did!"

"Why, Aunt Kate, you wouldn't leave him alone in that condition with
that man!"

It was Mrs. Hartwell's turn to sigh.

"But, Billy," she contested, wearily, "can't you understand that it
wasn't YOUR place to interfere--you, a young girl?"

"I'm sure I don't see what difference that makes. I was the only one
that could do it! Besides, afterward, I did try to get some one else,
Uncle William and Mr. Cyril. But when I found I couldn't get them, I
just had to do it alone--that is, with Pete."

"Pete!" scoffed Mrs. Hartwell. "Pete, indeed!"

Billy's head came up with a jerk. Billy was very angry now.

"Aunt Kate, it seems I've done a very terrible thing, but I'm sure I
don't see it that way. I wasn't afraid, and I wasn't in the least bit of
danger anywhere. I knew my way perfectly, and I did NOT make any 'scene'
in that restaurant. I just asked Mr. Bertram to come home with me. One
would think you WANTED Mr. Bertram to go off with that man and--and
drink too much. But Uncle William hasn't liked him before, not one bit!
I've heard him talk about him--that Mr. Seaver."

Mrs. Hartwell raised both her hands, palms outward.

"Billy, it is useless to talk with you. You are quite impossible. It is
even worse than I expected!" she cried, with wrathful impatience.

"Worse than you--expected? What do you mean, please?"

"Worse than I thought it would be--before you came. The idea of those
five men taking a girl to bring up!"

Billy sat very still. She was even holding her breath, though Mrs.
Hartwell did not know that.

"You mean--that they did not--want me?" she asked quietly, so quietly
that Mrs. Hartwell did not realize the sudden tension behind the words.
For that matter, Mrs. Hartwell was too angry now to realize anything
outside of herself.

"Want you! Billy, it is high time that you understand just how things
are, and have been, at the house; then perhaps you will conduct yourself
with an eye a little more to other people's comfort. Can you imagine
three young men like my brothers WANTING to take a strange young woman
into their home to upset everything?"

"To--upset--everything!" echoed Billy, faintly. "And have I done--that?"

"Of course you have! How could you help it? To begin with, they thought
you were a boy, and that was bad enough; but William was so anxious
to do right by his dead friend that he insisted upon taking you, much
against the will of all the rest of us. Oh, I know this isn't pleas