“And don’t you mind if she _never_ knows you gave it to her?” asked Mrs. McGuire after she had the story. “Why, no, Mother. What a question! The whole trouble was for fear she _would_ know that. And now she has the dress, and she’s so happy about it, indeed I _don’t_ want her _ever_ to know where it came from!” Betty’s own joy in the gift she had made was purely unselfish, and she felt amply rewarded in the pleasure she had given Jeanette. So when the night of the reception came, Betty took quite as much satisfaction in seeing Jeanette in the lovely and becoming frock as she did in wearing her own beautiful new one. And when Jeanette received the prize for her wonderfully well-done recitation, Betty squeezed her mother’s hand and looked up at her with eyes fairly beaming in triumph at the thought that she had made it possible for Jeanette to win. V THE PALACE OF TIME “I think the club ought to be for something that will improve our minds,” said Constance Harper. “Well, I don’t!” declared Lena Carey; “we get our minds improved in school. I cram improvement every day, until my mind is fairly bursting with it. I think the club ought to be just for fun.” “I think so, too,” agreed Betty. “At least, I don’t vote for the improvement part. My mind needs improvement, goodness knows! But I don’t believe we’d ever get much out of a club of our own. “But I do think it ought to be for something besides just fun,” went on Betty. “What do you mean?” demanded Lena. “If you don’t study or have papers, what can you do but have fun?” “Why, it might be for charity,” suggested Jeanette Porter. “Yes,” said Betty; “that’s what I mean. We can have lots of fun getting up things for charity, and do good besides.” “I’d like that, I think,” Constance said; “you can have lovely fairs and garden-parties and all sorts of things for charity.” “We won’t have a garden-party just yet,” said Lena, as she drew closer to the blazing fire. “No,” returned Constance, a little shortly; “I didn’t mean to. But I suppose the club will last through the summer.” “Of course it will,” said Betty, who always interrupted when Lena and Constance began their sharp little speeches. “And before summer comes we’ll have an entertainment in the house.” It was now the first week in March, and, as the weather was raw and disagreeable, the girls were glad to gather in Betty’s cozy library, and nestle in soft, cushioned chairs drawn up to the big fireplace, with its crackling logs. The four girls had come over for the express purpose of forming a club of some sort, though the details of the plan were not yet thought out. Of course, Jack had been promptly excluded from the conference, as it was to be a girls’ club. “All right,” he said, as he went unwillingly away; “we boys will get up a rival club, and it’ll be so jolly you’ll want to disband yours and join ours.”