tess, and gave her friends a cordial
greeting, explaining that her mother and aunt would come down later, but
it had been a stipulation with some of the Club members that nobody
grown up was to hear the poems or take part in the initiation. Several
of Miss Lothrop's girls had already arrived, and there were also present
a few more young people, particular friends of Lulu's, who had been
invited to join the Club.

"I want you to meet my friend, Betty Randall," Lulu said to Marjorie, as
Elsie turned away to speak to other friends. "She's English, and just as
nice as can be. She and her mother and brother are visiting us. She
can't be a member, because they are all going back to England next week,
but she and Jack are the special guests of the evening, and they are
both to be allowed to vote on the poems."

Betty Randall was a quiet, sweet-faced girl of fifteen, and Marjorie
liked her at once.

"Have you been in this country long?" she asked, when Lulu had left them
together, and gone to greet other arriving guests. She could not help
feeling a good deal interested in meeting "a real English girl."

"Only since September," Betty answered, "but we used to live in New
York. My mother is English, but she and my father came to this country
when they were married, and my brother and I were both born in New York.
We lived here until four years ago, when my uncle took us back to
England to live with him."

"I should think it would be wonderfully interesting to live in England,"
said Marjorie. "I suppose of course you have been in London, and seen
the Tower and Westminster Abbey?"

"Oh, yes," said Betty, smiling. "One of my uncle's places is quite near
London, and we often motor into town. I like America, though; it always
seems more like home. Do you know the names of all these girls?"

"I know most of them; we go to the same school, but I haven't been in
New York nearly as long as you have. My home is in Arizona, and I have
only come here to spend the winter, and go to school with my cousin."

Betty looked a little disappointed.

"Then I suppose you can't tell me something I want to know very much,"
she said. "Lulu told me Dr. Randolph's nephew was to be here, and I do
want to see him."

"Oh, I can point him out to you," said Marjorie. "He lives at the Plaza,
where my uncle has an apartment, and Elsie and I know him very well.
There he is, that tall boy, who has just come in. Isn't he handsome?"

"Yes, very," agreed