Miss BILLYS DECISION r* T 1 * A vrv%Tn tr r*if\r^'Tr-r i *o ELEANOR H. PORTER MISS BILLY'S DECISION BY THE AUTHOR OF POLLYANNA: THE GLAD BOOK Trade Mark Trade Mark POLLYANNA: THE QLAD OOK - net $1 .35 Trade Mark Trade Mark carriage paid $ 1 . 5 POLLYANNA GROWS UP: THE SECOND Trade Mark GLAUNT HANNAH GETS A LETTER IN the cozy living-room at Hillside, Billy Neil- son's pretty home on Corey Hill, Billy herself sat writing at the desk. Her pen had just traced the date, " October twenty-fifth," when Mrs. Stetson entered with a letter in her hand. " Writing, my dear? Then don't let me disturb you." She turned as if to go. Billy dropped her pen, sprang to her feet, flew to the little woman's side and whirled her half across the room. " There! " she exclaimed, as she plumped the breathless and scandalized Aunt Hannah into the biggest easy chair. " I feel better. I just had to let off steam some way. It's so lovely you came in just when you did! " " Indeed! I I'm not so sure of that," stam- mered the lady, dropping the letter into her lap, and patting with agitated fingers her cap, her r curls, the two shawls about her shoulders, and the lace at her throat. " My grief and conscience, Billy i Won't you ever grow up? " 16 Aunt Hannah Gets a Letter 17 " Hope not," purred Billy cheerfully, dropping herself on to a low hassock at Aunt Hannah's feet. " But, my dear, you you're engaged! " Billy bubbled into a chuckling laugh. " As if I didn't know that, when I've just written a dozen notes to announce it! And, oh, Aunt Hannah, such a time as I've had, telling what a dear Bertram is, and how I love, love, love him, and what beautiful eyes he has, and such a nose, and " " Billy! " Aunt Hannah was sitting erect in pale horror. " Eh? " Billy's eyes were roguish. " You didn't write that in those notes! " "Write it? Oh, no! That's only what I wanted to write," chuckled Billy. " What I really did write was as staid and proper as here, let me show you," she broke off, springing to her feet and running over to her desk. "There! this is about what I wrote to them all," she finished, whipping a note out of one of the unsealed envelopes on the desk and spreading it open before Aunt Hannah's suspicious eyes. " Hm-m; that is very good for you," ad- mitted the lady. "Well, I like that! after all my stern self- control and self-sacrifice to keep out all those things I wanted to write," bridled Billy. " Be- 18 Miss Billy's Decision sides, they'd have been ever so much more inter- esting reading than these will be," she pouted, as she took the note from her companion's hand. " I don't doubt it," observed Aunt Hannah, dryly. Billy laughed, and tossed the note back on the desk. " I'm writing to Belle Calderwell, now," she announced musingly, dropping herself again on the hassock. " I suppose she'll tell Hugh."' " Poor boy! He'll be disappointed." Billy sighed, but she uptilted her chin a little. " He ought not to be. I told him long, long ago, the very first time, that that I couldn't." " I know, dear; but they don't always un- derstand." Aunt Hannah sighed in sympathy with the far-away Hugh Calderwell, as she looked down at the bright young face near her. There was a moment's silence; then Billy gave a little laugh. " He will be surprised," she said. " He told me once that Bertram wouldn't ever care for any girl except to paint. To paint, indeed! As if Ber- tram didn't love me just me! if he never saw another tube of paint! " " I think he does, my dear." Again there was silence; then, from Billy's lips there came softly: Aunt Hannah Gets a Letter 19 "Just think; we've been engaged almost four weeks and to-morrow it'll be announced. I'm so glad I didn't ever announce the other ^two!" " The other two! " cried Aunt Hannah. Billy laughed. " Oh, I forgot. You didn't know about Cyril." "Cyril!" " Oh, there didn't anybody know it, either not even Cyril himself," dimpled Billy, mischie- vously. " I just engaged myself to him in imagina- tion, you know, to see how I'd like it. I didn't like it. But it didn't last, anyhow, very long just three weeks, I believe. Then I broke it off," she finished, with unsmiling mouth, but dancing eyes. " Billy! " protested Aunt Hannah, feebly. " But I am glad only the family knew about my engagement to Uncle William oh, Aunt Hannah, you don't know how good it does seem to call him ' Uncle ' again. It was always slipping out, anyhow, all the time we were engaged; and of course it was awful then." ' That only goes to prove, my dear, how en- tirely unsuitable it was, from the start." A bright color flooded Billy's face. " I know; but if a girl will think a man is asking for a wife when all he wants is a daughter, and P 20 Miss Billy's Decision she blandly says ' Yes, thank you, I'll marry you,' I don't know what you can expect! " ' You can expect just what you got misery, and almost a tragedy," retorted Aunt Hannah, severely. A tender light came into Billy's eyes. " Dear Uncle William! What a jewel he was, all the way through! And he'd have marched straight to the altar, too, with never a flicker of an eyelid, I know self-sacrificing martyr that he was! " " Martyr! " bristled Aunt Hannah, with ex- traordinary violence for her. " I'm thinking that term belonged somewhere else. A month ago, Billy Neilson, you did not look as if you'd live out half your days. But I suppose you'd have gone to the altar, too, with never a flicker of an eyelid!" "But I thought I had to," protested Billy. " I couldn't grieve Uncle William so, after Mrs. Hartwell had said how he he wanted me." Aunt Hannah's lips grew stern at the corners. ''There are times when when I think it would be wiser if Mrs. Kate Hartwell would at- tend to her own affairs! " Aunt Hannah's voice fairly shook with wrath. "Why Aunt Hannah!" reproved Billy in mischievous horror. "I'm shocked at you! " Aunt Hannah Gets a Letter 21 Aunt Hannah flushed miserably. " There, there, child, forget I said it. I ought not to have said it, of course," she murmured agi- tatedly. Billy laughed. " You should have heard what Uncle William said ! But never mind. We all found out the mis- take before it was too late, and everything is lovely now, even to Cyril and Marie. Did you ever see anything so beatifically happy as that couple are? Bertram says he hasn't heard a dirge from Cyril's rooms for three weeks ; and that if any- body else played the kind of music he's been play- ing, it would be just common garden ragtime! " " Music! Oh, my grief and conscience! That makes me think, Billy. If I'm not actually for- getting what I came in here for," cried Aunt Hannah, fumbling in the folds of her dress for the letter that had slipped from her lap. " I've had word from a young niece. She's going to study music in Boston." 11 A niece? " " Well, not really, you know. She calls me \ Aunt,' just as you and the Henshaw boys do. But I really am related to her, for her mother and I are third cousins, while it was my husband who was distantly related to the Henshaw family." " What's her name? " Miss Billy's Decision " ' Mary Jane Arkwright.' Where is that letter?" ' " Here it is, on the floor," reported Billy. M Were you going to read it to me? " she asked, as she picked it up. " Yes if you don't mind." " I'd love to hear it." " Then I'll read it. It it rather annoys me in some ways. I thought the whole family under- stood that I wasn't living by myself any longer that I was living with you. I'm sure I thought I wrote them that, long ago. But this sounds almost as if they didn't understand it at least, as if this girl didn't." " How old is she? " " I don't know; but she must be some old, to be coming here to Boston to study music, alone singing, I think she said." " You don't remember her, then? " Aunt Hannah frowned and paused, the letter? half withdrawn from its envelope. " No but that isn't strange. They live West. I haven't seen any of them for years. I know there are several children and I suppose I've been told their names. I know there's a boy the eldest, I think who is quite a singer, and there's a girl who paints, I believe; but I don't seem tc remember a ' Mary Jane.' " ' ' Never mind ! Suppose we let Mary Jane speak for herself," suggested Billy, dropping her chin into the small pink cup of her hand, and settling herself to listen. ' Very well," sighed Aunt Hannah; and she opened the letter and began to read. " DEAR AUNT HANNAH: This is to tell you that I'm coming to Boston to study singing in the school for Grand Opera, and I'm planning to look you up. Do you object? I said to a friend the other day that I'd half a mind to write to Aunt Hannah and beg a home with her; and my friend retorted: ' Why don't you, Mary Jane? ' But that, of course, I should not think of doing. " But I know I shall be lonesome, Aunt Han^ nah, and I hope you'll let me see you once in a while, anyway. I plan now to come next week I've already got as far as New York, as you see by the address and I shall hope to see you soon. " All the family would send love, I know. " M. J. ARKWRIGHT." " Grand Opera! Oh, how perfectly lovely," cried Billy. 4 Yes, but Billy, do you think she is expecting me to invite her to make her home with me? I 24 Miss Billy's Decision shall have to write and explain that I can't if she does, of course." Billy frowned and hesitated. " Why, it sounded a little that way; . but " Suddenly her face cleared. "Aunt Hannah, I've thought of the very thing. We will take her! " " Oh, Billy, I couldn't think of letting you do that," demurred Aunt Hannah. " You're very kind but, oh, no; not that!" " Why not? I think it would be lovely; anc?, we can just as well as not. After Marie is mar- ried in December, she can have that room. Until then she can have the little blue room next to me.'* " But but we don't know anything about her." " We know she's your niece, and she's lonesome; and we know she's musical. I shall love her for every one of those things. Of course we'll take her! " " But I don't know anything about her age." " All the more reason why she should be looked out for, then/' retorted Billy, promptly. ;< Why, Aunt Hannah, just as if you didn't want to give this lonesome, unprotected young girl a home! " " Oh, I do, of course; but " " Then it's all settled," interposed Billy, spring- ing to her feet. Aunt Hannah Gets a Letter 25 "But what if we we shouldn't like her? " " Nonsense! What if she shouldn't like us?" laughed Billy. " However, if you'd feel better, just ask her to come and stay with us a month. We shall keep her all right, afterwards. See if we don't!" Slowly Aunt Hannah got to her feet. " Very well, dear. I'll write, of course, as you tell me to; and it's lovely of you to do it. Now I'll leave you to your letters. I've hindered you far too long, as it is." " You've rested me," declared Billy, flinging wide. her arms. Aunt Hannah, fearing a second dizzying whirl impelled by those same young arms, drew her shawls about her shoulders and backed hastily toward the hall door. Billy laughed. " Oh, I won't again to-day," she promised merrily. Then, as the lady reached the arched doorway: " Tell Mary Jane to let us know the day and train and we'll meet her. Oh, and Aunt Hannah, tell her to wear a pink a white pink; and tell her we will, too," she finished gayly. CHAPTER III , . BILLY AND BERTRAM BERTRAM called that evening. Before the open fire in the living-room he found a pensive Billy awaiting him a Billy who let herself be kissed, it is true, and who even kissed back, shyly, ador- ably; but a Billy who looked at him with wide, almost frightened eyes. " Why, darling, what's the matter? " he de- manded, his own eyes growing wide and fright- ened. " Bertram, it's done! " " What's done? What do you mean? " " Our engagement. It's announced. I wrote stacks of notes to-day, and even now there are some left for to-morrow. And then there's the newspapers. Bertram, right away, now, everybody will know it." Her voice was tragic. Bertram relaxed visibly. A tender light came to his eyes. " Well, didn't you expect everybody would know it, my dear? " Billy and Bertram 27 "Y-yes; but " At her hesitation, the tender light changed to a quick fear. " Billy, you aren't sorry? " The pink glory that suffused her face answered him before her words did. " Sorry! Oh, never, Bertram! It's only that it won't be ours any longer that is, it won't belong to just our two selves. Everybody will know it. And they'll bow and smile and say ' How lovely! ' to our faces, and ' Did you ever? ' to our backs. Oh, no, I'm not sorry, Bertram; but I am afraid." "Afraid Billy!" 11 Yes." Billy sighed, and gazed with pensive eyes into the fire. Across Bertram's face swept surprise, conster- nation, and dismay. Bertram had thought he knew Billy in all her moods and fancies; but he did not know her in this one. " Why, Billy! " he breathed. Billy drew another sigh. It seemed to come from the very bottoms of her small, satin-slippered feet. 11 Well, I am. You're the Bertram Henshaw. You know lots and lots of people that I never even saw. And they'll come and stand around 28 Miss Billy's Decision and stare and lift their lorgnettes and say: ' Is that the one? Dear me! ' Bertram gave a relieved laugh. " Nonsense, sweetheart ! I should think you were a picture I'd painted and hung on a wall." " I shall feel as if I were with all those friends of yours. Bertram, what if they don't like it? " Her voice had grown tragic again. "Likeitl" " Yes. The picture me, I mean." " They can't help liking it," he retorted, with the prompt certainty of an adoring lover. Billy shook her head. Her eyes had gone back to the fire. " Oh, yes, they can. I can hear them. ' What, she Bertram Henshaw's wife? a frivolous, inconsequential " Billy " like that? ' Bertram! " Billy turned fiercely despairing eyes on her lover - - " Bertram, sometimes I wish my name were ' Clarissa Cordelia,' or ' Arabella Maud,' or ' Hannah Jane ' anything that's feminine and proper! " Bertram's ringing laugh brought a faint smile to Billy's lips. But the words that followed the laugh, and the caressing touch of the man's hands sent a flood of shy color to her face. " 'Hannah Jane,' indeed! As if I'd exchange Billy and Bertram 29 my Billy for her or any Clarissa or Arabella that ever grew I I adore Billy flame, nature, and " "And naughtiness?" put in Billy herself. " .Yes if there be any/* laughed Bertram, fondly. " But, see," he added, taking a tiny box from his pocket, " see what I've brought for this same Billy to wear. She'd have had it long ago if she hadn't insisted on waiting for this announcement business." "Oh, Bertram, what a beauty!" dimpled Billy, as the flawless diamond in Bertram's fingers caught the light and sent it back in a flash of flame and crimson. " Now you are mine really mine, sweet- ' heart ! " The man's voice and hand shook as he Clipped the ring on Billy's outstretched finger. Billy caught her breath with almost a sob. "And I'm so glad to be yours, dear," she murmured brokenly. "And and I'll make you proud that I am yours, even if I am just ' Billy,' " she choked. " Oh, I know I'll write such beautiful,, beautiful songs now." The man drew her into a close embrace. "As if I cared for that," he scoffed lovingly. Billy looked up in quick horror. "Why, Bertram, you don't mean you don't care?" so Miss Billy's Decision He laughed lightly, and took the dismayed little face between his two hands. " Care, darling? of course I care! You know how I love your music. I care about everything that concerns you. I meant that I'm proud of you now just you. I love you, you know." There was a moment's pause. Billy's eyes, as they looked at him, carried a curious intentness in their dark depths. " You mean, you like the turn of my head and the tilt of my chin? " she asked a little breath- lessly. " I adore them! " came the prompt answer. To Bertram's utter amazement, Billy drew back with a sharp cry. "No, no not that!" " Why, Bitty! " Billy laughed unexpectedly; then she sighed. " Oh, it's all right, of course," she assured him hastily. " It's only " Billy stopped and blushed. Billy was thinking of what Hugh Calder- well had once said to her : that Bertram Henshaw would never love any girl seriously ; that it would always be the turn of her head or the tilt of her chin that he loved to paint. ;< Well; only what? " demanded Bertram. Billy blushed the more deeply, but she gave a light laugh. Billy and Bertram 31 " Nothing, only something Hugh Calderwell said to me once. You see, Bertram, I don't think Hugh ever thought you would marry." "Oh, didn't he?" bridled Bertram. " Well, that only goes to show how much he knows about it. Er did you announce it to him? " Bertram's voice was almost savage now. Billy smiled. "No; but I did to his sister, and she'll tell him. Oh, Bertram, such a time as I had over those notes," went on Billy, with a chuckle. Her eyes were dancing, and she was seeming more like her usual self, Bertram thought. " You see there were such a lot of things I wanted to say, about what a dear you were, and how much I I liked you, and that you had such lovely eyes, and a nose " " Billy! " This time it was Bertram who was sitting erect in pale horror. Billy threw him a roguish glance. " Goosey! You are as bad as Aunt Hannah! I said that was what I wanted to say. What I really said was quite another matter," she finished with a saucy uptilting of her chin. Bertram relaxed with a laugh. " You witch! " His admiring eyes still lingered Miss Billy's Decision on her face. " Billy, I'm going to paint you some- time in just that pose. You're adorable! " " Pooh! Just another face of a girl," teased the adorable one. Bertram gave a sudden exclamation. " There! And I haven't told you, yet. Guess what my next commission is." " To paint a portrait? " " Yes." " Can't. Who is it? " " J. G. Winthrop's daughter." " Not the J. G. Winthrop? " " The same." " Oh, Bertram, how splendid! " " Isn't it? And then the girl herself! Have you seen her? But you haven't, I know, unless you met her abroad. She hasn't been in Boston for years until now." " No, I haven't seen her. Is she so very beau- tiful? " Billy spoke a little soberly. "Yes and no." The artist lifted his head , alertly. What Billy called his " painting look " ' came to his face. " It isn't that her features are so regular though her mouth and chin are perfect. But her face has so much character, and there's an elusive something about her eyes Jove! If I can only catch it, it'll be the best thing yet that I've ever done, Billy." Billy and Bertram 33 "Will it? I'm so glad and you'll get it, I know you will," claimed Billy, clearing her throat a little nervously. " I wish I felt so sure," sighed Bertram. " But it'll be a great thing if I do get it J. G. Win- throp's daughter, you know, besides the merit of the likeness itself." 