ng every one who comes to your house,
on ice cream and chocolate cake? I thought that stone doorstep of yours
was looking a little worn."

"Not a bit of it," retorted Billy. "This little chap came with a message
just as I was finishing dinner. The ice cream was particularly good
to-night, and it occurred to me that he might like a taste; so I gave it
to him."

Bertram raised his eyebrows quizzically.

"Very kind, of course; but--why ice cream?" he questioned. "I thought it
was roast beef and boiled potatoes that was supposed to be handed out to
gaunt-eyed hunger."

"It is," nodded Billy, "and that's why I think sometimes they'd like ice
cream and chocolate frosting. Besides, to give sugar plums one doesn't
have to unwind yards of red tape, or worry about 'pauperizing the poor.'
To give red flannels and a ton of coal, one must be properly circumspect
and consult records and city missionaries, of course; and that's why
it's such a relief sometimes just to hand over a simple little sugar
plum and see them smile."

For a minute Bertram was silent, then he asked abruptly:

"Billy, why did you leave the Strata?"

Billy was taken quite by surprise. A pink flush spread to her forehead,
and her tongue stumbled at first over her reply.

"Why, I--it seemed--you--why, I left to go to Hampden Falls, to be sure.
Don't you remember?" she finished gaily.

"Oh, yes, I remember THAT," conceded Bertram with disdainful emphasis.
"But why did you go to Hampden Falls?"

"Why, it--it was the only place to go--that is, I WANTED to go there,"
she corrected hastily. "Didn't Aunt Hannah tell you that I--I was
homesick to get back there?"

"Oh, yes, Aunt Hannah SAID that," observed the man; "but wasn't that
homesickness a little--sudden?"

Billy blushed pink again.

"Why, maybe; but--well, homesickness is always more or less sudden;
isn't it?" she parried.

Bertram laughed, but his eyes grew suddenly almost tender.

"See here, Billy, you can't bluff worth a cent," he declared. "You are
much too refreshingly frank for that. Something was the trouble. Now
what was it? Won't you tell me, please?"

Billy pouted. She hesitated and gazed anywhere but into the challenging
eyes before her. Then very suddenly she looked straight into them.

"Very well, there WAS a reason for my leaving," she confessed a little
breathlessly. "I--didn't want to--bother you any more--all of you."

"Bother us!"

"No. I found out. You couldn't paint; Mr