g to lead her into some admission of which he could make use
as proof of her smuggling.

"I think it is a simply splendid idea!" Kitty declared. "I am sure
no one but Tom could have thought of it, and the very minute I heard
of it I went into it body and soul. It was so clever of him to
conceive such an idea, and such a simple way to build up an
education fund for dear, sweet, little Bobberts! And isn't it nice
of Tom and Laura to let us be in it and pay our share of the duty.
It makes us feel so much more as if we were really part of the
family."

"Doesn't it?" said Billy. "It makes us feel as if we had a right to
be here--when we pay duty and all that. I feel like bringing in a
lot of stuff just so that I can pay duty on it. I was thinking
about it this morning, and about that little joke of mine about not
bringing in that collar last night, and I felt what I had missed by
leaving it out on the porch, so I got up and went down for it. That
was how you happened to meet me in the hall--I wanted to get it and
bring it in so I could pay the duty, and be in the fun myself. You
don't think I was going to smuggle it in, do you?"

"Oh, no!" said Kitty, with a long-drawn o. "Nobody would be so mean
as to smuggle anything into the house, when the duty all goes to
dear little Bobberts. It is such fun to pay duty, just as if the
house was a real nation. It is like being part of the nation, and
you know we women are not that. We can't vote, nor anything, and a
chance like this is so rare that we enjoy it immensely. You didn't
think it was queer that I should go down so early in the morning to
get your collar and bring it in, did you?"

"Well, of course," said Billy, doubtfully, "it wasn't your collar,
you know. It was my collar."

"I know it was," Kitty admitted frankly, "but you know how little we
women can bring into the house. Hardly anything. We shop and shop,
but we hardly ever really buy anything, and all the time I am just
crazy to be paying duty, and to know whether it is ten per cent. or
thirty per cent., and all that, as if I was a man, and so, when I
happened to think of that collar that you had left down here on the
porch railing, I saw it was my chance, and I decided to come down
and get it and bring it into the house, so I could have the fun of
paying the duty on it. So I came down and got it. And just as I
reached the landing on my way up I met you, and I was so surprised
that I just handed the collar to you.