n his
den.

"Indeed it is, for now I've time to see everything--everything you've
done since I've been gone," cried Billy, gazing eagerly about her.

"Hm-m; well, THAT wasn't what I meant," shrugged Bertram.

"Of course not; but it's what I meant," retorted Billy. "And there are
other things, too. I expect there are half a dozen new 'Old Blues' and
black basalts that I want to see; eh, Uncle William?" she finished,
smiling into the eyes of the man who had been gazing at her with doting
pride for the last five minutes.

"Ho! Will isn't on teapots now," quoth Bertram, before his brother had
a chance to reply. "You might dangle the oldest 'Old Blue' that ever was
before him now, and he'd pay scant attention if he happened at the same
time to get his eyes on some old pewter chain with a green stone in it."

Billy laughed; but at the look of genuine distress that came into
William's face, she sobered at once.

"Don't you let him tease you, Uncle William," she said quickly.
"I'm sure pewter chains with green stones in them sound just awfully
interesting, and I want to see them right away now. Come," she finished,
springing to her feet, "take me up-stairs, please, and show them to me."

William shook his head and said, "No, no!" protesting that what he had
were scarcely worth her attention; but even while he talked he rose to
his feet and advanced half eagerly, half reluctantly, toward the door.

"Nonsense," said Billy, fondly, as she laid her hand on his arm. "I know
they are very much worth seeing. Come!" And she led the way from the
room. "Oh, oh!" she exclaimed a few moments later, as she stood before a
small cabinet in one of William's rooms. "Oh, oh, how pretty!"

"Do you like them? I thought you would," triumphed William, quick joy
driving away the anxious fear in his eyes. "You see, I--I thought of
you when I got them--every one of them. I thought you'd like them. But
I haven't very many, yet, of course. This is the latest one." And he
tenderly lifted from its black velvet mat a curious silver necklace made
of small, flat, chain-linked disks, heavily chased, and set at regular
intervals with a strange, blue-green stone.

Billy hung above it enraptured.

"Oh, what a beauty! And this, I suppose, is Bertram's 'pewter chain'!
'Pewter,' indeed!" she scoffed. "Tell me, Uncle William, where did you
get it?"

And uncle William told, happily, thirstily, drinking in Billy's evident
interest with delight. There were