1 Yes; yes, indeed! " Billy cleared her throat again. " You've seen her, of course, lately? " " Oh, yes. I was there half the morning dis- cussing the details sittings and costume, and deciding on the pose." " Did you find one to suit? " "Find one!" The artist made a despairing gesture. " I found a dozen that I wanted. The trouble was to tell which I wanted the most." Billy gave a nervous little laugh. " Isn't that unusual? " she asked. Bertram lifted his eyebrows with a quizzical smile. " Well, they aren't all Marguerite Winthrops," he reminded her. " Marguerite! " cried Billy. " Oh, is her name Marguerite? I do think Marguerite is the dearest name! " Billy's eyes and voice were wistful. " I don't not the dearest. Oh, it's all well enough, of course, but it can't be compared for a moment to well, say, ' Billy ' ! " 34 Miss Billy's Decision Billy smiled, but she shook her head. " I'm afraid you're not a good judge of names," she objected. " Yes, I am; though, for that matter, I should love your name, no matter what it was." / " Even if 'twas ' Mary Jane/ eh? " bantered Billy. " Well, you'll have a chance to find out how you like that name pretty quick, sir. We're going to have one here." " You're going to have a Mary Jane here? Do you mean that Rosa's going away? " " Mercy! I hope not," shuddered Billy. " You don't find a Rosa in every kitchen and never in employment agencies! My Mary Jane is a niece of Aunt Hannah's, or rather, a cousin. She's coming to Boston to study music, and I've invited her here. We've asked her for a month, though I presume we shall keep her right along." Bertram frowned. " Well, of course, that's very nice for Mary Jane, 11 he sighed with meaning emphasis. Billy laughed. " Don't worry, dear. She won't bother us any." " Oh, yes, she will," sighed Bertram. " She'll be 'round lots; you see if she isn't. Billy, I think sometimes you're almost too kind to other folks." Billy and Bertram 35 " Never !/' laughed Billy. " Besides, what would you have me do when a lonesome young girl was coming to Boston? Anyhow, you're not the one to talk, young man. I've known you to take in / a lonesome girl and give her a home," she flashed merrily. Bertram chuckled. " Jove! What a time that was! " he exclaimed, regarding his companion with fond eyes. " And Spunk, too! Is she going to bring a Spunk? " " Not that I've heard," smiled Billy; " but she is going to wear a pink." " Not really, Billy? " " Of course she is! I told her to. How do you suppose we could know her when we saw her, if she didn't? " demanded the girl, indignantly. " And what is more, sir, there will be two pinks worn this time. / sha'n't do as Uncle William did, and leave off my pink. Only think what long min- utes that seemed hours of misery I spent waiting there in that train-shed, just because I didn't know which man was my Uncle William!" Bertram laughed and shrugged his shoulders. " Well, your Mary Jane won't probably turn out to be quite such a bombshell as our Billy did unless she should prove to be a boy," he added whimsically. " Oh, but Billy, she can't 36 Miss Billy's Decision turn out to be such a dear treasure," finished the man. And at the adoring look in his eyes Billy blushed deeply and promptly forgot all about Mary Jane and her pink. CHAPTER IV FOR MARY JANE " I HAVE a letter here from Mary Jane, my dear," announced Aunt Hannah at the luncheon table one day. " Have you? " Billy raised interested eyes from her own letters. " What does she say? " " She will be here Thursday. Her train is due at the South Station at four-thirty. She seems to be very grateful to you for your offer to let her come right here for a month; but she says she's afraid you don't realize, perhaps, just what you are doing to take her in like that, with her Ringing, and all." " Nonsense! She doesn't refuse, does she? " " Oh, no; she doesn't refuse but she doesn't accept either, exactly, as I can see. I've read the letter over twice, too. I'll let you judge for your- self by and by, when you have time to read it." Billy laughed. " Never mind. I don't want to read it. She's just a little shy about coming, that's all. She'll 37 38 Miss Billy's Decision stay all right, when we come to meet her. What time did you say it was, Thursday? " " Half past four, South Station." " Thursday, at half past four. Let me see that's the day of the Carletons' ' At Home,'' isn't it? " 11 Oh, my grief and conscience, yes! But I had forgotten it. What shall we do? " " Oh, that will be easy. We'll just go to the Carletons' early and have John wait, then take us from there to the South Station. Meanwhile we'll make sure that the little blue room is all ready for her. I put in my white enamel work-basket yesterday, and that pretty little blue case for hairpins and curling tongs that I bought at the fair. I want the room to look homey to her, you know." " As if it could look any other way, if you had anything to do with it," sighed Aunt Hannah, admiringly. Billy laughed. " If we get stranded we might ask the Henshaw boys to help us out, Aunt Hannah. They'd probably suggest guns and swords. That's the way they fixed up my room." Aunt Hannah raised shocked hands of protest. "As if we would! Mercy, what a time that was!" For Mary Jane 39 Billy laughed again. " I never shall forget, never, my first glimpse of that room when Mrs. Hartwell switched on the lights. Oh, Aunt Hannah, I wish you could have seen it before they took out those guns and spiders! " " As if I didn't see quite enough when I saw William's face that morning he came for me! " retorted Aunt Hannah, spiritedly. " Dear Uncle William! What an old saint he has been all the way through," mused Billy aloud. " And Cyril who would ever have believed that the day would come when Cyril would say to me, as he did last night, that he felt as if Marie had been gone a month. It's been just seven days, you know." " I know. She comes to-morrow, doesn't she? " ' Yes, and I'm glad. I shall tell Marie she needn't leave Cyril on my hands again. Bertram says that at home Cyril hasn't played a dirge since his engagement; but I notice that up here where Marie might be, but isn't his tunes would never be mistaken for ragtime. By the way," she added, as she rose from the table, " that's another surprise in store for Hugh Calder- well. He always declared that Cyril wasn't a marrying man, either, any more than Bertram. You know he said Bertram only cared for girls 40 Miss Billy's Decision to paint; but " She stopped and looked in- quiringly at Rosa, who had appeared at that mo- ment in the hall doorway. " It's the telephone, Miss Neilson. Mr. Ber- tram Henshaw wants you." A few minutes later Aunt Hannah heard Billy at the piano. For fifteen, twenty, thirty minutes the brilliant scales and arpeggios rippled through the rooms and up the stairs to Aunt Hannah, who knew, by the very sound of them, that some unusual nervousness was being worked off at the finger tips that played them. At the end of forty- five minutes Aunt Hannah went down-stairs. " Billy, my dear, excuse me, but have you for- gotten what time it is? Weren't you going out with Bertram? " Billy stopped playing at once, but she did not turn her head. Her fingers busied themselves- with some music on the piano. " We aren't going, Aunt Hannah," she said. " Bertram can't." " Can't! " " Well, he didn't want to so of course I said not to. He's been painting this morning on a new portrait, and she said he might stay to luncheon and keep right on for a while this afternoon, if he liked. And he did like, so he stayed." For Mary Jane 41 " Why, how how " Aunt Hannah stopped helplessly. " Oh, no, not at all," interposed Billy, lightly. " He told me all about it the other night. It's going to be a very wonderful portrait; and, of course, I wouldn't want to interfere with his work! " And again a brilliant scale rippled from Billy's fingers after a crashing chord in the bass. Slowly Aunt Hannah turned and went up-stairs. Her eyes were troubled. Not since Billy's engage- ment had she heard Billy play like that. Bertram did not find a pensive Billy awaiting him that evening. He found a bright-eyed, flushed-cheeked Billy, who let herself be kissed once but who did not kiss back ; a blithe, elusive Billy, who played tripping little melodies, and sang jolly little songs, instead of sitting be- fore the fire and talking; a Billy who at last turned, and asked tranquilly: " Well, how did the picture go? " Bertram rose then, crossed the room, and took Billy very gently into his arms. " Sweetheart, you were a dear this noon to let me off like that," he began in a voice shaken with emotion. " You don't know, perhaps, exactly what you did. You see, I was nearly wild between wanting to be with you, and wanting to go on with my work. And I was just at that 42 Miss Billy's Decision point where one little word from you, one hint that you wanted me to come anyway and I should have come. But you didn't say it, nor hint it. Like the brave little bit of inspiration that you are, you bade me stay and go on with my work." The "inspiration's" head drooped a little lower, but this only brought a wealth of soft bronze hair to just where Bertram could lay his cheek against it and Bertram promptly took advantage of his opportunity. " And so I stayed, Billy, and I did good work; I know I did good work. Why, Billy," Bertram stepped back now, and held Billy by the shoulders at arms' length " Billy, that's going to be the best work I've ever done. I can see it coming even now, under my fingers." Billy lifted her head and looked into her lover's face. His eyes were glowing. His cheeks were flushed. His whole countenance was aflame with the soul of the artist who sees his vision taking shape before him. And Billy, looking at him, felt suddenly ashamed. " Oh, Bertram, I'm proud, proud, proud of you! " she breathed. " Come, let's go over to die fire and talk!" CHAPTER V . MARIE SPEAKS HER MIND BILLY with John and Peggy met Marie Haw- thorn at the station. " Peggy " was short for " Pegasus," and was what Billy always called her luxurious, seven-seated touring car. " I simply won't call it ' automobile,' " she had declared when she bought it. "In the first place, it takes too long to say it, and in the second place, I don't want to add one more to the nine- teen different ways to pronounce it that I hear all around me every day now. As for calling it my ' car,' or my ' motor car ' I should expect to see a Pullman or one of those huge black trucks before my door, if I ordered it by either of those names. Neither will I insult the beautiful thing by calling it a ' machine.' Its name is Pegasus. I shall call it ' Peggy.' " And " Peggy " she called it. John sniffed his disdain, and Billy's friends made no secret of their amused tolerance; but, in an astonishingly short time, half the automobile owners of her 43 44 Miss Billy's Decision acquaintance were calling their own cars " Peggy " ; and even the dignified John himself was heard to order " some gasoline for Peggy," quite as a mat- ter of course. When Marie Hawthorn stepped from the train at the North Station she greeted Billy with affec- tionate warmth, though at once her blue eyes swept the space beyond expectantly and eagerly. Billy's lips curved in a mischievous smile. " No, he didn't come," she said. " He didn't want to a little bit." Marie grew actually pale. " Didn't want to! " she stammered. Billy gave her a spasmodic hug. "Goosey! No, he didn't a little bit; but he did a great big bit. As if you didn't know he was dying to come, Marie! But he simply couldn't something about his concert Monday night. He told me over the telephone; but be- tween his joy that you were coming, and his rage that he couldn't see you the first minute you did come, I couldn't quite make out what was the trouble. But he's coming to dinner to-night, so he'll doubtless tell you all about it." Marie sighed her relief. " Oh, that's all right then. I was afraid he was sick when I didn't see him." Billy laughed softly. Marie Speaks Her Mind 45 " No, he isn't sick, Marie; but you needn't go away again before the wedding not to leave him on my hands. I wouldn't have believed Cyril Henshaw, confirmed old bachelor and avowed woman-hater, could have acted the part of a love-sick boy as he has the last week or two." The rose-flush on Marie's cheek spread to the roots of her fine yellow hair. " Billy, dear, he he didn't! " " Marie, dear he he did! " Marie laughed. She did not say anything, but the rose-flush deepened as she occupied her- self very busily in getting her trunk-check from the little hand bag she carried. Cyril was not mentioned again until the two girls, veils tied and coats buttoned, were snugly ensconced in the tonneau, and Peggy's nose was turned toward home. Then Billy asked : " Have you settled on where you're going to live? " " Not quite. We're going to talk of that to-night; but we do know that we aren't going to live at the Strata." "Marie!" Marie stirred uneasily at the obvious disap- pointment and reproach in her friend's voice. " But, dear, it wouldn't be wise, I'm sure/' 46 Miss Billy's Decision she argued hastily. " There will be you and Bertram. " ;< We sha'n't be there for a year, nearly," cut in Billy, with swift promptness. " Besides, I think it would be lovely all together." Marie smiled, but she shook her head. " Lovely but not practical, dear." Billy laughed ruefully. " I know; you're worrying about those puddings of yours. You're afraid somebody is going to interfere with your making quite so many as you want to; and Cyril is worrying for fear there'll be somebody else in the circle of his shaded lamp besides his little Marie with the light on her hair, and the mending basket by her side." " Billy, what are you talking about? " Billy threw a roguish glance into her friend's amazed blue eyes. " Oh, just a little picture Cyril drew once for me of what home meant for him: a room with a table and a shaded lamp, and a little woman beside it with the light on her hair and a great basket of sewing by her side." Marie's eyes softened. " Did he say that? " ' Yes. Oh, he declared he shouldn't want her to sit under that lamp all the time, of course; but he hoped she'd like that sort of thing." Marie Speaks Her Mind 4T Marie threw a quick glance at the stolid back of John beyond the two empty seats in front of them. Although she knew he could not hear her words, instinctively she lowered her voice. " Did you know then about me? " she asked, with heightened color. " No, only that there was a girl somewhere who, he hoped, would sit under the lamp some day. And when I asked him if the girl did like that sort of thing, he said yes, he thought so; for she had told him once that the things she liked best of all to do were to mend stockings and make puddings. Then I knew, of course, 'twas you, for I'd heard you say the same thing. So I sent him right along out to you in the summer- house." The pink flush on Marie's face grew to a red one. Her blue eyes turned again to John's broad back, then drifted to the long, imposing line of windowed walls and doorways on the right. The automobile was passing smoothly along Beacon Street now with the Public Garden just behind them on the left. After a moment Marie turned to Billy again. "I'm so glad he wants just puddings and stockings," she began a little breathlessly. " You see, for so long I supposed he wouldn't want any- thing but a very brilliant, talented wife who could 48 Miss Billy's Decision play and sing beautifully; a wife he'd be proud of like you." "Me? Nonsense!" laughed Billy. "Cyril never wanted me, and I never wanted him only once for a few minutes, so to speak, when I thought I did. In spite of our music, we aren't a mite congenial. I like people around; he doesn't/ I like to go to plays; he doesn't. He likes rainy days, and I abhor them. Mercy! Life with me for him would be one long jangling discord, my love, while with you it'll be one long sweet song! " Marie drew a deep breath. Her eyes were fixed on a point far ahead up the curveless street. " I hope it will, indeed! " she breathed. Not until they were almost home did Billy say suddenly: " Oh, did Cyril write you? A young relative of Aunt Hannah's is coming to-morrow to stay a while at the house." " Er yes, Cyril told me," admitted Marie. Billy smiled. " Didn't like it, I suppose; eh? " she queried shrewdly. " N-no, I'm afraid he didn't very well. He said she'd be one more to be around." " There, what did I tell you? " dimpled Billy. ' You can see what you're coming to when you do get that shaded lamp and the mending basket! " Marie Speaks Her Mind 49 A moment later, coming in sight of the house, Billy saw a tall, smooth-shaven man standing on the porch. The man lifted his hat and waved it gayly, baring a slightly bald head to the sun. " It's Uncle William bless his heart! " cried Billy. ' They're all coming to dinner, then he and Aunt Hannah and Bertram and I are going down to the Hollis Street Theatre and let you and Cyril have a taste of what that shaded lamp is going to be. I hope you won't be lonesome," she finished mischievously, as the car drew up before the door. CHAPTER VI AT THE SIGN OF THE PINK AFTER a week of beautiful autumn weather, Thursday dawned raw and cold. By noon an east wind had made the temperature still more uncomfortable. At two o'clock Aunt Hannah tapped at Billy's chamber door. She showed a troubled face to the girl who answered her knock. " Billy, would you mind very much if I asked you to go alone to the Carletons' and to meet Mary Jane? " she inquired anxiously. ''' Why, no that is, of course I should mind, dear, because I always like to have you go to places with me. But it isn't necessary. You aren't sick; are you? " " N-no, not exactly; but I have been sneez- ing all the morning, and taking camphor and sugar to break it up if it is a cold. But it is so raw and Novemberish out, that " ' Why, of course you sha'n't go, you poor dear! Mercy! don't get one of those dreadful colds on to you before the wedding ! Have you felt 60 At the Sign of the Pink 51 a draft? Where's another shawl? " Billy turned and cast searching eyes about the room Billy always kept shawls everywhere for Aunt Hannah's shoulders and feet. Bertram had been known to say, indeed, that a room, according to Aunt Hannah, was not fully furnished unless it con- tained from one to four shawls, assorted as to size and warmth. Shawls, certainly, did seem to be a necessity with Aunt Hannah, as she usually wore from one to three at the same time which again caused Bertram to declare that he always counted Aunt Hannah's shawls when he wished to know what the thermometer was. " No, I'm not cold, and I haven't felt a draft," said Aunt Hannah now. " I put on my thickest gray shawl this morning with the little pink one for down-stairs, and the blue one for breakfast; so you see I've been very careful. But I have sneezed six times, so I think 'twould be safer not to go out in this east wind. You were going to stop for Mrs. Granger, anyway, weren't you? So you'll have her with you for the tea." ' Yes, dear, don't worry. I'll take your cards and explain to Mrs. Carleton and her daughters." " And, of course, as far as Mary Jane is con- cerned, I don't know her any more than you do; so I couldn't be any help there," sighed Aunt Hannah. 