Miss Billys Decision | Page 5

other laughed shamefacedly.
``Oh, it's only that I happen to have a devouring curiosity to meet that special young lady. I sing her songs (you know she's written some dandies!), I've heard a lot about her, and I've seen her picture.'' (He did not add that he had also purloined that same picture from his mother's bureau--the picture being a gift from Aunt Hannah.) ``So you see I would, indeed, like to occupy a corner in the fair Miss Billy's household. I could write to Aunt Hannah and beg a home with her, you know; eh?''
``Of course! Why don't you--`Mary Jane'?'' laughed Calderwell. ``Billy'd take you all right. She's had a little Miss Hawthorn, a music teacher, there for months. She's always doing stunts of that sort. Belle writes me that she's had a dozen forlornites there all this last summer, two or three at a time-tired widows, lonesome old maids, and crippled kids--just to give them a royal good time. So you see she'd take you, without a doubt. Jove! what a pair you'd make: Miss Billy and Mr. Mary Jane! You'd drive the suffragettes into conniption fits--just by the sound of you!''
Arkwright laughed quietly; then he frowned.
``But how about it?'' he asked. ``I thought she was keeping house with Aunt Hannah. Didn't she stay at all with the Henshaws?''
``Oh, yes, a few months. I never knew just why she did leave, but I fancied, from something Billy herself said once, that she discovered she was creating rather too much of an upheaval in the Strata. So she took herself off. She went to school, and travelled considerably. She was over here when I met her first. After that she was with us all one summer on the yacht. A couple of years ago, or so, she went back to Boston, bought a house and settled down with Aunt Hannah.''
``And she's not married--or even engaged?''
``Wasn't the last I heard. I haven't seen her since December, and I've heard from her only indirectly. She corresponds with my sister, and so do I--intermittently. I heard a month ago from Belle, and she had a letter from Billy in August. But I heard nothing of any engagement.''
``How about the Henshaws? I should think there might be a chance there for a romance-- a charming girl, and three unattached men.''
Calderwell gave a slow shake of the head.
``I don't think so. William is--let me see-- nearly forty-five, I guess, by this time; and he isn't a marrying man. He buried his heart with his wife and baby years ago. Cyril, according to Bertram, `hates women and all other confusion,' so that ought to let him out. As for Bertram himself--Bertram is `only Bertram.' He's always been that. Bertram loves girls--to paint; but I can't imagine him making serious love to any one. It would always be the tilt of a chin or the turn of a cheek that he was admiring--to paint.
No, there's no chance for a romance there, I'll warrant.''
``But there's--yourself.''
Calderwell's eyebrows rose the fraction of an inch.
``Oh, of course. I presume January or February will find me back there,'' he admitted with a sigh and a shrug. Then, a little bitterly, he added: ``No, Arkwright. I shall keep away if I can. I know there's no chance for me--now.''
``Then you'll leave me a clear field?'' bantered the other.
``Of course--`Mary Jane,' '' retorted Calderwell, with equal lightness.
``Thank you.''
``Oh, you needn't,'' laughed Calderwell. ``My giving you the right of way doesn't insure you a thoroughfare for yourself--there are others, you know. Billy Neilson has had sighing swains about I her, I imagine, since she could walk and talk. She is a wonderfully fascinating little bit of femininity, and she has a heart of pure gold. All is, I envy the man who wins it--for the man who wins that, wins her.''
There was no answer. Arkwright sat with his eyes on the moving throng outside the window near them. Perhaps he had not heard. At all events, when he spoke some time later, it was of a matter far removed from Miss Billy Neilson, or the way to her heart. Nor was the young lady mentioned between them again that day.
Long hours later, just before parting for the night, Arkwright said:
``Calderwell, I'm sorry, but I believe, after all, I can't take that trip to the lakes with you. I-- I'm going home next week.''
``Home! Hang it, Arkwright! I'd counted on you. Isn't this rather sudden?''
``Yes, and no. I'll own I've been drifting about with you contentedly enough for the last six months to make you think mountain-climbing and boat-paddling were the end and aim of my existence. But they aren't, you know, really.''
``Nonsense! At heart you're as much of a vagabond as I am; and you know it.''
``Perhaps. But unfortunately I don't happen to carry your