some other day, I'll try to make clear to
you--many things."

Billy greeted Bertram very cordially. It was such a relief--his cheery,
genial companionship! The air, too, was bracing, and all the world
lay under a snow-white blanket of sparkling purity. Everything was so
beautiful, so restful!

It was not surprising, perhaps, that the very frankness of Billy's joy
misled Bertram a little. His blood tingled at her nearness, and his eyes
grew deep and tender as he looked down at her happy face. But of all the
eager words that were so near his lips, not one reached the girl's ears
until the good-byes were said; then wistfully Bertram hazarded:

"Billy, don't you think, sometimes, that I'm gaining--just a little on
that rival of mine--that music?"

Billy's face clouded. She shook her head gently.

"Bertram, please don't--when we've had such a beautiful hour together,"
she begged. "It troubles me. If you do, I can't go--again."

"But you shall go again," cried Bertram, bravely smiling straight into
her eyes. "And there sha'n't ever anything in the world trouble you,
either--that I can help!"

CHAPTER XXXIII

WILLIAM IS WORRIED

Billy's sleigh-ride had been due to the kindness of a belated winter
storm that had surprised every one the last of March. After that, March,
as if ashamed of her untoward behavior, donned her sweetest smiles and
"went out" like the proverbial lamb. With the coming of April, and the
stirring of life in the trees, Billy, too, began to be restless; and at
the earliest possible moment she made her plans for her long anticipated
"digging in the dirt."

Just here, much to her surprise, she met with wonderful assistance from
Bertram. He seemed to know just when and where and how to dig, and he
displayed suddenly a remarkable knowledge of landscape gardening. (That
this knowledge was as recent in its acquirement as it was sudden in its
display, Billy did not know.) Very learnedly he talked of perennials and
annuals; and without hesitation he made out a list of flowering shrubs
and plants that would give her a "succession of bloom throughout
the season." His words and phrases smacked loudly of the very newest
florists' catalogues, but Billy did not notice that. She only wondered
at the seemingly exhaustless source of his wisdom.

"I suspect 'twould have been better if we'd begun things last fall," he
told her frowningly one day. "But there's plenty we can do now anyway;
and we'll put in som