52 Miss Billy's Decision " Not a bit," smiled Billy, cheerily. " Don't give it another thought, my dear. I sha'n't have a bit of trouble. All I'll have to do is to look for a girl alone with a pink. Of course I'll have mine on, too, and she'll be watching for me. So just run along and take your nap, dear, and be all rested and ready to welcome her when she comes," finished Billy, stooping to give the soft, faintly pink cheek a warm kiss. "Well, thank you, my dear; perhaps I will," sighed Aunt Hannah, drawing the gray shawl about her as she turned away contentedly. Mrs. Carleton's tea that afternoon was, for Billy, not an occasion of unalloyed joy. It was the first time she had appeared at a gathering of any size since the announcement of her engage- ment; and, as she dolefully told Bertram after- wards, she had very much the feeling of the picture hung on the wall. " And they did put up their lorgnettes and say, ' Is that the one? ' " she declared; " and I know some of them finished with ' Did you ever? ' too," she sighed. But Billy did not stay long in Mrs. Carleton's softly-lighted, flower-perfumed rooms. At ten minutes past four she was saying good-by to a group of friends who were vainly urging her to remain longer. At the Sign of the Pink 53 " I can't I really can't," she declared. " I'm due at the South Station at half past four to meet a Miss Arkwright, a young cousin of Aunt Hannah's, whom I've never seen before. We're to meet at the sign of the pink," she explained smilingly, just touching the single flower she wore. Her hostess gave a sudden laugh. " Let me see, my dear; if I remember rightly, you've had experience before, meeting at this sign of the pink. At least, I have a very vivid recollection of Mr. William Henshaw's going once to meet a boy with a pink, who turned out to be a girl. Now, to even things up, your girl should turn out to be a boy! " Billy smiled and reddened. " Perhaps but I don't think to-day will strike the balance," she retorted, backing toward the door. ' This young lady's name is ' Mary Jane ' ; and I'll leave it to you to find anything very masculine in that! " It was a short drive from Mrs. Carleton's Commonwealth Avenue home to the South Sta- tion, and Peggy made as quick work of it as the narrow, congested cross streets would allow. In ample time Billy found herself in the great waiting-room, with John saying respectfully in her ear: Miss Billy's Decision " The man says the train comes in on Track Fourteen, Miss, an' it's on time." At twenty-nine minutes past four Billy left her seat and walked down the train-shed platform to Track Number Fourteen. She had pinned the pink now to the outside of her long coat, and it made an attractive dash of white against the o dark-blue velvet. Billy was looking particularly lovely to-day. Framing her face was the big dark-blue velvet picture hat with its becoming white plumes. During the brief minutes' wait before the clang- ing locomotive puffed into view far down the long track, Billy's thoughts involuntarily went back to that other watcher beside a train gate not quite five years before. " Dear Uncle William! " she murmured ten- derly. Then suddenly she laughed so nearly aloud that a man behind her gave her a covert glance from curious eyes. " My! but what a jolt I must have been to Uncle William! " Billy was thinking. The next minute she drew nearer the gate and regarded with absorbed attention the long line of passengers already sweeping up the narrow aisle between the cars. Hurrying men came first, with long strides, and eyes that looked straight ahead. These At the Sign of the Pink 55 Billy let pass with a mere glance. The next group showed a sprinkling of women women whose trig hats and linen collars spelled promptness as well as certainty of aim and accomplishment. To these, also, Billy paid scant attention. Couples came next the men anxious-eyed, and usually walking two steps ahead of their companions; the women plainly flustered and hurried, and invariably buttoning gloves or gathering up trail- ing ends of scarfs or boas. The crowd was thickening fast, now, and Billy's eyes were alert. Children were appearing, and young women walking alone. One of these wore a bunch of violets. Billy gave her a second glance. Then she saw a pink but it was on the coat lapel of a tall young fellow with a brown beard ; so with a slight frown she looked beyond down the line. Old men came now, and old women; fleshy women, and women with small children and babies. Couples came, too dawdling couples, plainly newly married: the men were not two steps ahead, and the women's gloves were buttoned and their furs in place. Gradually the line thinned, and soon there were left only an old man with a cane, and a young woman with three children. Yet nowhere had Billy seen a girl wearing a white carnation, and walking alone. 56 Miss Billy's Decision With a deeper frown on her face Billy turned and looked about her. She thought that some- where in the crowd she had missed Mary Jane, and that she would find her now, standing near. But there was no one standing near except the good-looking young fellow with the little pointed brown beard, who, as Billy noticed a second time, was wearing a white carnation. As she glanced toward him, their eyes met. Then, to Billy's unbounded amazement, the man advanced with uplifted hat. " I beg your pardon, but is not this Miss Neilson? " Billy drew back with just a touch of hauteur. " Y-yes," she murmured. "I thought so yet I was expecting to see you with Aunt Hannah. I am M. J. Arkwright, Miss Neilson." For a brief instant Billy stared dazedly. " You don't mean Mary Jane? " she gasped. " I'm afraid I do." His lips twitched. "But I thought we were expecting She stopped helplessly. For one more brief instant she stared; then, suddenly, a swift change came to her face. Her eyes danced. "Oh oh!" she chuckled. "How per- fectly funny! You have evened things up, after all. To think that Mary Jane should be a " At the Sign of the Pink 57 She paused and flashed almost angrily suspicious eyes into his face. " But mine was ' Billy,' ' she cried. " Your name isn't really Mary Jane'?" " I am often called that." His brown eyes twinkled, but they did not swerve from their direct gaze into her own. " But Billy hesitated, and turned her eyes away. She saw then that many curious glances were already being flung in her direction. The color in her cheeks deepened. With an odd little gesture she seemed to toss something aside. " Never mind," she laughed a little hysterically. " If you'll pick up your bag, please, Mr. Mary Jane, and come with me. John and Peggy are waiting. Or I forgot you have a trunk, of course? " The man raised a protesting hand. 'Thank you; but, Miss Neilson, really I couldn't think of trespassing on your hospitality now, you know." " But we we invited you," stammered Billy. He shook his head. ' You invited Miss Mary Jane." Billy bubbled into low laughter. " I beg your pardon, but it is funny," she sighed. 1 You see I came once just the same way, and now to have the tables turned like this! What 58 Miss Billy's Decision will Aunt Hannah say what will everybody say? Come, I want them to begin to say it," she chuckled irrepressibly. " Thank you, but I shall go to a hotel, of course. Later, if you'll be so good as to let me call, and explain ! " " But I'm afraid Aunt Hannah will think - Billy stopped abruptly. Some distance away she saw John coming toward them. She turned hurriedly to the man at her side. Her eyes still danced, but her voice was mockingly serious. " Really, Mr. Mary Jane, I'm afraid you'll have to come to dinner; then you can settle the rest with Aunt Hannah. John is almost upon us and "I don't want to make explanations. Do you? " " John," she said airily to the somewhat dazed chauffeur (who had been told he was to meet a young woman), " take Mr. Arkwright's bag, please, and show him where Peggy is waiting. It will be five minutes, perhaps, before I can come if you'll kindly excuse me," she added to Arkwright, with a flashing glance from merry eyes. " I have some telephoning to do." All the way to the telephone booth Billy was trying to bring order out of the chaos of her mind; but all the way, too, she was chuckling. ' To think that this thing should have happened to me! " she said, almost aloud. " And here I At the Sign of the Pink 59 am telephoning just like Uncle William Bertram said Uncle William did telephone about me! " In due course Billy had Aunt Hannah at the other end of the wire. " Aunt Hannah, listen. I'd never have be- lieved it, but it's happened. Mary Jane is a man." Billy heard a dismayed gasp and a muttered " Oh, my grief and conscience! " then a shaking " Wha-at? " " I say, Mary Jane is a man." Billy was en- joying herself hugely. " A ma-an! " ' Yes ; a great big man with a brown beard. He's waiting now with John and I must go." " But, Billy, I don't understand," chattered an agitated voice over the line. " He he called himself ' Mary Jane.' He hasn't any business to be a big man with a brown beard ! What shall we do? We don't want a big man with a brown beard here! " Billy laughed roguishly. " I don't know. You asked him! How he will like that little blue room Aunt Hannah! " Billy's voice turned suddenly tragic. " For pity's sake take out those curling tongs and hairpins, and the work-basket. I'd never hear the last of it if he saw those, I know. He's just that kind! M 60 Miss Billy's Decision A half stifled groan came over the wire. " Billy, he can't stay here." Billy laughed again. " No, no, dear; he won't, I know. He says he's going to a hotel. But I had to bring him home to dinner; there was no other way, under the cir- cumstances. He won't stay. Don't you worry. But good-by. I must go. Remember those curling tongs! " And the receiver clicked sharply against the hook. In the automobile some minutes later, Billy and Mr. M. J. Arkwright were speeding toward Corey Hill. It was during a slight pause in the conversation that Billy turned to her companion with a demure: " I telephoned Aunt Hannah, Mr. Arkwright. I thought she ought to be warned." ' You are very kind. What did she say? if I may ask." There was a brief moment of hesitation before Billy answered. 11 She said you called yourself ' Mary Jane/ and that you hadn't any business to be a big man with a brown beard." Arkwright laughed. " I'm afraid I owe Aunt Hannah an apology," he said. He hesitated, glanced admiringly at the glowing, half-averted face near him, then went At the Sign of the Pink 61 on decisively. He wore the air of a man who has set the match to his bridges. " I signed both letters ' M. J. Arkwright,' but in the first one I quoted a remark of a friend, and in that remark I was addressed as ' Mary Jane.' I did not know but Aunt Hannah knew of the nickname." (Ark- wright was speaking a little slowly now, as if weighing his words.) " But when she answered, I saw that she did not; for, from something she said, I realized that she thought I was a real Mary Jane. For the joke of the thing I let it pass. But if she noticed my letter carefully, she saw that I did not accept your kind invitation to give ' Mary Jane ' a home." 11 Yes, we noticed that," nodded Billy, merrily. " But we didn't think you meant it. You see we pictured you as a shy young thing. But, really," she went on with a low laugh, " you see your coming as a masculine ' Mary Jane ' was particularly funny for me ; for, though perhaps you didn't know it, I came once to this very same city, wearing a pink, and was expected to be Billy, a boy. And only to-day a lady warned me that your coming might even things up. But I didn't believe it would a Mary Jane! " Arkwright laughed. Again he hesitated, and seemed to be weighing his words. " Yes, I heard about that coming of yours. 62 Miss Billy's Decision I might almost say that's why I let the mistake pass in Aunt Hannah's letter," he said. Billy turned with reproachful eyes. "Oh, how could 'you? But then it was a temptation! " She laughed suddenly. " What sinful joy you must have had watching me hunt for ' Mary Jane/ ' " I didn't," acknowledged the other, with un- expected candor. " I felt ashamed. And when I saw you were there alone without Aunt Hannah, I came very near not speaking at all until I realized that that would be even worse, under the circumstances." " Of course it would," smiled Billy, brightly; " so I don't see but I shall have to forgive you, after all. And here we are at home, Mr. Mary Jane. By the way, what did you say that ' M. J/ did stand for? " she asked, as the car came to a stop. The man did not seem to hear; at least he did not answer. He was helping his hostess to alight. A moment later a plainly agitated Aunt Hannah her gray shawl topped with a huge black one opened the door of the house. CHAPTER VII OLD FRIENDS AND NEW AT ten minutes before six on the afternoon of Arkwright's arrival, Billy came into the living- room to welcome the three Henshaw brothers, who, as was frequently the case, were dining at Hillside. Bertram thought Billy had never looked prettier than she did this afternoon with the bronze sheen of her pretty house gown bringing out the bronze lights in her dark eyes and in the soft waves of her beautiful hair. Her countenance, too, carried a peculiar something that the artist's eye was quick to detect, and that the artist's fingers tingled to put on canvas. " Jove! Billy," he said low in her ear, as he greeted her, " I wish I had a brush in my hand this minute. I'd have a ' Face of a Girl ' that would be worth while! " Billy laughed and dimpled her appreciation; but down in her heart she was conscious of a vague unrest. Billy wished, sometimes, that she did not so often seem to Bertram a picture. 63 64 Miss Billy's Decision She turned to Cyril with outstretched hand. " Oh, yes, Marie's coming," she smiled in an- swer to the quick shifting of Cyril's eyes to the hall doorway. " And Aunt Hannah, too. They're up-stairs." " And Mary Jane? " demanded William, a little anxiously ;< Will's getting nervous," volunteered Bertram, airily. " He wants to see Mary Jane. You see we've told him that we shall expect him to see that she doesn't bother us four too much, you know. He's expected always to remove her quietly but effectually, whenever he sees that she is likely to interrupt a tete-a-tete. Naturally, then, Will wants to see Mary Jane." Billy began to laugh hysterically. She dropped into a chair and raised both her hands, palms outward. " Don't, don't please don't!" she choked, " or I shall die. I've had all I can stand, already." " All you can stand? " " What do you mean? " " Is she so impossible? " This last was from Bertram, spoken softly, and with a hurried glance toward the hall. Billy dropped her hands and lifted her head. By heroic effort she pulled her face into sobriety all but her eyes and announced : Old Friends and New 65 11 Mary Jane is a man." " Wha-at? " " A man! " ''Billy!" Three masculine forms sat suddenly erect. " Yes. Oh, Uncle William, I know now just how you felt I know, I know," gurgled Billy, incoherently. " There he stood with his pink just as I did only he had a brown beard, and he didn't have Spunk and I had to telephone to prepare folks, just as you did. And the room - the room! I fixed the room, too," she babbled breathlessly, " only I had curling tongs and hair pins in it instead of guns and spiders! " " Child, child! what are you talking about? " William's face was red. " A man! Mary Jane! " Cyril was merely cross. " Billy, what does this mean? " Bertram had grown a little white. Billy began to laugh again, yet she was plainly trying to control herself. "I'll tell you. I must tell you. Aunt Hannah is keeping him up-stairs so I can tell you," she panted. " But it was so funny, when I expected a girl, you know, to see him with his brown beard, and he was so tall and big! And, of course, it made me think how / came, and was a girl 66 Miss Billy's Decision when you expected a boy; and Mrs. Carleton had just said to-day that maybe this girl would even things up. Oh, it was so funny! " " Billy, my my dear," remonstrated Uncle William, mildly. " But what is his name? " demanded Cyril. " Did the creature sign himself ' Mary Jane '? " exploded Bertram. " I don't know his name, except that it's ' M. J.' and that's how he signed the letters. But he is called ' Mary Jane ' sometimes, and in the letter he quoted somebody's speech I've for- gotten just how but in it he was called ' Mary Jane,' and, of course, Aunt Hannah took him for a girl," explained Billy, grown a little more coherent now. " Didn't he write again? " asked William. " Yes." " Well, why didn't he correct the mistake, then? " demanded Bertram. Billy chuckled. " He didn't want to, I guess. He thought it was too good a joke." "Joke! "scoffed Cyril. " But, see here, Billy, he isn't going to live here now? " Bertram's voice was almost savage. "Oh, no, he isn't going to live here now," interposed smooth tones from the doorway. Old Friends and New 67 "Mr. Arkwright!" breathed Billy, confu- sedly. Three crimson-faced men sprang to their feet. The situation, for a moment, threatened embar- rassed misery for all concerned; but Arkwright, with a cheery smile, advanced straight toward Bertram, and held out a friendly hand. " The proverbial fate of listeners," he said easily; "but I don't blame you at all. No, ' he ' isn't going to live here," he went on, grasp- ing each brother's hand in turn, as Billy mur- mured faint introductions; " and what is more, he hereby asks everybody's pardon for the annoy- ance his little joke has caused. He might add that he's heartily ^'ashamed of himself, as well; but if any of you " Arkwright turned to the three tall men still standing by their chairs " if any of you had suffered what he has at the hands of a swarm of youngsters for that name's sake, you wouldn't blame him for being tempted to get what fun he could out of Mary Jane if there ever came a chance! " Naturally, after this, there could be nothing stiff or embarrassing. Billy laughed in relief, and motioned Mr. Arkwright to a seat near her. William said " Of course, of course! " and shook hands again. Bertram and Cyril laughed shame- facedly and sat down. Somebody said: "But 68 Miss Billy's Decision what does the ' M. J.' stand for, anyhow? " Nobody answered this, however; perhaps be- cause Aunt Hannah and Marie appeared just then in the doorway. Dinner proved to be a lively meal. In the new- comer, Bertram met his match for wit and satire; and " Mr. Mary Jane," as he was promptly called by every one but Aunt Hannah, was found to be a most entertaining guest. After dinner somebody suggested music. Cyril frowned, and got up abruptly. Still frowning, he turned to a bookcase near him and began to take down and examine some of the books. Bertram twinkled and glanced at Billy. " Which is it, Cyril? " he called with cheerful impertinence; " stool, piano, or audience that is the matter to-night? " Only a shrug from Cyril answered. " You see," explained Bertram, jauntily, to Arkwright, whose eyes were slightly puzzled, " Cyril never plays unless the piano and the pedals and the weather and your ears and my watch and his fingers are just right! " " Nonsense! " scorned Cyril, dropping his book and walking back to his chair. " I don't feel like playing to-night; that's all." " You see," nodded Bertram again. Old Friends and New 69 " I see," bowed Arkwright with quiet amuse- ment. " I believe Mr. Mary Jane sings," ob- served Billy, at this point, demurely. " Why, yes, of course," chimed in Aunt Hannah with some nervousness. " That's what she I mean he was coming to Boston for to study music." Everybody laughed. " Won't you sing, please? " asked Billy. " Can you without your notes? I have lots of songs if you want them." For a moment but only a moment Ark- wright hesitated; then he rose and went to the piano. With the easy sureness of the trained musician his fingers dropped to the keys and slid into pre- liminary chords and arpeggios to test the touch of the piano ; then, with a sweetness and purity that made every listener turn in amazed delight, a well- trained tenor began the " Thro' the leaves the night winds moving," of Schubert's Serenade. Cyril's chin had lifted at the first tone. He was listening now with very obvious pleasure. Ber- tram, too, was showing by his attitude the keenest appreciation. William and Aunt Hannah, resting back in their chairs, were contentedly nodding their approval to each other. Marie in her corner was 70 Miss Billy's Decision motionless with rapture. As to Billy Billy was plainly oblivious of everything but the song and the singer. She seemed scarcely to move or to breathe till the song's completion; then there came a low " Oh, how beautiful! " through her parted lips. Bertram, looking at her, was conscious of a vague irritation. " Arkwright, you're a lucky dog," he declared almost crossly. " I wish I could sing like that! " " I wish I could paint a ' Face of a Girl,' ' smiled the tenor as he turned from the piano. " Oh, but, Mr. Arkwright, don't