O you'll not be back until dinner time?" Bettina had said at the breakfast table to Bob's cousin, Edna, and her friend, Catherine. "A whole day of it! How tired you'll be!" Edna laughed her ripply laugh that always made everyone else laugh, too. "Tired getting me a hat and a suit? Oh, Bettina! That makes me feel livelier than ever!" Catherine looked troubled. "Now, Edna," she said, "you positively mustn't miss that afternoon meeting. I know it will be so inspiring! Remember what Professor Macy said!" Edna laughed again. "Catherine always quotes Professor Macy as if he were an oracle or a sphinx or something instead of a nice solemn young high school teacher who's getting a little bald!" "He isn't bald and he isn't solemn," declared Catherine with some spirit. "Forgive me, Catherine dear! He is a lamb and a darling and everything else you want me to say!" "I want you to say? Why, Edna, aren't you ashamed!" said Catherine, growing very red. "Who ever heard of such nonsense?" "I love to tease you, Catherine. It's so easy! So you won't help me get my hat? I want a beautiful purple one—or else a perky little black one. I haven't decided whether to be stately and gracious, or frivolous and cunning. But I do know that I will not look as if I were about to cram the multiplication table into the head of some poor little innocent!" "Don't worry, Edna," said Bob. "You won't look that way at all. In fact, I wonder that you can be serious long enough to impress the members of the school board when they come visiting." "She doesn't try to impress them; she just smiles at them instead, and that does just as well," said Catherine. "But she's not so utterly frivolous as her conversation sounds. She wants to hear the convention addresses just as much as I do—and I know she'll be there this afternoon. In fact, I intend to save a seat for her." "Between you and Professor Macy?" asked Edna, innocently. "Or on his left?" "Shame on you, Edna," said Bettina. "Now you girls tell me just what you'd like for dinner! Aren't there some special dishes you're hungry for?" "Pork tenderloin and sweet potatoes!" said Edna. "Our landlady never has them, and I often dream of the joy of ordering such delicacies!" And so that evening for dinner Bettina had: Pork Tenderloin and Sweet Potatoes Baked Apples Bread Butter Cottage Pudding with Chocolate Sauce Coffee
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