It was a difficult situation. Betty had no wish to offend either boy by choosing the other, and she was decidedly in a quandary. She stood looking at them and smiling.
"It's so hard to choose between you," she said, provokingly, but really to gain time. Suddenly she bethought herself of the penny in her pocket! Ah, here was a way to circumvent those mischievous girls!
"I'm sorry," she said, with a little sigh, "that I can't choose either of you very gentlemanly appearing boys. But my Fate was foretold me, and the talisman that I have here bids me await the coming of the knight appointed for me by Destiny."
Betty held up her bright penny with a roguish look.
"What do you mean?" exclaimed Lena, who knew nothing of what Hal had said to Betty in the Room of the Fates.
"Ah, here he comes! Here's the Bad Penny, who always turns up when he's wanted!"
Hal was just entering the room, his first appearance except in his disguise as "Fate." He had removed the uncomfortable wig and whiskers, but still wore the gorgeous costume.
The smile with which Betty greeted him quite took away the sting of being called a Bad Penny, and he said gaily:
"A Lucky Penny, rather, to be chosen by such a merry witch!"
So the girls were foiled in their little plot, and Lena, accepting her defeat good-naturedly, declared she had to choose both the remaining knights, and taking an arm of each, she followed the procession to the dining-room.
The feast was abundant and the guests very merry. More fortune-testing was provided in the mottoes and snapdragon, and at last the "fortune-cake" was cut.
This great confection was almost like a bride-cake, save that its frosting was red and chocolate instead of white.
It was decorated with tiny witches and black cats, which were, of course, confectionery, and candles were burning all round it.
In it had been baked a thimble, signifying spinsterhood; a gold ring, betokening matrimony; a penny, meaning wealth; a gold pen for literary fame; a button for a bachelor; and many other tiny emblems of fortune, which were arranged only one to a slice.
By dint of clever manoeuvering Lena arranged that Betty should get the slice with the penny in it, and this caused a shout of laughter at Betty's expense.