Lady Betty Across the Water   By: Alice Muriel Williamson (1869-1933)

[Illustration: " I found myself chatting away with those cadets as if I had grown up with them "]

LADY BETTY ACROSS THE WATER

Edited by

C. N. & A. M. WILLIAMSON

Authors of My Friend the Chauffeur

Illustrations by Orson Lowell

[Illustration]

New York McClure, Phillips & Co. MCMVI

Copyright, 1906, by McClure, Phillips & Co.

Published, May, 1906 Second Impression

Copyright, 1905, 1906, by The Curtis Publishing Company

To the people of that great, delightful, and hospitable land which gave Lady Betty the time of her life and inspiration, this story of her visit is admiringly Dedicated by Betty Bulkeley and C. N. and A. M. Williamson

CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE

I. ABOUT BEING BANISHED 3

II. ABOUT CROSSING THE WATER 20

III. ABOUT NEW YORK 50

IV. ABOUT SHOPPING AND MEN 83

V. ABOUT WEST POINT AND PROPOSALS 101

VI. ABOUT THE PARK AND LOVE STORIES 118

VII. ABOUT SKY SCRAPERS AND BEAUTIFUL LADIES 133

VIII. ABOUT NEWPORT AND GORGEOUSNESS 141

IX. ABOUT BATHING, A DRESS, AND AN EARL 156

X. ABOUT A VIOLET TEA AND A MILLIONAIRE 170

XI. ABOUT A GREAT AFFAIR 180

XII. ABOUT A WEDDING AND A DISASTER 200

XIII. ABOUT RUNNING AWAY 211

XIV. ABOUT THE TWENTIETH CENTURY LIMITED AND CHICAGO 223

XV. ABOUT SEEING CHICAGO 227

XVI. ABOUT THE VALLEY FARM 238

XVII. ABOUT COWS AND NATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS 253

XVIII. ABOUT SOME COUNTRY FOLK, AND WALKER'S EMPORIUM 272

XIX. ABOUT GETTING ENGAGED 289

XX. ABOUT JIM AND THE DUKE 297

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

"I found myself chatting away with those cadets as if I had grown up with them" Frontispiece

FACING PAGE

"He turned around quickly, glanced up and caught my eyes, as I was looking down, quite distressed" 34

"When I turned to speak to him he was gone ... and I was immediately surrounded by other men asking me for dances" 196

"I swept past him with my nose in the air, trying to look like mother" 206

"Mr. Trowbridge took me to the beehives to get some honey and show me what a queen bee is like" 258

"Jim smiled and kept his seat without the least apparent effort" 302

LADY BETTY ACROSS THE WATER

I

ABOUT BEING BANISHED

I don't know yet whether I'm pleased or not, but I do know that I'm excited more excited than I've ever been in my life, except perhaps when Miss Mackinstry, my last governess, had hysterics in the schoolroom and fainted among the tea things.

I suppose I shan't be able to decide about the state of my feelings until I've had more of them on the same subject, or until I've written down in this book of mine everything exactly as it's happened. I like doing that; it makes things seem so clear when you try to review them afterwards.