CHAPTER III
IN BETTY'S GARDEN
Ned Vaughan paused with a moment of indecision before the plain,
old-fashioned, brick house in which Senator Winter lived on the Capitol
Hill. It was a confession of abject weakness to decline her invitation
to dinner with his brother and jump at the first chance to butt in
before the dinner hour.
Why should he worry? She was too serious and honest to play with any
man, to say nothing of an attempt to flirt with two at the same time.
He refused to believe in the seriousness of any impression she had made
on his brother's conceited fancy. His light love affairs had become
notorious in his set. He was only amusing himself with Betty and she was
too simple and pure to understand. Yet to warn her at this stage of the
game against his own brother was obviously impossible.
He suddenly turned on his heel:
"I'm a fool. I'll wait till to-morrow!"
He walked rapidly to the corner, stopped abruptly, turned back to the
door and rang the bell.
"Anyhow, I'm not a coward!" he muttered.
The pretty Irish maid who opened the door smiled graciously and
knowingly. It made him furious. She mistook his rage for blushes and
giggled insinuatingly.
"Miss Betty's in the garden, sor; she says to come right out there----"
"What?" Ned gasped.
"Yiss-sor; she saw you come up to the door just now and told me to tell
you.
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