why do young folks insist upon leaving off rubbers after a rain. Dinner will be at seven thirty. You have an hour and a half to tidy up. | expect promptness, of course, Elizabeth,” and with this she dismissed her. Betty’s temper was thoroughly aroused as it always was after talking to Aunt Matilda. She flung herself on the bed and indulged in a regular cry, then got up, bathed and was combing her hair when Hilda, the maid, appeared, her eyes popping. “Oh, Miss Elizabeth,’’ she gasped, “‘is that your suit case?” “Yes,” snapped Betty. ‘What of it?”’ Hilda made no answer, just waved her hand toward the table where the suit case lay open. But Betty did not see, as she expected to, her pretty new pink evening frock, neatly folded, and her other dresses. Instead, she beheld a man’s Page Twenty

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opened her bag at some time or other. When would she learn to take proper care of her money? And fifteen cents wasn't enough to take a taxi home. She would have to tele- phone and if everyone at home was out, have the maid order a taxi to come for her at the station and pay him herself. What a lot of trouble! Betty was not frightened, but a little tired and quite a bit provoked. It was all well enough to travel alone, but it was no fun being in the Grand Central Station in New York and having to telephone home because she was practically penni- less. Oh, dear! It seemed as if ‘“Trouble’’ was her middle name. She entered a telephone booth and deposited a nickel in the slot to telephone. After a few minutes her mother’s wel- come voice came over the line. ‘Betty!’ exclaimed Mrs. Blythe, “‘didn’t you receive our telegram?” “Telegram! ’ faltered Betty, ‘““What about a telegram? I'm in the city at the Grand Central and I want to come home. !'ve only ten cents between me and starvation and for good- ness sake send someone after me quickly. Why weren't you here to meet me?” “Oh, Betty, Betty!’ exclaimed Mrs. Blythe, ‘“What a ter- rible tangle. Bobby came down this morning with measles. No danger of course, but we didn’t want you at home because you ve never had them and it would keep you out of school. We sent you a telegram and thought you would receive it be- fore your train left.” “Well, I didn’t,’ almost sobbed Betty, “‘and here | am and I'd like to know what's going to happen to me. I've only got ten cents.’’ Betty was trying bravely to keep tears out of her voice. Mrs. Blythe’s voice came again over the wire. “‘It’s too bad, Betty dear, but there is nothing for you to do but go to Aunt Matilda Porter’s.”’ Betty groaned. Any sixteen year old girl would have groaned with that prospect. Aunt Matilda! Four days! How would she stand it? But che answered cheerfully and con- sented. Mrs. Blythe was to call Aunt Matilda, explain the situation and Aunt Matilda would send James, her chauffeur, after Betty. A meeting place was arranged and after a few cheerful words to each other they ended the conversation. Betty went to the arranged meeting place directly. Her suit case seemed doubly heavy and she was tired and hungry. Oh, why should bobby have the measles now? At the thouzht of Aunt Matilda she groaned again. Aunt Matilda was a snobbish, selfish and very wealthy old lady. She had never approved of her nephew’s marriage to Betty’s mother and the Page Nineteen

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silk shirt, some cigarettes, and other masculine articles. Betty gave a little shriek of horror. Where could she have gotten that terrible traveling bag? Then it flashed through her mind. The young man who had sat opposite her on the train, of course. It was all clear enough now. She had noticed ihat the suit cases were alike, but upon arriving, in her eager- ness to get home she had carelessly, as usual, grabbed up the first thing she saw and this was the result. Convulsed with laughter she rolled over on the bed and laughed and laughed much to Hilda’s astonishment. However, she soon calmed down. What would Aunt Matilda say? Horrors! She would be disgraced for good now. Aunt Matilda would refuse to believe anything but that she had been carrying on some awful flirtation. And too, her new dress was gone. Where? Goodness only knew. But most of all, she was worrying about the disgrace of the suit case and Aunt Matilda. Well, she would have to tell her. She might as well have it over with. Slowly she finished dressing and slowly she descended to the library where her fate awaited her. “Well, Elizabeth,’ her aunt greeted her. ‘What now? And why aren’t you in a suitable dinner frock?”’ Betty poured out the story and the suit case was brough?¢ down to be inspected. Aunt Matilda touched the cigaretes and other articles with the tips of her fingers. But to Betty's surprise and delight and amazement she did not scold ox lec- ture. She merely said they would put a notice in the paper about it and that Betty was a most unfortunate child. And then they had dinner. The next day, which was the day before Thanksgiving, a notice appeared in the paper concerning the suit case. Some- one telephoned and said he had Betty’s suit case and would it be all right to call that afternoon and regain his own posses- sions? Betty answered the telephone and told him it would. It was a very pleasant voice at the other end of the wire and Betty awaited the arrival of its owner with quite an air of expectancy. To her astonishment, on entering the library a little later, she found Aunt Matilda chatting sociably with the young man of the train, quite as if they were old friends. Upon her entrance Aunt Matilda looked at her smilingly and said, “Betty, let me introduce to you Mr. Richard Camerson, a son of an old and dear friend of mine. Imagine my surprise at seeing him. I thought the family was in California, Richard, this is my niece, Elizabeth Blythe.”’ Mr. Camerson made quite a lengthy call. They had tea and laughed long over the suit cases. Betty found herself big-eyed with surprise several times at Aunt Matilda. She laughed and chatted as gaily as anyone and when Richard left invited him for Thanksgiving dinner. Page Twenty-one