It's too bad! He seems to have given me away all round. If he was
going to tell tales, he might have told flattering ones. I am sure I
was often very nice, or I was always sorry if I wasn't. I used to roast
chestnuts and muffins, and eat oranges and peppermints with the door
wide open to lure him back. They were dear old days! I am glad he
remembered them, but it must have been boring for you. Did he--did he
tell you--more things about me?"

"Many more!"

"Principally about me? More than about the others?"

"You were his special chum. It was natural that he should speak most of
you."

"And--er--my letters! Did he read those aloud?"

"Parts of them. I never saw them, of course, except--"

"Except when?"

"When he was ill. He could not read himself, and was anxious to hear
the news. Three letters from you arrived during that time. He said it
did not matter. That there would be no secrets in them--nothing you
would not wish me to know."

Betty flushed, cast an agonised thought back through the years, to try
to remember the gist of those three missives, failed completely, and
nervously twisted her fingers together.

"There was one thing they would show you pretty plainly, which I'd
rather have kept secret."

"Yes?"

"Myself?"

She looked across the room with a flickering glance, and met Will
Gerard's steady gaze.

"Yes," he said slowly. "They showed me yourself!"

That was all. Not another word, either of praise or blame. Did he hate
her then--think her altogether flighty and contemptible, or had the
letters been by chance good specimens of their number, and did he like
them, and think her "nice"? The face told her nothing in its grave
impenetrability. She felt herself blushing more deeply than ever,
rallied all her powers with the determination that she would _not_ be
stupid, and cried gaily--

"Well, after all, the confidence was not all on one side! We heard
enough about you. `My chum Gerard' has been a household word among us
for years past. You were such a paragon that we were quite bored with
the list of your perfections." She raised her hands and began checking
off his characteristics on the different fingers in charming,
mischievous fashion. "My chum Gerard is so clever,--so industrious,--so
far-seeing,--so thoughtful,--so generous,--so kind,--so helpful--no! I
am not going to stop; I've not half-finished yet.--All that he does is
wise; all that he tries, succeeds; all