!" That settled Billy's opinion of
Kitty! She was evidently one of these over-educated, forward,
scheming, coquetting girls. She had not even said, "Oh! don't
sprinkle the lawn now; stay here and talk with me." He squared his
shoulders and marched over to the sprinkling apparatus, while she
sat with her back against the tree and watched him. He turned on the
water and adjusted the nozzle to a good strong flow. He wet the
lawn at the rear of the house first, and was pulling the hose after
him into the front lawn when Mrs. Fenelby suddenly appeared on the
porch. She had a box of cigars in her hand, and when he saw them
Billy jumped guiltily.

"Billy!" she exclaimed, "Are these your cigars?"

"Why, say!" he said, after one glance at her face on which suspicion
was but too plainly imprinted. "Those are cigars, aren't they?
That's a whole box of cigars, isn't it?"

"It is," said Mrs. Fenelby, severely, "and I found it in your room.
I don't remember having received any duty on a box of cigars,
Billy. I hope you were not trying to smuggle them in. I hope you
were not trying to rob poor, dear little Bobberts, Billy."

Billy held the nozzle limply in one hand and let the stream pour
wastefully at his feet.

"That box of cigars--" he began weakly. "That box of cigars, the box
you found in my room, well, that is a box of cigars. You see, Mrs.
Fenelby," he continued, cautiously, "that box of cigars was up there
in my room, and--Now, you know I wouldn't try to smuggle anything
in, don't you? Now, I'll tell you all about it." But he didn't. He
looked at the box thoughtfully. He saw now that he had been silly to
buy a whole box. A man should not buy more than a handful at a time.

"Well?" said Mrs. Fenelby, impatiently.

"Isn't that the box you bought when you went over to the station
with Tom this morning?" asked Kitty, sweetly. "You brought back a
box when you returned you know."

Billy turned his head and glared at her. But she only smiled at him.
He did not dare to look Mrs. Fenelby in the eye.

"Tom smokes a great deal, doesn't he?" Kitty continued lightly. "I
wondered when you brought that box of cigars back with you if he
hadn't asked you to bring them over for him. That was what I thought
the moment I saw you with them."

"Why, yes, of course," said Billy, with relief. "That was how it
was. I--I didn't like to say it, you know," he assured Mrs. Fenelby,
eagerly, "I--I didn't know just how Tom would feel about it.