"Oh, do you really think so?" said Grace, hopefully. "If that day ever comes, Will, dear, I will be the very first to congratulate you."
"Here come some of the others," Betty cried out. "I can't quite make them out, but it looks like Roy and Amy and--yes--there's Allen, too. But who is the other girl? It certainly isn't Mollie. I know her walk too well."
"No, it isn't Mollie," said Grace, slowly. "Do you know whom it looks like, Betty?"
"No," said that young person, straining her eyes in the direction of the newcomers. "Who is it?"
"I'm not sure but it looks like----" Grace paused a moment, then said with conviction, "I'm right! It's Alice Jallow, and I don't like her very much. What is she doing in our crowd anyway?"
"That's what I would like to know," growled Will. "We had just enough before. I don't know who's going to take care of her."
"Will, don't be ungallant," warned his sister. "Play the game. Probably there's some explanation, anyway."
But to the Little Captain, as she watched the quartette approaching, there seemed no plausible explanation. Why should Allen be paired off with "this Jallow girl"? Betty knew very little of the latter except that she was always trying to get in where she was not wanted. Well, she certainly was not wanted now. Oh, why did Allen look so happy? If "this Jallow girl" had her, Betty's, escort, where did she come in? Hot tears of anger and mortification rose to her eyes, but she drove them back mercilessly and her greeting to the newcomers was as merry as ever.
"Hello, everybody!" she called. "You surely took long enough to get here."
"Hello, Betty! This is----" Amy paused, then went on rather awkwardly. "You see, Alice happened to be at the house when the boys came and--well--we brought her along," she finished, lamely.
"And here I am," said Alice effusively. "I do hope I'm not putting any one out. The idea of visiting the gypsy camp was so fascinating that I simply couldn't resist the temptation. I think you might have let me in on it in the first place," and she looked reproachfully at Allen.
That young gentleman had been sending imploring looks in Betty's direction over Alice Jallow's head, which the former had chosen absolutely to ignore. Now, being thus appealed to, he smiled down at Alice.