nounced, glancing to see that the doors were
discreetly closed. "It's such a relief, when you've had to look
at them for four years. If _I_ had dimples," she added, spitefully
rattling a handful of knives and forks into the dishpan, "I'd plug the
things with beeswax or dough, or anything that I could get my hands
on. Heavens! How I hate them!"

"Same here," said Billy, with guilty fervor. It was treason to one of
his few principles to speak disparagingly of a woman, but it was in
this case a great relief. He had never before seen Flora in just this
explosive state, and he had never heard her say "Heavens!" Somehow,
it also seemed to him that he had never seen her so wholly lovable. He
went up to her, tilted her head back a little, and put a kiss on the
place where dimples were not. "That's one uh the reasons why I like
yuh so much," he murmured. "Yuh haven't got dimples or yellow hair or
blue eyes--thank the Lord! Some uh these days, girlie, I'm going t'
pick yuh up and run off with yuh."

Her eyes, as she looked briefly up at him, were a shade less
turbulent. "You'd better watch out or _she_ will be running off with
_you_!" she said, and drew gently away from him. "There! That's a
horrid thing to say, Billy Boy, but it isn't half as horrid as--And
she watches me and wants to know everything we say to each other, and
is--" She stopped abruptly and turned to get hot water.

"I know it's tough, girlie." Charming Billy, considering his ignorance
of women, showed an instinct for just the sympathy she needed. "I
haven't had a chance to speak to yuh, hardly, for months--anything but
common remarks made in public. How long does the toothache last as a
general thing?" He took down the dish towel from its nail inside the
pantry door and prepared to help her. "She's good for to-day, ain't
she?"

"Oh, yes--and I suppose it _does_ hurt, and I ought to be sorry.
But I'm not. I'm glad of it. I wish her face would stay that way all
winter! She's so fussy about her looks she won't put her nose out of
her room till she's pretty again. Oh, Billy Boy, I wish I were a man!"

"Well, _I_ don't!" Billy disagreed. "If yuh was," he added soberly,
"and stayed as pretty as yuh are now, she'd--" But Billy could not
bring himself to finish the sentence.

"Do you think it's because you're so pretty that she--"

Flora smiled reluctantly. "If I were a man I could swear and _swear!_"

"Swear anyhow," suggested Billy encouragingly. "I'll show y