stop," objected Billy, springing to her feet and going to her music cabinet by the piano. " There's a little song of Nevin's I want you to sing. There, here it is. Just let me play it for you." And she slipped into the place the singer had just left. It was the beginning of the end. After Nevin came De Koven, and after De Koven, Gounod. Then came Nevin again, Billy still playing the accompaniment. Next followed a duet. Billy did not consider herself much of a singer, but her voice was sweet and true, and not without train- ing. It blended very prettily with the clear, pure tenor. William and Aunt Hannah still smiled content- edly in their chairs, though Aunt Hannah had Old Friends and New 71 reached for the pink shawl near her the music had sent little shivers down her spine. Cyril, with Marie, had slipped into the little reception- room across the hall, ostensibly to look at some plans for a house, although as everybody knew they were not intending to build for a year. Bertram, still sitting stiffly erect in his chair, was not conscious of a vague irritation now. He was conscious of a very real, and a very de- cided one an irritation that was directed against himself, against Billy, and against this man, Ark- wright; but chiefly against music, per se. He hated music. He wished he could sing. He won- dered how long it took to teach a man to sing, anyhow ; and he wondered if a man could sing who never had sung. At this point the duet came to an end, and Billy and her guest left the piano. Almost at once, after this, Arkwright made his very graceful adieus, and went off with his suit-case to the hotel where, as he had informed Aunt Hannah, his room was already engaged. William went home then, and Aunt Hannah went up-stairs. Cyril and Marie withdrew into a still more secluded corner to look at their plans, and Bertram found himself at last alone with Billy. He forgot, then, in the blissful hour he 72 Miss Billy's Decision spent with her before the open fire, how he hated music; though he did say, just before he went home that night: "Billy, how long does it take to learn to sing? " " Why, I don't know, I'm sure," replied Billy, abstractedly; then, with sudden fervor: *' Oh, Bertram, hasn't Mr. Mary Jane a beautiful voice? " Bertram wished then he had not asked the ques- tion ; but all he said was : " ' Mr. Mary Jane,' indeed! What an absurd name! " " But doesn't he sing beautifully? " "Eh? Oh, yes, he sings all right," said Ber- tram's tongue. Bertram's manner said: " Oh, yes, anybody can sing." CHAPTER VIII M. J. OPENS THE GAME ON the morning after Cyril's first concert of the season, Billy sat sewing with Aunt Hannah in the little sitting-room at the end of the hall up- stairs. Aunt Hannah wore only one shawl this morning, which meant that she was feeling unusually well. " Marie ought to be here to mend these stock- ings," remarked Billy, as she critically examined a tiny break in the black silk mesh stretched across the darning-egg in her hand; "only she'd want a bigger hole. She does so love to make a beautiful black latticework bridge across a yawning white china sea and you'd think the safety of an army depended on the way each plank was laid, too," she concluded. Aunt Hannah smiled tranquilly, but she did not speak. " I suppose you don't happen to know if Cyril does wear big holes in his socks," resumed Billy, after a moment's silence. " If you'll believe it* 73 74 Miss Billy's Decision that thought popped into my head last night when Cyril was playing that concerto so superbly. It did, actually right in the middle of the adagio movement, too. And in spite of my joy and pride in the music I had all I could do to keep from nudging Marie right there and then and asking her whether or not the dear man was hard on his hose." " Billy! " gasped the shocked Aunt Hannah; but the gasp broke at once into what in Aunt Hannah passed for a chuckle. " If I remember .rightly, when I was there at the house with you at first, my dear, William told me that Cyril wouldn't wear any sock after it came to mending." " Horrors! " Billy waved her stocking in mock despair. " That will never do in the world. It would break Marie's heart. You know how she dotes on darning." " Yes, I know," smiled Aunt Hannah. " By the way, where is she this morning? " Billy raised her eyebrows quizzically. " Gone to look at an apartment in Cambridge, I believe. Really, Aunt Hannah, between her home- hunting in the morning, and her furniture-and- rug hunting in the afternoon, and her poring over house-plans in the evening, I can't get her to attend to her clothes at all. Never did I see a bride so utterly indifferent to her trousseau as M. J. Opens the Game 75 Marie Hawthorn and her wedding less than a month away! " " But she's been shopping with you once or twice, since she came back, hasn't she? And she said it was for her trousseau." Billy laughed. " Her trousseau! Oh, yes, it was. I'll tell you what she got for her trousseau that first day. We started out to buy two hats, some lace for her wedding gown, some crepe de Chine and net for a little dinner frock, and some silk for a couple of waists to go with her tailored suit ; and what did we get? We purchased a new-style egg-beater and a set of cake tins. Marie got into the kitchen de- partment and I simply couldn't get her out of it. But the next day I was not to be inveigled below stairs by any plaintive prayer for a nutmeg- grater or a soda spoon. She shopped that day, and to some purpose. We accomplished lots." Aunt Hannah looked a little concerned. " But she must have some things started! " " Oh, she has 'most everything now. I've seen to that. Of course her outfit is very simple, anyway. Marie hasn't much money, you know, and she simply won't let me do half what I want to. Still, she had saved up some money, and I've finally convinced her that a trousseau doesn't consist of egg-beaters and cake tins, and that Miss Billy's Decision Cyril would want her to look pretty. That name will fetch her every time, and I've learned to use it beautifully. I think if I told her Cyril approved of short hair and near-sightedness she'd ) cut off her golden locks and don spectacles on the spot." Aunt Hannah laughed softly. " What a child you are, Billy! Besides, just as if Marie were the only one in the house who is ruled by a magic name! " The color deepened in Billy's cheeks. " Well, of course, any girl cares something for the man she loves. Just as if I wouldn't do anything in the world I could for Bertram! " " Oh, that makes me think ; who was that young woman Bertram was talking with last evening just after he left us, I mean? " " Miss Winthrop Miss Marguerite Winthrop. Bertram is is painting her portrait, you know." " Oh, is that the one? " murmured Aunt Han- nah. " Hm-m; well, she has a beautiful face." " Yes, she has." Billy spoke very cheerfully. She even hummed a little tune as she carefully selected a needle from the cushion in her basket. " There's a peculiar something in her face," mused Aunt Hannah, aloud. The little tune stopped abruptly, ending in a nervous laugh. M. J. Opens the Game 77 " Dear me! I wonder how it feels to have a peculiar something in your face. Bertram, too, says she has it. He's trying to ' catch it,' he says. I wonder now if he does catch it, does she lose it? " Flippant as were the words, the voice that uttered them shook a little. Aunt Hannah smiled indulgently Aunt Han- nah had heard only the flippancy, not the shake. " I don't know, my dear. You might ask him this afternoon." Billy made a sudden movement. The china egg in her lap rolled to the floor. " Oh, but I don't see him this afternoon," she said lightly, as she stooped to pick up the egg. "Why, I'm sure he told me " Aunt Han- nah's sentence ended in a questioning pause. "Yes, I know," nodded Billy, brightly; "but he's told me something since. He isn't going. He telephoned me this morning. Miss Winthrop wanted the sitting changed from to-morrow to this afternoon. He said he knew I'd under- stand." "Why, yes; but " Aunt Hannah did not finish her sentence. The whir of an electric bell had sounded through the house. A few moments later Rosa appeared in the open doorway. " It's Mr. Arkwright, Miss. He said as how he had brought the music," she announced. Miss Billy's Decision " Tell him I'll be down at once," directed the mistress of Hillside. As the maid disappeared, Billy put aside her work and sprang lightly to her feet. " Now wasn't that nice of him? We were talk- ing last night about some duets he had, and he said he'd bring them over. I didn't know he'd come so soon, though." Billy had almost reached the bottom of the stair- way, when a low, familiar strain of music drifted out from the living-room. Billy caught her breath, and held her foot suspended. The next moment the familiar strain of music had become a lullaby one of Billy's own and sung now by a melting tenor voice that lingered caressingly and under- standingly on every tender cadence. Motionless and almost breathless, Billy waited until the last low " lul-la-by " vibrated into silence; then with shining eyes and outstretched hands she entered the living-room. "Oh, that was beautiful," she breathed. Arkwright was on his feet instantly. His eyes, too, were alight. "I could not resist singing it just once here," he said a little unsteadily, as their hands met. " But to hear my little song sung like that! I couldn't believe it was mine," choked Billy, M. J. Opens the Game 79 still plainly very much moved. " You sang it as I've never heard it sung before." Arkwright shook his head slowly. "The inspiration of the room that is all," he said. " It is a beautiful song. All of your songs are beautiful." Billy blushed rosily. "Thank you. You know more of them, then? " " I think I know them all unless you have some new ones out. Have you some new ones, lately? " Billy shook her head. " No; I haven't written anything since last spring." " But you're going to? " She drew a long sigh. " Yes, oh, yes. I know that now " With a swift biting of her lower lip Billy caught herself up in time. As if she could tell this man, this stranger, what she had told Bertram that night by the fire that she knew that now, now she would write beautiful songs, with his love, and his pride in her, as incentives. " Oh, yes, I think I shall write more one of these days," she finished lightly. " But come, this isn't singing duets! I want to see the music you brought." They sang then, one after another of the duets. so Miss Billy's Decision To Billy, the music was new and interesting. To Billy, too, it was new (and interesting) to hear her own voice blending with another's so perfectly to feel herself a part of such exquisite harmony. " Oh, oh! " she breathed ecstatically, after the last note of a particularly beautiful phrase. " I never knew before how lovely it was to sing duets." " Nor I," replied Arkwright in a voice that was not quite steady. Arkwright's eyes were on the enraptured face of the girl so near him. It was well, perhaps, that Billy did not happen to turn and catch their expression. Still, it might have been better if she had turned, after all. But Billy's eyes were on the music before her. Her fingers were busy with the fluttering pages, searching for another duet. " Didn't you? " she murmured abstractedly. "I supposed you'd sung them before; but you see I never did until the other night. There, let's try this one! " " This one " was followed by another and an- other. Then Billy drew a long breath. "There! that must positively be the last," she declared reluctantly. " I'm so hoarse now I can scarcely croak. You see, I don't to sing, really." M. J. Opens the Game 81 " Don't you? You sing far better than some who do, anyhow, "retorted the man, warmly. " Thank you," smiled Billy; " that was nice of you to say so for my sake and the others aren't here to care. But tell me of yourself. I haven't had a chance to ask you yet ; and I think you said Mary Jane was going to study for Grand Opera." Arkwright laughed and shrugged his shoulders. " She is; but, as I told Calderwell, she's quite likely to bring up in vaudeville." "Calderwell! Do you mean Hugh Calder- well? " Billy's cheeks showed a deeper color. The man gave an embarrassed little laugh. He had not meant to let that name slip out just yet. " Yes." He hesitated, then plunged on reck- lessly. " We tramped half over Europe together last summer." " Did you? " Billy left her seat at the piano for one nearer the fire. " But this isn't telling me about your own plans," she hurried on a little precipitately. ' You've studied before, of course. Your voice shows that." "Oh, yes; I've studied singing several years, and I've had a year or two of church work, be- sides a little concert practice of a mild sort." " Have you begun here, yet? " " Y-yes, I've had my voice tried." 82 Miss Billy's Decision Billy sat erect with eager interest. " They liked it, of course? " Arkwright laughed. " I'm not saying that." " No, but I am," declared Billy, with conviction. " They couldn't help liking it." Arkwright laughed again. Just how well they had " liked it " he did not intend to say. Their remarks had been quite too flattering to repeat even to this very plainly interested young woman idelightful and heart-warming as was this same show of interest, to himself. " Thank you," was all he said. Billy gave an excited little bounce in her chair. "And you'll begin to learn r61es right away? " " I already have, some after a fashion be- fore I came here." "Really? How splendid! Why, then you'll be acting them next right on the Boston Opera House stage, and we'll all go to hear you. How perfectly lovely! I can hardly wait." Arkwright laughed but his eyes glowed with pleasure. " Aren't you hurrying things a little? " he ventured. "But they do let the students appear," ar- gued Billy. " I knew a girl last year who went on M. J. Opens the Game 83 in ' Aida,' and she was a pupil at the School. She sang first in a Sunday concert, then they put her in the bill for a Saturday night. She did splendidly so well that they gave her a chance later at a subscription performance. Oh, you'll be there and soon, too! " 11 Thank you! I only wish the powers that could put me there had your flattering enthusiasm on the matter," he smiled. " I don't worry any," nodded Billy, " only please don't ' arrive ' too soon not before the wedding, you know," she added jokingly. " We shall be too busy to give you proper attention until after that." A peculiar look crossed Arkwright's face. ' The wedding? " he asked, a little faintly. " Yes. Didn't you know? My friend, Miss Hawthorn, is to marry Mr. Cyril Henshaw next month." The man opposite relaxed visibly. " Oh, Miss Hawthorn! No, I didn't know," he murmured; then, with sudden astonishment he added: "And to Mr. Cyril, the musician, did you say? " ' Yes. You seem surprised." " I am." Arkwright paused, then went on almost defiantly. " You see, Calderwell was telling me only last September how very un- 84 Miss Billy's Decision marriageable all the Henshaw brothers were. So I am surprised naturally," finished Arkwright, as he rose to take his leave. A swift crimson stained Billy's face. "But surely you must know that that ' ;< That he has a right to change his mind, of course," supplemented Arkwright smilingly, com- ing to her rescue in the evident confusion that would not let her finish her sentence. " But Calderwell made it so emphatic, you see, about all the brothers. He said that William had lost his heart long ago; that Cyril hadn't any to lose; and that Bertram " "But, Mr. Arkwright, Bertram is is- Billy had moistened her lips, and plunged hurriedly in to prevent Arkwright's next words. But again was she unable to finish her sentence, and again was she forced to listen to a very different com- pletion from the smiling lips of the man at her side. "Is an artist, of course," said Arkwright. "That's what Calderwell declared that it would always be the tilt of a chin or the curve of a cheek that the artist loved to paint." Billy drew back suddenly. Her face paled. As if now she could tell this man that Bertram Henshaw was engaged to her! He would find it out soon, of course, for himself; and perhaps he, M. J. Opens the Game 85 like Hugh Calderwell, would think it was the curve of her cheek, or the tilt of her chin Billy lifted her chin very defiantly now as she held out her hand in good-by. CHAPTER IX A RUG, A PICTURE, AND A GIRL AFRAID THANKSGIVING came. Once again the Henshaw brothers invited Billy and Aunt Hannah to spend the day with them. This time, however, there was to be an additional guest present in the per- son of Marie Hawthorn. And what a day it was, for everything and every- body concerned! First the Strata itself: from Dong Ling's kitchen in the basement to Cyril's domain on the top floor, the house was as spick- and-span as Pete's eager old hands could make it. In the drawing-room and in Bertram's den and studio, great clusters of pink roses perfumed the air, and brightened the sombre richness of the old-time furnishings. Before the open fire in the den a sleek gray cat adorned with a huge ribbon bow the exact shade of the roses (Bertram had seen to that !) winked and blinked sleepy yellow eyes. In Bertram's studio the latest " Face of a Girl " had made way for a group of canvases and plaques, every one of which showed Billy Neilson in one pose or another. Up-stairs, where 86 A Rug, a Picture, and a Girl 87 William's chaos of treasures filled shelves and cabinets, the place of honor was given to a small black velvet square on which rested a pair of quaint Battersea enamel mirror knobs. In Cyril's rooms usually so austerely bare a handsome Oriental rug and several curtain-draped chairs hinted at purchases made at the instigation of a taste other than his own. When the doorbell rang Pete admitted the ladies with a promptness that was suggestive of surreptitious watching at some window. On Pete's face the dignity of his high office and the delight of the moment were fighting for mastery. The dignity held firmly through Mrs. Stetson's friendly greeting; but it fled in defeat when Billy Neilson stepped over the threshold with a cheery " Good morning, Pete." " Laws! But it's good to be seein' you here again," stammered the man, delight now in sole possession. " She'll be coming to stay, one of these days, Pete," smiled the eldest Henshaw, hurrying for- 1 ward. " I wish she had now," whispered Bertram, who, in spite of William's quick stride, had reached Billy's side first. From the stairway came the patter of a man's slippered feet. 88 Miss Billy's Decision " The rug has come, and the curtains, too," called a " householder " sort of voice that few would have recognized as belonging to Cyril Henshaw. " You must all come up-stairs and see them after dinner." The voice, apparently, spoke to everybody; but the eyes of the owner of the voice plainly saw only the fair-haired young woman who stood a little in the shadow behind Billy, and who was looking about her now as at something a little fearsome, but very dear. " You know I've never been where you live before," explained Marie Hawthorn in a low, vibrant tone, when Cyril bent over her to take the furs from her shoulders. In Bertram's den a little later, as hosts and guests advanced toward the fire, the sleek gray cat rose, stretched lazily, and turned her head with majestic condescension. " Well, Spunkie, come here," commanded Billy, snapping her fingers at the slow-moving creature on the hearthrug. " Spunkie, when I am your mistress, you'll have to change either your name or your nature. As if I were going to have such a bunch of independent moderation as you mas- querading as an understudy to my frisky little Spunk! " Everybody laughed. William regarded his namesake with fond eyes as he said: A Rug, a Picture, and a Girl 89 " Spunkie doesn't seem to be worrying." The cat had jumped into Billy's lap with a matter- of-course air that was unmistakable and to Ber- tram, adorable. Bertram's eyes, as they rested on Billy, were even fonder than were his brother's. "I don't think any one is worrying" he said with quiet emphasis. Billy smiled. " I should think they might be," she answered. " Only think how dreadfully upsetting I was in the first place! " William's beaming face grew a little stern. " Nobody knew it but Kate and she didn't know it; she only imagined it," he said tersely. Billy shook her head. " I'm not so sure," she demurred. " As I look back at it now, I think I can discern a few evi- dences myself that I was upsetting. I was a bother to Bertram in his painting, I am sure." ' You were an inspiration," corrected Bertram. 