Chapter 2

It lacked only five minutes of the dinner hour when Betty, an audacious
vision in pink chiffon, floated into the drawing room. Her blue eyes
were as clear as a June sky, and only her cheeks were flushed, while in
her hand she carried a lace cobweb handkerchief. Cornelia and her mother
looked blankly at each other. But the young man whom Alan had just
introduced stared at Betty.

“I’m sure we’ve met before,” he said. “Your face is so familiar.” He
went across the room and stood by Betty’s chair. The girl smiled up at
him, and dropped her eyes.

“The last time you saw me I was in a silver frame, wasn’t I?” she said,
“with long curls hanging down my back.”

Walter Burnham’s heart leaped.

“You’re little Betty Carroll:” he cried joyously. “Ernest Carroll’s
sister Betty. Why, I’ve known you by reputation since you wore
pinafores. By Jove, this is worth coming for!”

At dinner Betty, of course, was seated at the other end of the table
from Burnham, but he sought her side the moment they returned to the
drawing room, and remained there till he had missed two trains. When he
said good-by he held her hand a little longer than was necessary.

“I shall see you very soon, you know,” he said. “I’m only 50 miles off,
so I can run down almost any time. You didn’t know Ernest gave me the
picture in the little silver frame, did you? I’ve got it in my room
now.”

When Billy Randolph, a day or two later, asked Betty to take dinner with
him at the country club the following Saturday, he was disappointed when
she shook her head.

“Thank you. Billy,” she answered, blushingly, “but I have a previous
engagement.”

THE END

TRANSCRIBER NOTES

This story was originally published as a newspaper or magazine
short story.

Misspelled words and printer errors have been corrected. Where
multiple spellings occur, majority use has been employed.

Punctuation has been maintained except where obvious printer
errors occur.

A cover has been created for this story. The resulting cover is
placed in the public domain.

[The end of _A Previous Engagement_ by Harriet Lummis Smith]