“She’ll be along presently. We had rather a tiring drive--the roads are in their usual bad summer condition. But tell me about the accident, Linda? How did it all happen?”
As father and daughter talked, Nancy noticed how particular he was to know as much and more than Rosa seemed anxious to tell. He was most solicitous about Rosa’s condition, however, and so affectionate that he called her a different name each time he addressed her, yet he was very positive in his manner. Evidently, he was not too sure of his daughter’s prudence.
“Of course, it’s all right for you to go out to the park with Garfield and Adell,” he said, “but never alone, Rosy-kins, not even with Nancy and in the day-time. Remember, I don’t want to have you lost in the New Hampshire forests, you know.”
Rosa fairly glowed under her father’s interest and affection. Sitting by the window and watching this play, Nancy realized what Rosa’s father meant to her--just what Nancy’s mother meant to Nancy.
“We don’t know until we are away from it,” she reasoned, choking back the wave of home-sickness that threatened to creep over her. “I don’t see why Rosa thinks she is left out of everything; that she is too fat to be happy,” went on Nancy’s deliberation. “Her father just idolizes her.”
A little flutter from the doorway seemed to answer that, for presently the lovely Betty--Lady Betty, as Nancy was privately calling the new aunt, appeared before them.
She _was_ lovely; Nancy conceded that instantly, and surrounding her, like a halo of loveliness, was a faint something which recalled to Nancy the perfection of Miss Manners’ hand-made laces--a combination of inspiration and perfectly chosen materials. No wonder her Uncle Frederic had been fascinated by Betty Burnett. Surely she was lovely.
“Sweet-heart!” she almost sang to Rosalind. “What has happened to you? Don’t tell me--”
“Busted me leg!” sang back Rosa, impishly. “But, Betty dear, there’s Nancy. You are going to love her because she--is skinny!”
The next few moments were lost to Nancy in her confusing introduction. Betty was being kind, kind to the point of gush, Nancy feared, but then Rosa had been absurdly blunt and so had sort of challenged their meeting. The explosion of slang betrayed Rosa’s own feelings. She was insisting that Betty would love a thin girl and intimating broadly that she hated fat ones.