1 Think of the posing you did for me." A swift something like a shadow crossed Billy's face; but before her lover could question its meaning, it was gone. " And I know I was a torment to Cyril." Billy had turned to the musician now. " Well, I admit you were a little upsetting, 90 Miss Billy's Decision at times," retorted that individual, with something of his old imperturbable rudeness. " Nonsense! " cut in William, sharply. " You were never anything but a comfort in the house, |B illy, my dear and you never will be." ;< Thank you," murmured Billy, demurely. " I'll remember that when Pete and I disagree about the table decorations, and Dong Ling doesn't like the way I want my soup seasoned." An anxious frown show r ed on Bertram's face. " Billy," he said in a low voice, as the others laughed at her sally, " you needn't have Pete nor Dong Ling here if you don't want them." " Don't want them! " echoed Billy, indignantly. " Of course I want them! " " But Pete is old, and " " Yes; and where' s he grown old? For whom has he worked the last fifty years, while he's been growing old? I wonder if you think I'd let Pete leave this house as long as he wants to stay ! As for Dong Ling ' A sudden movement of Bertram's hand ar- rested her words. She looked up to find Pete in the doorway. " Dinner is served, sir," announced the old butler, his eyes on his master's face. William rose with alacrity, and gave his arm to Aunt Hannah. A Rug, a Picture, and a Girl 91 " Well, I'm sure we're ready for dinner," he declared. It was a good dinner, and it was well served. It could scarcely have been otherwise with Dong Ling in the kitchen and Pete in the dining-room doing their utmost to please. But even had the turkey been tough instead of tender, and even had the pies been filled with sawdust instead of with delicious mincemeat, it is doubtful if four at the table would have known the difference: Cyril and Marie at one end were discussing where to put their new sideboard in their dining-room, and Bertram and Billy at the other were talking of the next Thanksgiving, when, according to Bertram, the Strata would haveXthe " dearest little mistress that ever was born." As if, under these circumstances, the tenderness of the turkey or the toothsomeness of the mince pie mattered! To Aunt Hannah and William, in the centre of the table, however, it did matter; so it was well, of course, that the dinner was a good one. " And now," said Cyril, when dinner was over, " suppose you come up and see the rug." In compliance with this suggestion, the six trailed up the long flights of stairs then, Billy carrying an extra shawl for Aunt Hannah Cyril's rooms were always cool. " Oh, yes, I knew we should need it," she nodded 92 Miss Billy's Decision to Bertram, as she picked up the shawl from the hall stand where she had left it when she came in. " That's why I brought it." " Oh, my grief and conscience, Cyril, how can you stand it? to climb stairs like this," panted Aunt Hannah, as she reached the top of the last flight and dropped breathlessly into the nearest chair from which Marie had rescued a curtain just in time. " Well, I'm not sure I could if I were always to eat a Thanksgiving dinner just before," laughed Cyril. " Maybe I ought to have waited and let you rest an hour or two." " But 'twould have been too dark, then, to seethe rug," objected Marie. " It's a genuine Persian a Kirman, you know; and I'm so proud of it," she added, turning to the others. " I wanted you to see the colors by daylight. Cyril likes it better, anyhow, in the daytime." " Fancy Cyril liking any sort of a rug at any time," chuckled Bertram, his eyes on the rich, softly blended colors of the rug before him. " Hon- estly, Miss Marie," he added, turning to the little bride elect, " how did you ever manage to get him to buy any rug? He won't have so much as a ravelling on the floor up here to walk on." A startled dismay came into Marie's blue eyes. A Rug, a Picture, and a G-irl 93 " Why, I thought he wanted rugs," she fal- tered. "I'm sure he said " " Of course I want rugs," interrupted Cyril, irritably. " I want them everywhere except in my own especial den. You don't suppose I want to hear other people clattering over bare floors all day, do you? " " Of course not! " Bertram's face was preter- naturally grave as he turned to the little music teacher. " I hope, Miss Marie, that you wear rubber heels on your shoes," he observed solicit- ously. Even Cyril laughed at this, though all he said was: " Come, come, I got you up here to look at the rug." Bertram, however, was not to be silenced. " And another thing, Miss Marie," he resumed, with the air of a true and tried adviser. " Just let me give you a pointer. I've lived with your future husband a good many years, and I know what I'm talking about." " Bertram, be still," growled Cyril. Bertram refused to be still. " Whenever you want to know anything about Cyril, listen to his playing. For instance: if, after dinner, you hear a dreamy waltz or a sleepy nocturne, you may know that all is well. But if 94 Miss Billy's Decision on your ears there falls anything like a dirge, or the wail of a lost spirit gone mad, better look to your soup and see if it hasn't been scorched, or taste of your pudding and see if you didn't put in salt instead of sugar." " Bertram, will you be still? " cut in Cyril, testily, again. " After all, judging from what Billy tells me," resumed Bertram, cheerfully, " what I've said won't be so important to you, for you aren't the kind that scorches soups or uses salt for sugar. So maybe I'd better put it to you this way : if you want a new sealskin coat or an extra diamond tiara, tackle him when he plays like this! " And with a swift turn Bertram dropped himself to the piano stool and dashed into a rollicking melody that half the newsboys of Boston were whistling. What happened next was a surprise to every one. Bertram, very much as if he were a naughty little boy, was jerked by a wrathful brother's hand off the piano stool. The next moment the wrathful brother himself sat at the piano, and there burst on five pairs of astonished ears a crashing dissonance which was but the prelude to music such as few of the party often heard. Spellbound they listened while rippling runs and sonorous harmonies filled the room to over- flowing, as if under the fingers of the player there A Eug, a Picture, and a Girl &5 were not the keyboard of a piano but the violins, flutes, cornets, trombones, bass viols and kettledrums of a full orchestra. Billy, perhaps, of them all, best understood. She knew that in those tripping melodies and crashing chords were Cyril's joy at the presence of Marie, his wrath at the flippancy of Bertram, his ecstasy at that for which the rug and curtains stood the little woman sewing in the radiant circle of a shaded lamp. Billy knew that all this and more were finding voice at Cyril's finger tips. The others, too, understood in a way; but they, unlike Billy, were not in the habit of finding on a few score bits of wood and ivory a vent for their moods and fancies. The music was softer now. The resounding chords and purling runs had become a bell-like melody that wound itself in and out of a maze of exquisite harmonies, now hiding, now coming out clear and unafraid, like a mountain stream emer- ging into a sunlit meadow from the leafy shadows of its forest home. In a breathless hush the melody quivered into silence. It was Bertram who broke the pause with a long-drawn : "By George!" Then, a little unsteadily: " If it's I that set you going like that, old chap, I'll come up and play ragtime every day ! " 96 Miss Billy's Decision Cyril shrugged his shoulders and got to his feet. " If you've seen all you want of the rug we'll go down-stairs," he said nonchalantly. " But we haven't! " chorussed several indignant voices. And for the next few minutes not even the owner of the beautiful Kirman could find any fault with the quantity or the quality of the attention bestowed on his new possession. But Billy, under cover of the chatter, said reproach- fully in his ear: " Oh, Cyril, to think you can play like that and won't on demand! " " I can't on demand," shrugged Cyril again. On the way down-stairs they stopped at William's rooms. " I want you to see a couple of Batterseas I got last week," cried the collector eagerly, as he led the way to the black velvet square. " They're fine and I think she looks like you," he finished, turning to Billy, and holding out one of the knobs, on which was a beautifully executed miniature of a young girl with dark, dreamy eyes. " Oh, how pretty! " exclaimed Marie, over Billy's shoulder. " But what are they? " The collector turned, his face alight. " Mirror knobs. I've got lots of them. Would you like to see them really? They're right here." A Rug, a Picture, and a Girl 97 The next minute Marie found herself looking into a cabinet where lay a score or more of round and oval discs of glass, porcelain, and metal, framed in silver, gilt, and brass, and mounted on long spikes. "Oh, how pretty," cried Marie again; "but how how queer! Tell me about them, please." William drew a long breath. His eyes glistened. William loved to talk when he had a curio and a listener. " I will. Our great-grandmothers used them, you know, to support their mirrors, or to fasten back their curtains," he explained ardently. " Now here's another Battersea enamel, but it isn't so good as my new ones that face is almost a caricature." "But what a beautiful ship on that round one! " exclaimed Marie. " And what's this one? glass?" "Yes; but that's not so rare as the others. Still, it's pretty enough. Did you notice this one, with the bright red and blue and green on the white background? regular Chinese mode of decoration, that is." " Er any time, William," began Bertram, mischievously; but William did not seem to hear. " Now in this corner," he went on, warming 98 Miss Billy's Decision to his subject, " are the enamelled porcelains. They were probably made at the Worcester works England, you know ; and I think many of them are quite as pretty as the Batterseas. You see it was at Worcester that they invented that variation of the transfer printing process that they called bat printing, where they used oil in- stead of ink, and gelatine instead of paper. Now engravings for that kind of printing were usually in stipple work dots, you know so the prints on these knobs can easily be distinguished from those of the transfer printing. See? Now, this one is " " Er, of course, William, any time " inter- posed Bertram again, his eyes twinkling. William stopped with a laugh. " Yes, I know. 'Tis time I talked of something else, Bertram," he conceded. " But 'twas lovely, and I was interested, really," claimed Marie. " Besides, there are such a lot of things here that I'd like to see," she fin- ished, turning slowly about. " These are what he was collecting last year," murmured Billy, hovering over a small cabinet where were some beautiful specimens of antique jewelry: brooches, necklaces, armlets, Rajah rings, gjQ(3 anklets, gorgeous in color and exquisite in workmanship. A Rug, a Picture, and a Girl 99 " Well, here is something you will enjoy," de- clared Bertram, with an airy flourish. " Do you see those teapots? Well, we can have tea every day in the year, and not use one of them , but five times. I've counted. There are exactly seventy-three," he concluded, as he laughingly led the way from the room. " How about leap year? " quizzed Billy. " Ho! Trust Will to find another ' Old Blue ' or a ' perfect treasure of a black basalt ' by that time," shrugged Bertram. Below William's rooms was the floor once Bertram's, but afterwards given over to the use of Billy and Aunt Hannah. The rooms were open to-day, and were bright with sunshine and roses; but they were very plainly unoccupied. " And you don't use them yet? " remonstrated Billy, as she paused at an open door. " No. These are Mrs. Bertram Henshaw's rooms," said the youngest Henshaw brother in a voice that made Billy hurry away with a dimpling blush. 11 They were Billy's and they can never seem any one's but Billy's, now," declared William to Marie, as they went down the stairs. " And now for the den and some good stories before the fire," proposed Bertram, as the six reached the first floor again. loo Miss Billy's Decision " But we haven't seen your pictures, yet," objected Billy. Bertram made a deprecatory gesture. "There's nothing much " he began; but he stopped at once, with an odd laugh. " Well, I sha'n't say that," he finished, flinging open the door of his studio, and pressing a button that flooded the room with light. The next moment, as they stood before those plaques and panels and canvases on each of which was a pictured " Billy " they understood the change in his sentence, and they laughed appreciatively. " ' Much,' indeed! " exclaimed William. " Oh, how lovely! " breathed Marie. " My grief and conscience, Bertram! All these and of Billy? I knew you had a good many, but " Aunt Hannah paused impotently, her eyes going from Bertram's face to the pictures again. " But how when did you do them? " queried Marie. " Some of them from memory. More of them from life. A lot of them were just sketches that I did when she was here in the house four or five years ago," answered Bertram; " like this, for instance." And he pulled into a better light a picture of a laughing, dark-eyed girl holding against her cheek a small gray kitten, with alert, A Rug, a Picture, and a Girl 101 bright eyes. " The original and only Spunk," he announced. " What a dear little cat! " cried Marie. " You should have seen it in the flesh," re-' , marked Cyril, dryly. " No paint nor painter could imprison that untamed bit of Satanic mis- chief on any canvas that ever grew! " Everybody laughed everybody but Billy. Billy, indeed, of them all, had been strangely silent ever since they entered the studio. She stood now a little apart. Her eyes were wide, and a bit frightened. Her fingers were twisting the corners of her handkerchief nervously. She was looking to the right and to the left, and everywhere she saw herself. Sometimes it was her full face, sometimes her profile; sometimes there were only her eyes peeping from above a fan, or peering from out brown shadows of nothingness. Once it was merely the back of her head showing the mass of waving hair with its high lights of burnished bronze. Again it was still the back of her head with below it the bare, slender neck and the scarf- draped shoulders. In this picture the curve of a half-turned cheek showed plainly, and in the back- ground was visible a hand holding four playing cards, at which the pictured girl was evidently looking. Sometimes it was a merry Billy with 102 Miss Billy's Decision dancing eyes; sometimes a demure Billy with long lashes caressing a flushed cheek. Sometimes it was a wistful Billy with eyes that looked straight into yours with peculiar appeal. But always it was Billy. " There, I think the tilt of this chin is perfect." It was Bertram speaking. Billy gave a sudden cry. Her face whitened. She stumbled forward. "No, no, Bertram, you> you didn't mean the the tilt of the chin," she faltered wildly. The man turned in amazement. "Why Billy!" he stammered. " Billy, what is it? " The girl fell back at once. She tried to laugh lightly. She had seen the dismayed questioning in her lover's eyes, and in the eyes of William and the others. " N-nothing," she gesticulated hurriedly. " It was nothing at all, truly." " But, Billy, it was something." Bertram's eyes were still troubled. " Was it the picture? I thought you liked this picture." Billy laughed again this time more naturally. "Bertram, I'm ashamed of you- expecting me to say I ' like ' any of this," she scolded, with a wave of her hands toward the omnipresent Billy. "Wliy, I feel as if I were in a room with A Rug, a Picture, and a Girl 103 a thousand mirrors, and that I'd been discovered putting rouge on my cheeks and lampblack on my eyebrows! " William laughed fondly. Aunt Hannah and Marie gave an indulgent smile. Cyril actually chuckled. Bertram only still wore a puzzled ex- pression as he laid aside the canvas \ in his hands. Billy examined intently a sketch she had found with its back to the wall. It was not a pretty sketch; it was not even a finished one, and Billy did not in the least care what it was. But her lips cried interestedly: " Oh, Bertram, what is this? " There was no answer. Bertram was still en- gaged, apparently, in putting away some sketches. Over by the doorway leading to the den Marie and Aunt Hannah, followed by William and Cyril, were just disappearing behind a huge easel. In another minute the merry chatter of their voices came from the room beyond. Bertram hurried then straight across the studio to the girl still bending over the sketch in the corner. "Bertram!" gasped Billy, as a kiss brushed her cheek. 