Allys nodded to them gayly, as she asked: "Tim, have you come up to
break New York? I hear your stable will need a special car to take
home its money--after the Far and Near."

"Yessum, dat's so!" Tim said.

Amos scowled at him, but said to Allys, respectfully: "Please'um,
don't ax dat dar fool boy no mo' 'bout de Flower--hit's mighty bad
luck sayin' whut you _gwine_ do, ontwel you is done done it."

"Dar come Marse Billy Wickliffe--you kin ax him all you wanter." Tim
giggled, then clapped his hand over his mouth. Tim was
lathy--long-legged, long-armed, with an ashy-black complexion and very
big eyes. As he stood fondling the Flower's nose, he glared disdain of
all the other candidates, or, rather, of the knots of folk gathered
admiringly about them.

Allys turned half about--for two breaths at least she had a snobbish
impulse to overlook Billy and hurry away. Billy was tall, with a face
like a young Greek god--but how greet him there with the Hammond girl
to see, in a checked suit, patently ready-made, with the noisiest of
shirts, a flowing bright red tie, and a sunburned straw hat? If it
were only Adair, she would not mind--Hilary was, she knew, very much
more critical. She might have run away, but that she caught the
Hammond girl's look--amusement and satisfaction struggled through it,
although the young lady tried hard to mask them.

Allys turned wholly, holding out both hands, and saying: "Billy, by
all that's delightful! I've just been telling these people about you.
Come, show them I kept well within the truth."

Billy caught the outstretched hands, his heart so openly in his eyes
Hilary wanted to strangle him on the spot. The Hammond girl laughed,
and turned to whisper in Van Ammerer's ear. Adair, alone of the group,
shook hands. Although the others gave him civil, if formal, greeting,
Billy felt their hostility intuitively, and flung up his head like a
stag at bay.

"You got my note--have you done it yet?" he asked, bending over Allys
in a fashion that made Hilary's teeth set hard.

She laughed back at him: "Have you done it yet? Bet your whole fortune
on the Heathflower thing at a hundred to one?"

Billy nodded confidently. "That's just what I have done. Unc' Robert
was willin'--he thought as I did, such a little bit o' money was
better risked than kept."

"H'm! I hope you kept the price of a return ticket," Hilary said,
trying to speak jocularly. "Really, Mr. Wickliffe, you can't think
that u