t bother about
Kitty. She won't bother you a bit. She's the right sort, Billy. Not
like Laura, of course, for I don't believe there is another woman
anywhere just like Laura, but Kitty is not the ordinary flighty
girl. You should hear her appreciate Bobberts. She saw his good
points, and remarked about them, at once, and the way she has caught
the spirit of the Domestic Tariff that I was telling you about is
fine! Most girls would have hemmed and hawed about it, but she
didn't! No, sir! She just saw what a fine idea it was, and when she
saw that she couldn't afford to have her three trunks brought into
the house she proposed that she leave them at a neighbor's. Did not
make a single complaint. Don't worry about Kitty."

"That is all right about the tariff," said Billy. "I can't say I
think much of that tariff idea myself, but so long as it is the
family custom a guest couldn't do any less than live up to it. But I
don't like the idea of having to spend a number of weeks in the same
house with any girl. They are all bores, Tom, and I know it. A man
can't have any comfort when there is a girl in the house. And
between you and me that Kitty girl looks like the kind that is sure
to be always right at a fellow's side. I was wondering if Laura
would think it was all right if I stayed in town here?"

"No, she wouldn't," said Tom shortly. "She would be offended, and so
would I. If you are going to let some nonsense about girls being a
bore,--which is all foolishness--keep you away from the house, you
had better--Why," he added, "it is an insult to us--to Laura and
me--just as if you said right out that the company we choose to ask
to our home was not good enough for you to associate with. If you
think our house is going to bore you--"

"Now, look here, old man," said Billy, "I don't mean that at all,
and you know I don't. I simply don't like girls, and that is all
there is to it. But I'll come. I'll have my trunk sent over
and--Say, do I have to pay duty on what I have in my trunk?"

"Certainly," said Mr. Fenelby. "That is, of course, if you want to
enter into the spirit of the thing. It is only ten per cent., you
know, and it all goes into Bobberts' education fund."

Billy sat in silent thought awhile.

"I wonder," he said at length, "how it would do if I just put a few
things into my suit-case--enough to last me a few days at a
time--and left my trunk over here. I don't need everything I brought
in that trunk. I was p