11 Pooh! They're gone. Besides, what if they did see? Billy, what was the matter with the tilt of that chin? " 104 Miss Billy's Decision Billy gave an hysterical little laugh at least, Bertram tried to assure himself that it was a laugh, though it had sounded almost like a sob. " Bertram, if you say another word about about the tilt of that chin, I shall scream! " she panted. "Why, Billy!" With a nervous little movement Billy turned and began to reverse the canvases nearest her. " Come, sir," she commanded gayly. " Billy has been on exhibition quite long enough. It is high time she was turned face to the wall to med- itate, and grow more modest." Bertram did not answer. Neither did he make a move to assist her. His ardent gray eyes were following her slim, graceful figure admiringly. " Billy, it doesn't seem true, yet, that you're really mine," he said at last, in a low voice shaken with emotion. Billy turned abruptly. A peculiar radiance shone in her eyes and glorified her face. As she stood, she was close to a picture on an easel and full in the soft glow of the shaded lights above it. " Then you do want me," she began, " just me! not to " she stopped short. The man opposite had taken an eager step toward her. On his face was the look she knew so well, the look A Rug, a Picture, and a Girl 105 she had come almost to dread the " painting look." " Billy, stand just as you are," he was saying. " Don't move. Jove! But that effect is perfect with those dark shadows beyond, and just your' hair and face and throat showing. I declare, I've half a mind to sketch " But Billy, with a little cry, was gone. CHAPTER X A JOB FOR PETE AND FOR BERTRAM THE early days in December were busy ones, certainly, in the little house on Corey Hill. Marie was to be married the twelfth. It was to be a home wedding, and a very simple one according to Billy, and according to what Marie had said it was to be. Billy still serenely spoke of it as a " simple affair," but Marie was beginning to be fearful. As the days passed, bringing with them more and more frequent evidences either tangible or intangible of orders to stationers, caterers, and florists, her fears found voice in a protest. " But Billy, it was to be a simple wedding," she cried. " And so it is." " But what is this I hear about a breakfast? " Billy's chin assumed its most stubborn square- ness. " I don't know, I'm sure, what you did hear," she retorted calmly. " Billy! " 106 A Job for Pete and for Bertram 107 Billy laughed. The chin was just as stubborn, but the smiling lips above it graced it with an air of charming concession. " There, there, dear," coaxed the mistress of Hillside, " don't fret. Besides, I'm sure I should think you, of all people, would want your guests fed! " " But this is so elaborate, from what I hear." " Nonsense! Not a bit of it." " Rosa says there'll be salads and cakes and ices and I don't know what all." Billy looked concerned. " Well, of course, Marie, if you'd rather have oatmeal and doughnuts," she began with kind solicitude ; but she got no farther. "Billy!" besought the bride elect. "Won't you be serious? And there's the cake in wedding boxes, too." " I know, but boxes are so much easier and cleaner than just fingers," apologized an anx- iously serious voice. Marie answered with an indignant, grieved glance and hurried on. " And the flowers roses, dozens of them, in December! Billy, I can't let you do all this for me." "Nonsense, dear!" laughed Billy. "Why, I love to do it. Besides, when you're gone, just 108 Miss Billy's Decision think how lonesome I'll be! I shall have to adopt somebody else then now that Mary Jane has proved to be nothing but a disappointing man instead of a nice little girl like you," she finished whimsically. Marie did not smile. The frown still lay be- tween her delicate brows. " And for my trousseau there were so many things that you simply would buy! " " I didn't get one of the egg-beaters," Billy reminded her anxiously. Marie smiled now, but she shook her head, too. " Billy, I cannot have you do all this for me." " Why not? " At the unexpectedly direct question, Marie fell back a little. " Why, because I I can't," she stammered. " I can't get them for myself, and and " " Don't you love me? " A pink flush stole to Marie's face. " Indeed I do, dearly." " Don't I love you? " The flush deepened. "I I hope so." " Then why won't you let me do what I want to, and be happy in it? Money, just money, isn't any good unless you can exchange it for some- thing you want. And just now I want pink roses A Job for Pete and for Bertram 109 and ice cream and lace flounces for you. Marie," Billy's voice trembled a little "I never had a sister till I had you, and I have had such a good time buying things that I thought you wanted! But, of course, if you don't want them " The words ended in a choking sob, and down went Billy's head into her folded arms on the desk be- fore her. Marie sprang to her feet and cuddled the bowed head in a loving embrace. " But I do want them, dear; I want them all every single one," she urged. " Now promise me promise me that you'll do them all, just as you'd planned! You will, won't you? " There was the briefest of hesitations, then came the muffled reply : " Yes if you really want them." "I do, dear indeed I do. I love pretty weddings, and I I always hoped that I could have one if I ever married. So you must know, dear, how I really do want all those things," declared Marie, fervently. " And now I must go. I promised to meet Cyril at Park Street at three o'clock." And she hurried from the room and not until she was half-way to her destination did it suddenly occur to her that she had been urging, actually urging Miss Billy Neilson to buy for her pink roses, ice cream, and lace flounces. no Miss Billy's Decision Her cheeks burned with shame then. But al- most at once she smiled. " Now wasn't that just like Billy? " she was saying to herself, with a tender glow in her eyes. It was early in December that Pete came one day with a package for Marie from Cyril. Marie was not at home, and Billy herself went down- stairs to take the package from the old man's hands. " Mr. Cyril said to give it to Miss Hawthorn," stammered the old servant, his face lighting up as Billy entered the room; "but I'm sure he wouldn't mind your taking it." " I'm afraid I'll have to take it, Pete, unless you want to carry it back with you," she smiled. "I'll see that Miss Hawthorn has it the very first moment she comes in." :< Thank you, Miss. It does my old eyes good to see your bright face." He hesitated, then turned slowly. " Good day, Miss Billy." Billy laid the package on the table. Her eyes were thoughtful as she looked after the old man, who was now almost to the door. Something in his bowed form appealed to her strangely. She took a quick step toward him. ' You'll miss Mr. Cyril, Pete," she said pleas- antly. A Job for Pete and for Bertram ill The old man stopped at once and turned. He lifted his head a little proudly. " Yes, Miss. I I was there when he was born. Mr. Cyril's a fine man." " Indeed he is. Perhaps it's your good care that's helped, some to make him so," smiled the girl, vaguely wishing that she could say some- thing that would drive the wistful look from the dim old eyes before her. For a moment Billy thought she had succeeded. The old servant drew himself stiffly erect. In his eyes shone the loyal pride of more than fifty years' honest service. Almost at once, however, the pride died away, and the wistfulness returned. " Thank ye, Miss; but I don't lay no claim to that, of course," he said. " Mr. Cyril's a fine man, and we shall miss him ; but I cal'late changes must come to all of us." Billy's brown eyes grew a little misty. " I suppose they must," she admitted. The old man hesitated; then, as if impelled by some hidden force, he plunged on : "Yes; and they'll be comin' to you one of these days, Miss, and that's what I was wantin' to speak to ye about. I understand, of couii^, that when you get there you'll be wantin' younger blood to serve ye. My feet ain't so spry as they once was, and my old hands blunder sometimes, Miss Billy's Decision in spite of what my head bids 'em do. So I wanted to tell ye that of course I shouldn't expect to stay. I'd go." As he said the words, Pete stood with head and ' shoulders erect, his eyes looking straight forward but not at Billy. " Don't you want to stay? " The girlish voice was a little reproachful. Pete's head drooped. " Not if I'm not wanted," came the husky reply. With an impulsive movement Billy came straight to the old man's side and held out her hand. " Pete! " Amazement, incredulity, and a look that was almost terror crossed the old man's face; then a flood of dull red blotted them all out and left only worshipful rapture. With a choking cry he took the slim little hand in both his rough and twisted ones much as if he were possessing himself of a treasured bit of eggshell china. "Miss Billy!" " Pete, there aren't a pair of feet in Boston, ' nor a pair of hands, either, that I'd rather have serve me than yours, no matter if they stumble and blunder all day! I shall love stumbles and blunders if you make them. Now run home, A Job for Pete and for Bertram 113 and don't ever let me hear another syllable about your leaving! " They were not the words Billy had intended to say. She had meant to speak of his long, faithful service, and of how much they appre- ciated it; but, to her surprise, Billy found her own eyes wet and her own voice trembling, and the words that she would have said she found fast shut in her throat. So there was nothing to do but to stammer out something anything, that would help to keep her from yielding to that absurd and awful desire to fall on the old servant's neck and cry. " Not another syllable! " she repeated sternly. " Miss Billy! " choked Pete again. Then he turned and fled with anything but his usual dignity. Bertram called that evening. When Billy came to him in the living-room, her slender self was almost hidden behind the swirls of damask linen in her arms. Bertram's eyes grew mutinous. " Do you expect me to hug all that? " he de- manded. Billy flashed him a mischievous glance. " Of course not! You don't have to hug any- thing, you know." For answer he impetuously swept the offend- 114 Miss Billy's Decision ing linen into the nearest chair and drew the girl into his arms. ' ' Oh ! And see how you've crushed poor Marie's table-cloth! " she cried, with reproachful eyes. Bertram sniffed imperturbably. " I'm not sure but I'd like to crush Marie," he alleged. "Bertram!" " I can't help it. See here, Billy." He loosened his clasp and held the girl off at arm's length, regarding her with stormy eyes. " It's Marie, Marie, Marie always. If I telephone in the morning, you've gone shopping with Marie. If I want you in the afternoon for something, you're at the dressmaker's with Marie. If I call in the evening " " I'm here," interrupted Billy, with decision. " Oh, yes, you're here," admitted Bertram, aggrievedly, " and so are dozens of napkins, miles of table-cloths, and yards upon yards of lace and flummy diddles you call * doilies.' They all belong to Marie, and they fill your arms and your thoughts full, until there isn't an inch of room for me. Billy, when is this thing going to end? " Billy laughed softly. Her eyes danced. " The twelfth ; that is, there'll be a pause, then." A Job for Pete and for Bertram 115 "Well, I'm thankful if eh?" broke off the man, with a sudden change of manner. " What do you mean by ' a pause ' ?J* Billy cast down her eyes demurely. " Well, of course this ends the twelfth with Marie's wedding; but I've sort of regarded it as an understudy for one that's coming next October, you see." " Billy, you darling! " breathed a supremely happy voice in a shell-like ear Billy was not at arm's length now. Billy smiled, but she drew away with gentle firmness. " And now I must go back to my sewing," she said. Bertram's arms did not loosen. His eyes had grown mutinous again. " That is," she amended, " I must be practising my part of the understudy, you know." " You darling! " breathed Bertram again; this time, however, he let her go. " But, honestly, is it all necessary? " he sighed despairingly, as she seated herself and gathered the table-cloth into her lap. " Do you have to do so much of it all? " " I do," smiled Billy, " unless you want your brother to run the risk of leading his bride to the altar and finding her robed in a kitchen 116 Miss Billy's Decision apron with an egg-beater in her hand for a bou- quet." Bertram laughed. " Is it so bad as that? " " No, of course not quite. But never have I seen a bride so utterly oblivious to clothes as Marie was till one day in despair I told her that Cyril never could bear a dowdy woman." "As if Cyril, in the old days, ever could bear any sort of woman! " scoffed Bertram, merrily. " I know; but I didn't mention that part," smiled Billy. " I just singled out the dowdy one." " Did it work? " Billy made a gesture of despair. " Did it work ! It worked too well. Marie gave me one horrified look, then at once and imme- diately she became possessed with the idea that she was a dowdy woman. And from that day to this she has pursued every lurking wrinkle and every fold awry, until her dressmaker's life isn't worth the living; and I'm beginning to think mine isn't, either^ for I have to assure her at least four times every day now that she is not a dowdy woman." ' You poor dear," laughed Bertram. " No wonder you don't have time to give to me! " A peculiar expression crossed Billy's face. A Job for Pete and for Bertram 117 " Oh, but I'm not the only one who, at times, is otherwise engaged, sir," she reminded him. " What do you mean? " 11 There was yesterday, and last Monday, and last week Wednesday, and- " Oh, but you let me off, then," argued Ber- tram, anxiously. " And you said " " That I didn't wish to interfere with your work which was quite true," interrupted Billy in her turn, smoothly. " By the way," Billy was examining her stitches very closely now " how is Miss Winthrop's portrait coming on?" " Splendidly! that is, it was, until she began to put off the sittings for her pink teas and folde- rols. She's going to Washington next week, too, to be gone nearly a fortnight," finished Ber- tram, gloomily. " Aren't you putting more work than usual into this one and more sittings? " " Well, yes," laughed Bertram, a little shortly. " You see, she's changed the pose twice already." " Changed it!" ' Yes. Wasn't satisfied. Fancied she wanted it different." " But can't you don't you have something to say about it? " " Oh, yes, of course; and she claims she'll 118 Miss Billy's Decision yield to my judgment, anyhow. But what's the use? She's been a spoiled darling all her life, and in the habit of having her own way about every- thing. Naturally, under those circumstances, I can't expect to get a satisfactory portrait, if she's out of tune with the pose. Besides, I will own, so far her suggestions have made for im- provement probably because she's been happy in making them, so her expression has been good." Billy wet her lips. " I saw her the other night," she said lightly. (If the lightness was a little artificial Bertram did not seem to notice it.) " She is certainly very beautiful." " Yes." Bertram got to his feet and began to walk up and down the little room. His eyes were alight. On his face the " painting look " was king. " It's going to mean a lot to me this picture, Billy. In the first place I'm just at the point in my career where a big success would mean a lot f and where a big failure would mean more. And this portrait is bound to be one or the other from the very nature of the thing." " I-is it? " Billy's voice was a little faint. ' Yes. First, because of who the sitter is, and secondly because of what she is. She is, of course, the most famous subject I've had, and half the artistic world knows by this time that Marguerite A Job for Pete and for Bertram 119 Winthrop is being done by Henshaw. You can see what it'll be if I fail." " But you won't fail, Bertram! " The artist lifted his chin and threw back his shoulders. "No, of course not; but " He hesitated, frowned, and dropped himself into a chair. His eyes studied the fire moodily. " You see," he resumed, after a moment, " there's a peculiar, elusive something about her expression " (Billy stirred restlessly and gave her thread so savage a jerk that it broke) " a something that isn't easily caught by the brush. Anderson and Fullam big fellows, both of them didn't catch it. At least, I've understood that neither her family nor her friends are satisfied with their portraits. And to succeed where Anderson and Fullam failed Jove ! Billy, a chance like that doesn't come to a fellow twice in a lifetime! " Bertram was out of his chair, again, tramping up and down the little room. Billy tossed her work aside and sprang to her feet. Her eyes, too, were alight, now. " But you aren't going to fail, dear," she cried, holding out both her hands. " You're going to succeed! " Bertram caught the hands and kissed first one then the other of their soft little palms. 120 Miss Billy's Decision " Of course I am," he agreed passionately, leading her to the sofa, and seating himself at her side. " Yes, but you must really feel it," she urged; " feel the ' sure ' in yourself. You have to! to do big things. That's what I told Mary Jane yes- terday, when he was running on about what he wanted to do in his singing, you know." Bertram stiffened a little. A quick frown came to his face. " Mary Jane, indeed! Of all the absurd names to give a full-grown, six-foot man! Billy, do, for pity's sake, call him by his name if he's got one." Billy broke into a rippling laugh. " I wish I could, dear," she sighed ingenuously. " Honestly, it bothers me because I can't think of him as anything but ' Mary Jane.' It seems so silly!" "It certainly does when one remembers his beard." " Oh, he's shaved that off now. He looks rather better, too." Bertram turned a little sharply. " Do you see the fellow often? " Billy laughed merrily. " No. He's about as disgruntled as you are over the way the wedding monopolizes everything. A Job for Pete and for Bertram 121 He's been up once or twice to see Aunt Hannah and to get acquainted, as he expresses it, and once he brought up some music and we sang ; but he de- clares the wedding hasn't given him half a show." "Indeed! Well, that's a pity, I'm sure,"/ rejoined Bertram, icily. Billy turned in slight surprise. " Why, Bertram, don't you like Mary Jane? " " Billy, for heaven's sake! Hasn't he got any name but that? " Billy clapped her hands together suddenly. " There, that makes me think. He told Aunt Hannah and me to guess what his name was, and we never hit it once. What do you think it is? The initials are M. J." " I couldn't say, I'm sure. What is it? " " Oh, he didn't tell us. You see he left us to guess it." " Did he? " ' Yes," mused Billy, abstractedly, her eyes on the dancing fire. The next minute she stirred and settled herself more comfortably in the curve of her lover's arm. " But there! who cares what his name is? I'm sure I don't." " Nor I," echoed Bertram in a voice that he tried to make not too fervent. He had not for- gotten Billy's surprised: "Why, Bertram, don't you like Mary Jane? " and he did not like to call 122 Miss Billy's Decision forth a repetition of it. Abruptly, therefore, he changed the subject. " By the way, what did you do to Pete to-day? " he asked laughingly. " He came home in a seventh heaven of happiness babbling of what an angel straight from the sky Miss Billy was. Naturally I agreed with him on that point. But what did you do to him? " Billy smiled. " Nothing only engaged him for our butler for life." " Oh, I see. That was dear of you, Billy." ""As if I'd do anything else! And now for Dong Ling, I suppose, some day." Bertram chuckled. " Well, maybe I can help you there," he hinted. " You see, his Celestial Majesty came to me him- self the other day, and said, after sundry and various preliminaries, that he should be ' velly much glad ' when the ' Little Missee ' came to live with me, for then he could go back to China with a heart at rest, as he had money ' velly much plenty ' and didn't wish to be ' Melican man ' any longer." " Dear me," smiled Billy, " what a happy state of affairs for him. But for you do you realize, young man, what that means for you? A new wife and a new cook all at once? And you know I'm not Marie! " A Job for Pete and for Bertram 123 " Ho! I'm not worrying," retorted Bertram with a contented smile; "besides, as perhaps you noticed, it wasn't Marie that I asked to marry me! " CHAPTER XI A CLOCK AND AUNT HANNAH MRS. KATE HARTWELL, the Henshaw brothers' sister from the West, was expected on the tenth. Her husband could not come, she had written, but she would bring with her, little Kate, the youngest child. The boys, Paul and Egbert, would stay with their father. Billy received the news of little Kate's coming with outspoken delight. "The very thing!" she cried. "We'll have her for a flower girl. She was a dear little creature, as I remember her." Aunt Hannah gave a sudden low laugh. " Yes, I remember," she observed. " Kate told me, after you spent the first day with her, that you graciously informed her that little Kate was almost as nice as Spunk. Kate did not fully appreciate the compliment, I fear." Billy made a wry face. " Did I say that? Dear me! I was a terror in those days, wasn't I? But then," and she laughed softly, " really, Aunt Hannah, that was 124 A Clock and Aunt Hannah 125 the prettiest thing I knew how to say, for I con- sidered Spunk the top-notch of desirability." " I think I should have liked to know Spunk," smiled Marie from the other side of the sewing table. "He was a dear," declared Billy. "I had another 'most as good when I first came to Hillside, but he got lost. For a time it seemed as if I never wanted another, but I've about come to the conclu- sion now that I do, and I've told Bertram to find one for me if he can. You see I shall be lonesome after you're gone, Marie, and I'll have to have something" she finished mischievously. ' 11 Oh, I don't mind the inference as long as I know your admiration of cats," laughed Marie. " Let me see; Kate writes she is coming the tenth," murmured Aunt Hannah, going back to the letter in her hand. " Good! " nodded Billy. " That will give time to put little Kate through her paces as flower girl." " Yes, and it will give Big Kate time to try to make your breakfast a supper, and your roses pinks or sunflowers," cut in a new voice, dryly. " Cyril! " chorussed the three ladies in horror, adoration, and amusement according to whether the voice belonged to Aunt Hannah, Marie, or Billy. 