"I am sure you would," answered Mrs. Hamilton with a grateful kiss.
"And now what are your plans for this afternoon?" she added brightly.

"Oh, the girls are coming in, and I am going to try to get really
acquainted with them. It's so interesting to have three new friends
at the same time."

"They are very nice girls, and each so different from the other
that I sometimes wonder why they are such close friends."

"I am just a little bit afraid of Charlotte still," confessed
Ruth. "She seems to know so much, and she makes such funny, sharp
speeches. But I feel as though I'd known Betty for years."

"Poor Charlotte has had a different sort of life from the others,"
said Mrs. Hamilton with a sigh, "and it has helped to bring out the
sharp comers in her nature. Her mother is an invalid, and Charlotte
has had a great deal of care and responsibility."

"Betty thinks everything that Charlotte does is just right," said
Ruth.

"Betty is one of the most loyal friends imaginable. She puts her
dearest friends on pedestals, and bestows her time and her services
freely upon them. I've known her ever since she was a baby, and
she has always been the same sunshiny little soul."

"She just suits me because she always has a kitten or two trailing
after her," said Ruth. with a laugh. "Dorothy's a dear, too, and in