d intended to say. She had meant to
speak of his long, faithful service, and of how much they appreciated
it; but, to her surprise, Billy found her own eyes wet and her own voice
trembling, and the words that she would have said she found fast shut
in her throat. So there was nothing to do but to stammer out
something--anything, that would help to keep her from yielding to that
absurd and awful desire to fall on the old servant's neck and cry.

"Not another syllable!" she repeated sternly.

"Miss Billy!" choked Pete again. Then he turned and fled with anything
but his usual dignity.

Bertram called that evening. When Billy came to him in the living-room,
her slender self was almost hidden behind the swirls of damask linen in
her arms.

Bertram's eyes grew mutinous.

"Do you expect me to hug all that?" he demanded.

Billy flashed him a mischievous glance.

"Of course not! You don't _have_ to hug anything, you know."

For answer he impetuously swept the offending linen into the nearest
chair and drew the girl into his arms.

"Oh! And see how you've crushed poor Marie's table-cloth!" she cried,
with reproachful eyes.

Bertram sniffed imperturbably.

"I'm not sure but I'd like to crush Marie," he alleged.

"Bertram!"

"I can't help it. See here, Billy." He loosened his clasp and held the
girl off at arm's length, regarding her with stormy eyes. "It's Marie,
Marie, Marie--always. If I telephone in the morning, you've gone
shopping with Marie. If I want you in the afternoon for something,
you're at the dressmaker's with Marie. If I call in the evening--"

"I'm here," interrupted Billy, with decision.

"Oh, yes, you're here," admitted Bertram, aggrievedly, "and so are
dozens of napkins, miles of table-cloths, and yards upon yards of lace
and flummydiddles you call 'doilies.' They all belong to Marie, and they
fill your arms and your thoughts full, until there isn't an inch of room
for me. Billy, when is this thing going to end?"

Billy laughed softly. Her eyes danced.

"The twelfth;--that is, there'll be a--pause, then."

"Well, I'm thankful if--eh?" broke off the man, with a sudden change of
manner. "What do you mean by 'a pause'?"

Billy cast down her eyes demurely.

"Well, of course _this_ ends the twelfth with Marie's wedding; but
I've sort of regarded it as an--understudy for one that's coming next
October, you see."

"Billy, you darling!" breathed a supremely happy voice in a shell-like
ear--B