126 Miss Billy's Decision Cyril shrugged his shoulders and smiled. "I beg your pardon," he apologized; "but Rosa said you were in here sewing, and I told her not to bother. I'd announce myself. Just as I got to the door I chanced to hear Billy's speech, and I couldn't resist making the amend- ment. Maybe you've forgotten Kate's love of managing but I haven't," he finished, as he sauntered over to the chair nearest Marie. " No, I haven't forgotten," observed Billy, meaningly. " Nor I nor anybody else," declared a severe voice both the words and the severity being most extraordinary as coming from the usually gentle Aunt Hannah. " Oh, well, never mind," spoke up Billy, quickly. " Everything's all right now, so let's forget it. She always meant it for kindness, I'm sure." " Even when she told you in the first place what a er torment you were to us? " quizzed Cyril. " Yes," flashed Billy." " She was being kind to you, then." " Humph! " vouchsafed Cyril. For a moment no one spoke. Cyril's eyes were on Marie, who was nervously trying to smooth back a few fluffy wisps of hair that had escaped from restraining combs and pins. A Clock and Aunt Hannah 127 " What's the matter with the hair, little girl? " asked Cyril in a voice that was caressingly irri- table. " You've been fussing with that long- suffering curl for the last five minutes! " Marie's delicate face flushed painfully. "It's got loose my hair," she stammered, " and it looks so dowdy that way! " Billy dropped her thread suddenly. She sprang for it at once, before Cyril could make a move to get it. She had to dive far under a chair to cap- ture it which may explain why her face was so very red when she finally reached her seat again. On the morning of the tenth, Billy, Marie, and Aunt Hannah were once more sewing together, this time in the little sitting-room at the end of the hall up-stairs. Billy's fingers, in particular, were flying very fast. " I told John to have Peggy at the door at eleven," she said, after a time; "but I think I can finish running in this ribbon before then. I haven't much to do to get ready to go." " I hope Kate's train won't be late," worried Aunt Hannah. " I hope not," replied Billy; " but I told Rosa to delay luncheon, anyway, till we get here. I '* She stopped abruptly and turned a listening ear 128 Miss Billy's Decision toward the door of Aunt Hannah's room, which was open. A clock was striking. " Mercy! that can't be eleven now," she cried. " But it must be it was ten before I came up-stairs." She got to her feet hurriedly. Aunt Hannah put out a restraining hand. " No, no, dear, that's half-past ten." " But it struck eleven." " Yes, I know. It does at half -past ten." " Why, the little wretch," laughed Billy, drop- ping back into her chair and picking up her work again. " The idea of its telling fibs like that and frightening people half out of their lives! I'll have it fixed right away. Maybe John can do it he's always so handy about such things." " But I don't want it fixed," demurred Aunt Hannah. Billy stared a little. "You don't want it fixed! Maybe you like to have it strike eleven when it's half -past ten! " Billy's voice was merrily sarcastic. " Y-yes, I do," stammered the lady, apolo- getically. " You see, I I worked very hard to fix it so it would strike that way." "Aunt Hannah! " " Well, I did," retorted the lady, with unex- pected spirit. " I wanted to know what time it was in the night I'm awake such a lot." A Clock and Aunt Hannah 129 " But I don't see." Billy's eyes were perplexed. " Why must you make it tell fibs in order to to find out the truth? " she laughed. Aunt Hannah elevated her chin a little. " Because that clock was always striking one." "One!" 'Yes half -past, you know; and I never knew which half -past it was." "But it must strike half-past now, just the same! " 11 It does." There was the triumphant ring of the conqueror in Aunt Hannah's voice. " But now it strikes half -past on the hour, and the clock in the hall tells me then what time it is, so I don't care." For one more brief minute Billy stared, before a sudden light of understanding illumined her face. Then her laugh rang out gleefully. " Oh, Aunt Hannah, Aunt Hannah," she gurgled. " If Bertram wouldn't call you the limit making a clock strike eleven so you'll know it's half -past ten! " Aunt Hannah colored a little, but she stood her ground. " Well, there's only half an hour, anyway, now, that I don't know what time it is," she maintained, " for one or the other of those clocks strikes the hour every thirty minutes. Even during those 130 Miss Billy's Decision never-ending three ones that strike one after the other in the middle of the night, I can tell now, for the hall clock has a different sound for the half-hours, you know, so I can tell whether it's one or a half-past." " Of course," chuckled Billy. "I'm sure I think it's a splendid idea," chimed in Marie, valiantly; " and I'm going to write it to mother's Cousin Jane right away. She's an invalid, and she's always lying awake nights wondering what time it is. The doctor says actually he believes she'd get well if he could find some way of letting her know the time at night, so she'd get some sleep; for she simply can't go to sleep till she knows. She can't bear a light in the room, and it wakes her all up to turn an electric switch, or anything of that kind." '' Why doesn't she have one of those phosphor- ous things? " questioned Billy. Marie laughed quietly. " She did. I sent her one, and she stood it just one night." " Stood it! " ' Yes. She declared it gave her the creeps, and that she wouldn't have the spooky thing staring at her all night like that. So it's got to be something she can hear, and I'm going to tell her Mrs. Stetson's plan right away." A Clock and Aunt Hannah 131 " Well, I'm sure I wish you would," cried that lady, with prompt interest; "and she'll like it, I'm sure. And tell her if she can hear a town clock strike, it's just the same, and even better; , for there aren't any half-hours at all to think of there." "I will and I think it's lovely," declared Marie. " Of course it's lovely," smiled Billy, rising; " but I fancy I'd better go and get ready to meet Mrs. Hart well, or the ' lovely ' thing will be tell- ing me that it's half -past eleven! " And she tripped laughingly from the room. Promptly at the appointed time John with Peggy drew up before the door, and Billy, muffled in furs, stepped into the car, which, with its pro- tecting top and sides and glass wind-shield, was in its winter dress. " Yes'm, 'tis a little chilly, Miss," said John, in answer to her greeting, as he tucked the heavy robes about her. " Oh, well, I shall be very comfortable, I'm sure," smiled Billy. " Just don't drive too rapidly, specially coming home. I shall have to get a limousine, I think, when my ship comes in, John." John's grizzled old face twitched. So evident were the words that were not spoken that Billy asked laughingly : 132 Miss Billy's Decision " Well, John, what is it? " John reddened furiously. " Nothing, Miss. I was only thinkin' that if you didn't 'tend ter haulin' in so many other folks's ships, yours might get in sooner." "Why, John! Nonsense! I I love to haul in other folks's ships," laughed the girl, embar- rassedly. ' Yes, Miss; I know you do," grunted John. Billy colored. 11 No, no that is, I mean I don't do it very much," she stammered. John did not answer apparently; but Billy was sure she caught a low-muttered, indignant " much! " as he snapped the door shut and took his place at the wheel. To herself she laughed softly. She thought she possessed the secret now of some of John's dis- approving glances toward her humble guests of the summer before. CHAPTER XII SISTER KATE AT the station Mrs. HartwelTs train was found to be gratifyingly on time; and in due course Billy was extending a cordial welcome to a tall, handsome woman who carried herself with an unmistakable air of assured competence. Accom- panying her was a little girl with big blue eyes and yellow curls. 'M am very glad to see you both," smiled Billy, holding out a friendly hand to Mrs. Hartwell, and stooping to kiss the round cheek of the little girl. " Thank you, you are very kind," murmured the lady; "but are you alone, Billy? Where are the boys? " " Uncle William is out of town, and Cyril is rushed to death and sent his excuses. Bertram did mean to come, but he telephoned this morning that he couldn't, after all. I'm sorry, but I'm afraid you'll have to make the best of just me," condoled Billy. " They'll be out to the house this 133 134 Miss Billy's Decision evening, of course all but Uncle William. He doesn't return until to-morrow." " Oh, doesn't he? " murmured the lady, reach- ing for her daughter's hand. Billy looked down with a smile. " And this is little Kate, I suppose," she said, " whom I haven't seen for such a long, long time. Let me see, you are how old now? " " I'm eight. I've been eight six weeks." Billy's eyes twinkled. " And you don't remember me, I suppose." The little girl shook her head. " No; but I know who you are," she added, with shy eagerness. " You're going to be my Aunt Billy, and you're going to marry my Uncle William I mean, my Uncle Bertram." Billy's face changed color. Mrs. Hartwell gave a despairing gesture. " Kate, my dear, I told you to be sure and remember that it was your Uncle Bertram now. You see," she added in a discouraged aside to Billy, " she can't seem to forget the first one. But then, what can you expect? " laughed Mrs. Hartwell, a little disagreeably. " Such abrupt changes from one brother to another are some- what disconcerting, you know." Billy bit her lip. For a moment she said nothing, then, a little constrainedly, she rejoined: Sister Kate 135 "Perhaps. Still let us hope we have the right one, now." Mrs. Hart well raised her eyebrows. " Well, my dear, I'm not so confident of that. My choice has been and always will be Will- iam." Billy bit her lip again. This time her brown eyes flashed a little. " Is that so? But you see, after all, you aren't making the the choice." Billy spoke lightly, gayly ; and she ended with a bright little laugh, as if to hide any intended impertinence. It was Mrs. Hartwell's turn to bite her lip and she did it. " So it seems," she rejoined frigidly, after the briefest of pauses. It was not until they were on their way to Corey Hill some time later that Mrs. Hartwell turned with the question: " Cyril is to be married in church, I suppose? " " No. They both preferred a home wedding." " Oh, what a pity! Church weddings are so attractive! " " To those who like them," amended Billy in spite of herself. "To every one, I think," corrected Mrs. Hartwell, positively. Billy laughed. She was beginning to discern 136 Miss Billy's Decision that it did not do much harm nor much good to disagree with her guest. " It's in the evening, then, of course? " pur- sued Mrs. Hartwell. " No; at noon." " Oh, how could you let them? " " But they preferred it, Mrs. Hartwell." " What if they did? " retorted the lady, sharply. " Can't you do as you please in your own home? Evening weddings are so much prettier! We can't change now, of course, with the guests all invited. That is, I suppose you do have guests! " Mrs. Hartwell's voice was aggrievedly despairing. " Oh, yes," smiled Billy, demurely. ' We have guests invited and I'm afraid we can't change the time." " No, of course not; but it's too bad. I con- clude there are announcements only, as I got no cards." " Announcements only," bowed Billy. " I wish Cyril had consulted me, a little, about this affair." Billy did not answer. She could not trust her- self to speak just then. Cyril's words of two days before were in her ears : ' Yes, and it will give Big Kate time to try to make your breakfast supper, and your roses pinks or sunflowers." In a moment Mrs. Hartwell spoke again. Sister Kate 137 " Of course a noon wedding is quite pretty if you darken the rooms and have lights you're going to do that, I suppose? " Billy shook her head slowly. " I'm afraid not, Mrs. Hartwell. That isn't the plan, now." "Not darken the rooms!" exclaimed Mrs. Hartwell. " Why, it won't " She stopped suddenly, and fell back in her seat. The look of annoyed disappointment gave way to one of con- fident relief. " But then, that can be changed," she finished serenely. Billy opened her lips, but she shut them without speaking. After a minute she opened them again. "You might consult Cyril about that," she said in a quiet voice. " Yes, I will," nodded Mrs. Hartwell, brightly. She was looking pleased and happy again. " I love weddings. Don't you? You can do so much with them! " " Can you? " laughed Billy, irrepressibly. " Yes. Cyril is happy, of course. Still, I can't imagine him in love with any woman." " I think Marie can." " I suppose so. I don't seem to remember her much ; still, I think I saw her once or twice when I was on last June. Music teacher, wasn't she? '* " Yes. She is a very sweet girl." 138 Miss Billy's Decision " Hm-m; I suppose so. Still, I think 'twould have been better if Cyril could have selected some one that wasn't musical say a more domestic wife. He's so terribly unpractical himself about household matters." Billy gave a ringing laugh and stood up. The car had come to a stop before her own door. " Do you? Just you wait till you see Marie's trousseau of egg-beaters and cake tins," she chuckled. Mrs. Hartwell looked blank. " Whatever in the world do you mean, Billy? " she demanded fretfully, as she followed her hostess from the car. " I declare! aren't you ever going to grow beyond making those absurd remarks of yours? " " Maybe sometime," laughed Billy, as she took little Kate's hand and led the way up the steps. Luncheon in the cozy dining-room at Hillside that day was not entirely a success. At least there were not present exactly the harmony and tranquillity that are conceded to be the best sauce for one's food. The .wedding, of course, was the all-absorbing topic of conversation; and Billy, between Aunt Hannah's attempts to be polite, Marie's to be sweet-tempered, Mrs. Hart- well's to be dictatorial, and her own to be pacifying Sister Kate 139 as well as firm, had a hard time of it. If it had not been for two or three diversions created by little Kate, the meal would have been, indeed, a dismal failure. But little Kate most of the time the person- ification of proper little-girlhood had a dis- concerting faculty of occasionally dropping a word here, or a question there, with startling effect. As, for instance, when she asked Billy " Who's going to boss your wedding? " and again when she calmly informed her mother that when she was married she was not going to have any wedding at all to bother with, anyhow. She was going to elope, and she should choose somebody's chauffeur, because he'd know how to go the farthest and fast- est so her mother couldn't catch up with her and tell her how she ought to have done it. After luncheon Aunt Hannah went up-stairs for rest and recuperation. Marie took little Kate and went for a brisk walk for the same pur- pose. This left Billy alone with her guest. " Perhaps you would like a nap, too, Mrs. Hartwell," suggested Billy, as they passed into the living-room. There was a curious note of al- most hopefulness in her voice. Mrs. Hartwell scorned naps, and she said so very emphatically. She said something else, too. " Billy, why do you always call me ' Mrs. Hart- 140 Miss Billy's Decision well ' in that stiff, formal fashion? You used to call me ' Aunt Kate.' " " But I was very young then." Billy's voice was troubled. Billy had been trying so hard for the last two hours to be the graciously cordial hostess to this woman Bertram's sister. " Very true. Then why not ' Kate ' now? " Billy hesitated. She was wondering why it seemed so hard to call Mrs. Hartwell " Kate." " Of course," resumed the lady, " when you're Bertram's wife and my sister " " Why, of course," cried Billy, in a sudden flood of understanding. Curiously enough, she had never before thought of Mrs. Hartwell as her sister. " I shall be glad to call you ' Kate ' if you like." " Thank you. I shall like it very much, Billy," nodded the other cordially. " Indeed, my dear, I'm very fond of you, and I was delighted to hear you were to be my sister. If only it could have stayed William instead of Bertram." " But it couldn't," smiled Billy. " It wasn't William that I loved." " But Bertram ! it's so absurd; " "Absurd!" The smile was gone now. ' Yes. Forgive me, Billy, but I was about as much surprised to hear of Bertram's engagement as I was of Cyril's." Sister Kate 141 Billy grew a little white. "But Bertram was never an avowed woman- hater, like Cyril, was he? " " ' Woman-hater ' - dear me, no! He was a woman-lover, always. As if his eternal ' Face of a Girl ' didn't prove that! Bertram has always loved women to paint. But as for his ever taking them seriously why, Billy, what's the matter? " Billy had risen suddenly. " If you'll excuse me, please, just a few minutes," Billy said very quietly. " I want to speak to Rosa in the kitchen. I'll be back soon." In the kitchen Billy spoke to Rosa she won- dered afterwards what she said. Certainly she did not stay in the kitchen long enough to say much. In her own room a minute later, with the door fast closed, she took from her table the photo- graph of Bertram and held it in her two hands, talking to it softly, but a little wildly. " I didn't listen ! I didn't stay! Do you hear?' I came to you. She shall not say anything that will make trouble between you and me. I've suffered enough through her already! And she doesn't know she didn't know before, and she doesn't now. She's only imagining. I will not not not believe that you love me just to 142 Miss Billy's Decision paint. No matter what they say^ all of them! I will not! " Billy put the photograph back on the table then, and went down-stairs to her guest. She smiled brightly, though her face was a little pale. " I wondered if perhaps you wouldn't like some music," she said pleasantly, going straight to the piano. " Indeed I would! " agreed Mrs. Hartwell. Billy sat down then and played played as Mrs. Hartwell had never heard her play before. " Why, Billy, you amaze me," she cried, when the pianist stopped and whirled about. " I had no idea you could play like that! " Billy smiled enigmatically. Billy was thinking that Mrs. Hartwell would, indeed, have been surprised if she had known that in that playing were herself, the ride home, the luncheon, Bertram, and the girl whom Bertram did not love only to paint! CHAPTER XIII CYRIL AND A WEDDING THE twelfth was a beautiful day. Clear, frosty air set the blood to tingling and the eyes to spark- ling, even if it were not your wedding day; while if it were It was Marie Hawthorn's wedding day, and certainly her eyes sparkled and her blood tingled as she threw open the window of her room and breathed long and deep of the fresh morning air before going down to breakfast. " They say ' Happy is the bride that the sun shines on,' " she whispered softly to an English sparrow that cocked his eye at her from a neigh- boring tree branch. "As if a bride wouldn't be happy, sun or no sun," she scoffed tenderly, as she turned to go down-stairs. As it happens, however, tingling blood and sparkling eyes are a matter of more than weather, or even weddings, as was proved a little later when the telephone bell rang. Kate answered the ring. 143 144 Miss Billy's Decision " Hullo, is that you, Kate? " called a despair- ing voice. " Yes. Good morning, Bertram. Isn't this a fine day for the wedding? " " Fine! Oh, yes, I suppose so, though I must confess I haven't noticed it and you wouldn't, if you had a lunatic on your hands." 