ty clever! First, Cyril: according
to Bertram Cyril hates 'all kinds of women and other confusion'; and I
fancy Bertram hits it about right. So that settles Cyril. Then there's
William--you know William. Any girl would say William was a dear; but
William isn't a MARRYING man. Dad says,"--Calderwell's voice softened a
little--"dad says that William and his young wife were the most devoted
couple that he ever saw; and that when she died she seemed to take with
her the whole of William's heart--that is, what hadn't gone with the
baby a few years before. There was a boy, you know, that died."

"Yes, I know," nodded Billy, quick tears in her eyes. "Aunt Hannah told
me."

"Well, that counts out William, then," said Calderwell, with an air of
finality.

"But how about Bertram? You haven't settled Bertram," laughed Billy,
archly.

"Bertram!" Calderwell's eyes widened. "Billy, can you imagine Bertram's
making love in real earnest to a girl?"

"Why, I--don't--know; maybe!" Billy tipped her head from side to side as
if she were viewing a picture set up for her inspection.

"Well, I can't. In the first place, no girl would think he was serious;
or if by any chance she did, she'd soon discover that it was the turn
of her head or the tilt of her chin that he admired--TO PAINT. Now isn't
that so?"

Billy laughed, but she did not answer.

"It is, and you know it," declared Calderwell. "And that settles him.
Now you can see, perhaps, why none of these men--will marry."

It was a long minute before Billy spoke.

"Not a bit of it. I don't see it at all," she declared with roguish
merriment. "Moreover, I think that some day, some one of them--will
marry, Sir Doubtful!"

Calderwell threw a quick glance into her eyes. Evidently something he
saw there sent a swift shadow to his own. He waited a moment, then asked
abruptly:

"Billy, WON'T you marry me?"

Billy frowned, though her eyes still laughed.

"Hugh, I told you not to ask me that again," she demurred.

"And I told you not to ask impossibilities of me," he retorted
imperturbably. "Billy, won't you, now--seriously?"

"Seriously, no, Hugh. Please don't let us go all over that again when
we've done it so many times."

"No, let's don't," agreed the man, cheerfully. "And we don't have to,
either, if you'll only say 'yes,' now right away, without any more
fuss."

Billy sighed impatiently.

"Hugh, won't you understand that I'm serious?" she cried; then she
turned sudd