11 A lunatic!" 1 Yes. Maybe you have, though. Is Marie rampaging around the house like a wild creature, and asking ten questions and making twenty threats to the minute? " "Certainly not! Don't be absurd, Bertram. What do you mean? " " See here, Kate, that show comes off at twelve sharp, doesn't it? " " Show, indeed! " retorted Kate, indignantly. : ' The wedding is at noon sharp as the best man should know very well." " All right; then tell Billy, please, to see that it is sharp, or I won't answer for the consequences." ' What do you mean? What is the matter? " " Cyril. He's broken loose at last. I've been expecting it all along. I've simply marvelled at the meekness with which he has submitted him- self to be tied up with white ribbons and topped with roses." "Nonsense, Bertram!" Cyril and a Wedding 145 " Well, it amounts to that. Anyhow, he thinks it does, and he's wild. I wish you could have heard the thunderous performance on his piano with which he woke me up this morning. Billy says he plays everything his past, present, and future. All is, if he was playing his future this morning, I pity the girl who's got to live it with him." " Bertram! " Bertram chuckled remorselessly. " Well, I do. But I'll warrant he wasn't play- ing his future this morning. He was playing his present the wedding. You see, he's just waked up to the fact that it'll be a perfect orgy of women and other confusion, and he doesn't like it. All the samee, I've had to assure him just fourteen times this morning that the ring, the license, the carriage, the minister's fee, and my sanity are all O. K. When he isn't asking questions he's making threats to snake the parson up there an hour ahead of time and be off with Marie before a soul comes." " What an absurd idea! " " Cyril doesn't think so. Indeed, Kate, I've had a hard struggle to convince him that the guests wouldn't think it the most delightful ex- perience of their lives if they should come and find the ceremony over with and the bride gone." 146 Miss Billy's Decision " Well, you remind Cyril, please, that there are other people besides himself concerned in this wedding," observed Kate, icily. " I have," purred Bertram, " and he says all right, let them have it, then. He's gone now to look up proxy marriages, I believe." " Proxy marriages, indeed! Come, come, Ber- tram, I've got something to do this morning besides to stand here listening to your nonsense. See that you and Cyril get here on time that's all! " And she hung up the receiver with an im- patient jerk. She turned to confront the startled eyes of the bride elect. "What is it? Is anything wrong with Cyril? " faltered Marie. Kate laughed and raised her eyebrows slightly. " Nothing but a little stage fright, my dear." "Stage fright!" " Yes. Bertram says he's trying to find some one to play his role, I believe, in the ceremony." " Mrs. Hartwell! " At the look of dismayed terror that came into Marie's face, Mrs. Hartwell laughed reassuringly. " There, there, dear child, don't look so horror- stricken. There probably never was a man yet who wouldn't have fled from the wedding part of his marriage if he could; and you know how Cyril and a Wedding 147 Cyril hates fuss and feathers. The wonder to me is that he's stood it as long as he has. I thought I saw it coming, last night at the rehearsal and now I know I did." Marie still looked distressed. "But he never said I thought " She stopped helplessly. " Of course he didn't, child. He never said anything but that he loved you, and he never thought anything but that you were going to be his. Men never do till the wedding day. Then they never think of anything but a place to run," she finished laughingly; as she began to arrange on a stand the quantity of little white boxes waiting for her. " But if he'd told me in time, I wouldn't have had a thing - but the minister," faltered Marie. " And when you think so much of a pretty wedding, too? Nonsense! It isn't good for a man, to give up to his whims like that! " Marie's cheeks grew a deeper pink. Her nos- trils dilated a little. " It wouldn't be a ' whim,* Mrs. Hartwell, and I should be glad to give up," she said with de- cision. Mrs. Hartwell laughed again, her amused eyes on Marie's face. " Dear me, child! don't you know that if men 148 Miss Billy's Decision had their way, they'd well, if men married men there' d never be such a thing in the world as a shower bouquet or a piece of wedding cake! " There was no reply. A little precipitately Marie turned and hurried away. A moment , later she was laying a restraining hand on Billy, who was filling tall vases with superb long-stemmed roses in the kitchen. " Billy, please," she panted, " couldn't we do without those? Couldn't we send them to some some hospital? and the wedding cake, too, and " " The wedding cake to some hospital! " " No, of course not to the hospital. It would make them sick to eat it, wouldn't it? " That there was no shadow of a smile on Marie's face showed how desperate, indeed, was her state of mind. " I only meant that I didn't want them myself, nor the shower bouquet, nor the rooms darkened, nor little Kate as the flower girl and would you mind very much if I asked you not to be my maid of honor? " " Marie! " Marie covered her face with her hands then and began to sob brokenly; so there was nothing for Billy to do but to take her into her arms with soothing little murmurs and pettings. By degrees, then, the whole story came out. Cyril and a Wedding 149 Billy almost laughed but she almost cried, too. Then she said: " Dearie, I don't believe Cyril feels or acts half so bad as Bertram and Kate make out, and, anyhow, if he did, it's too late now to to send the wedding cake to the hospital, or make any other of the little changes you suggest." Billy's lips puckered into a half-smile, but her eyes were grave. " Besides, there are your music pupils trimming the living-room this minute with ever- green, there's little Kate making her flower-girl wreath, and Mrs. Hartwell stacking cake boxes in the hall, to say nothing of Rosa gloating over the best china in the dining-room, and Aunt Hannah putting purple bows into the new lace cap she's counting on wearing. Only think how disappointed they'd all be if I should say: ' Never mind stop that. Marie's just going to have a minister. No fuss, no feathers! ' Why, dearie, even the roses are hanging their heads for grief," she went on mistily, lifting with gentle fingers one of the full-petalled pink beauties near her. " Besides, there's your guests." "Oh, of course, I knew I couldn't really," sighed Marie, as she turned to go up-stairs, all the light and joy gone from her face. Billy, once assured that Marie was out of hearing, ran to the telephone. 150 Miss Billy's Decision Bertram answered. " Bertram, tell Cyril I want to speak to him, please." " All right, dear, but go easy. Better strike up your tuning fork to find his pitch to-day. You'll discover it's a high one, all right." A moment later Cyril's tersely nervous " Good morning, Billy," came across the line. Billy drew in her breath and cast a hurriedly apprehensive glance over her shoulder to make sure Marie was not near. " Cyril," she called in a low voice, " if you care a shred for Marie, for heaven's sake call her up and tell her that you dote on pink roses, and *pink ribbons, and pink breakfasts - - and pink wedding cake!" " But I don't." " Oh, yes, you do to-day! You would if you could see Marie now." " What do you mean? " " Nothing, only she overheard part of Bertram's nonsensical talk with Kate a little while ago, and she's ready to cast the last ravelling of white satin and conventionality behind her, and go with you to the justice of the peace." " Sensible girl! " '* Yes, but she can't, you know, with fifty guests coming to the wedding, and twice as many Cyril and a Wedding 151 more to the reception. Honestly, Cyril, she's broken-hearted. You must do something. She's coming!" And the receiver clicked sharply .into place. Five minutes later Marie was called to the 'telephone. Dejectedly, wistful-eyed, she went. Just what were the words that hummed across the wire into the pink little ear of the bride-to-be, Billy never knew; but a Marie that was anything but wistful-eyed and dejected left the telephone a little later, and was heard very soon in the room above trilling merry snatches of a little song. Contentedly, then, Billy went back to her roses. It was a pretty wedding, a very pretty wedding. Every one said that. The pink and green of the decorations, the soft lights (Kate had had her way about darkening the rooms), the pretty frocks and smiling faces of the guests all helped. Then there were the dainty flower girl, little Kate, the charming maid of honor, Billy, the stalwart, handsome best man, Bertram, to say nothing of the delicately beautiful bride, who looked like some fairy visitor from another world in the floating shimmer of her gossamer silk and tulle. There was, too, not quite unnoticed, the bridegroom; tall, of distinguished bearing, and with features that were clear cut and to-day rather pale. Then came the reception the " women and 152 Miss Billy's Decision confusion" of Cyril's fears followed by the going away of the bride and groom with its merry warfare of confetti and old shoes. At four o'clock, however, with only William and Bertram remaining for guests, something like quiet descended at last on the little house. " Well, it's over," sighed Billy, dropping ex- haustedly into a big chair in the living-room. " And well over," supplemented Aunt Hannah, covering her white shawl with a warmer blue one. " Yes, I think it was," nodded Kate. " It was really a very pretty wedding." " With your help, Kate eh? " teased William. " Well, I natter myself I did do some good," bridled Kate, as she turned to help little Kate take the flower wreath from her head. " Even if you did hurry into my room and scare me into conniption fits telling me I'd be late," laughed Billy. Kate tossed her head. " Well, how was I to know that Aunt Hannah's clock only meant half -past eleven when it struck twelve?" she retorted. Everybody laughed. "Oh, well, it was a pretty wedding," declared William, with a long sigh. " It'll do for an understudy," said Bertram softly, for Billy's ears alone. Cyril and a Wedding 153 Only the added color and the swift glance showed that Billy heard, for when she spoke she said: " And didn't Cyril behave beautifully? 'Most every time I looked at him he was talking to some woman." " Oh, no, he wasn't begging your pardon, my dear," objected Bertram. " I watched him, too, even more closely than you did, and it was always the woman who was talking to Cyril! " Billy laughed. " Well, anyhow," she maintained, " he listened. He didn't run away." " As if a bridegroom could! " cried Kate. "I'm going to," avowed Bertram, his nose in the air. 11 Pooh! " scoffed Kate. Then she added eagerly: " You must be married in church, Billy, and in the evening." Bertram's nose came suddenly out of the air. His eyes met Kate's squarely. " Billy hasn't decided yet how she does want to be married," he said with unnecessary emphasis. Billy laughed and interposed a quick change of subject. 11 I think people had a pretty good time, too, for a wedding, don't you? " she asked. " I was sorry Mary Jane couldn't be here 'twould have 154 Miss Billy's Decision been such a good chance for him to meet our friends." "As Mary Jane?" asked Bertram, a little stiffly. " Really, my dear," murmured Aunt Hannah, " I think it would be more respectful to call him by his name." " By the way, what is his name? " questioned William. " That's what we don't know," laughed Billy. " Well, you know the ' Arkwright,' don't you? " put in Bertram. Bertram, too, laughed, but it was a little forcedly. " I suppose if you knew his name was ' Methuselah,' you wouldn't call him that yet, would you? " Billy clapped her hands, and threw a merry glance at Aunt Hannah. " There! we never thought of ' Methuselah,' " she gurgled gleefully. ' ' Maybe it is ' Methuselah, ' now ' Methuselah John ' ! You see, he's told us to try to guess it," she explained, turning to William; "but, honestly, I don't believe, whatever it is, I'll ever think of him as anything but ' Mary Jane.' " ;< Well, as far as I can judge, he has nobody but himself to thank for that, so he can't do any complaining," smiled William, as he rose to go. ' Well, how about it, Bertram? I suppose you're Cyril and a Wedding 155 going to stay a while to comfort the lonely eh, boy? " " Of course he is and so are you, too, Uncle William," spoke up Billy, with affectionate cor- diality. " As if I'd let you go back to a forlori( dinner in that great house to-night! Indeed, no!" William smiled, hesitated, and sat down. " Well, of course " he began. 1 Yes, of course," finished Billy, quickly. "I'll telephone Pete that you'll stay here both of you." It was at this point that little Kate, who had been turning interested eyes from one brother to the other, interposed a clear, high-pitched question. " Uncle William, didn't you want to marry my going- to-be-Aunt Billy? " "Kate!" gasped her mother, "didn't I tell you " Her voice trailed into an incoherent murmur of remonstrance. Billy blushed. Bertram said a low word under his breath. Aunt Hannah's " Oh, my grief and conscience! " was almost a groan. William laughed lightly. "Well, my little lady," he suggested, "let us put it the other way and say that quite probably she didn't want to marry me." 156 Miss Billy's Decision " Does she want to marry Uncle Bertram? " " Kate! " gasped Billy and Mrs. Hartwell to- gether this time, fearful of what might be coming next. " We'll hope so," nodded Uncle William, speak- ing in a cheerfully matter-of-fact voice, intended to discourage curiosity. The little girl frowned and pondered. Her elders cast about in their minds for a speedy change of subject; but their somewhat scattered wits were not quick enough. It was little Kate who spoke next. " Uncle William, would she have got Uncle Cyril if Aunt Marie hadn't nabbed him first? " " Kate! " The word was a chorus of dismay this time. Mrs. Hartwell struggled to her feet. " Come, come, Kate, we must go up-stairs to bed," she stammered. The little girl drew back indignantly. " To bed? Why, mama, I haven't had my supper yet! " "What? Oh, sure enough the lights! I forgot. Well, then, come up to change your dress," finished Mrs. Hartwell, as with a despair- ing look and gesture she led her young daughter from the room. CHAPTER XIV M. J. MAKES ANOTHER MOVE BILLY came down-stairs on the thirteenth of December to find everywhere the peculiar flatness that always follows a day which for weeks has been the focus of one's aims and thoughts and labor. " It's just as if everything had stopped at Marie's wedding, and there wasn't anything more to do," she complained to Aunt Hannah at the breakfast table. " Everything seems so queer! " " It won't long, dear," smiled Aunt Hannah, tranquilly, as she buttered her roll, " specially after Bertram comes back. How long does he stay in New York? " " Only three days; but I'm just sure it's going to seem three weeks, now," sighed Billy. " But he simply had to go else he wouldn't have gone." " I've no doubt of it," observed Aunt Hannah. And at the meaning emphasis of her words, 157 158 Miss Billy's Decision Billy laughed a little. After a minute she said aggrievedly : " I had supposed that I could at least have a sort of ' after the ball ' celebration this morning picking up and straightening things around. But John and Rosa have done it all. There isn't so much as a rose leaf anywhere on the floor. Of course most of the flowers went to the hospital last night, anyway. As for Marie's room it looks as spick-and-span as if it had never seen a scrap of ribbon or an inch of tulle." " But the wedding presents? " " All carried down to the kitchen and half packed now, ready to go over to the new home. John says he'll take them over in Peggy this after- noon, after he takes Mrs. HartwelTs trunk to Uncle William's." " Well, you can at least go over to the apart- ment and work," suggested Aunt Hannah, hope- fully. " Humph! Can I? " scoffed Billy. " As if I could when Marie left strict orders that not one thing was to be touched till she got here. They arranged everything but the presents before the wedding, anyway; and Marie wants to fix those herself after she gets back. Mercy! Aunt Hannah, if I should so much as move a plate one inch in the china closet, Marie would know it M. J. Makes Another Move 159 and change it when she got home," laughed Billy, as she rose from the table. " No, I can't go to work over there." " But there's your music, my dear. You said , you were going to write some new songs after the wedding." " I was," sighed Billy, walking to the window, and looking listlessly at the bare, brown world outside; " but I can't write songs when there aren't any songs in my head to write." " No, of course not; but they'll come, dear, in time. You're tired, now," soothed Aunt Hannah, as she turned to leave the room. " It's the reaction, of course," murmured Aunt Hannah to herself, on the way up-stairs. " She's had the whole thing on her hands dear child! " A few minutes later, from the living-room, came a plaintive little minor melody. Billy was at the piano. Kate and little Kate had, the night before, gone home with William. It had been a sudden de- cision, brought about by the realization that Bertram's trip to New York would leave William alone. Her trunk was to be carried there to-day, and she would leave for home from there, at the end of a two or three days' visit. It began to snow at twelve o'clock. All the morning the sky had been gray and threatening; 160 Miss Billy's Decision and the threats took visible shape at noon in myriads of white snow feathers that filled the air to the blinding point, and turned the brown, bare world into a thing of fairylike beauty. Billy, however, with a rare frown upon her face, looked out upon it with disapproving eyes. " I was going in town and I believe I'll go now," she cried. " Don't, dear, please don't," begged Aunt Hannah. " See, the flakes are smaller now, and the wind is coming up. We're in for a blizzard I'm sure we are. And you know you have some cold, already." " All right," sighed Billy. " Then it's me for the knitting work and the fire, I suppose," she finished, with a whimsicality that did not hide the wistful disappointment of her voice. She was not knitting, however, she was sewing with Aunt Hannah when at four o'clock Rosa