t," sighed the woman, with a shake of her head.

"The worst of it! Aunt Hannah, what do you mean? Don't you like Billy?"

"Yes, yes, William, of course I like Billy. I love her! Who could help
it? That's not what I mean. It's of Billy I'm thinking, and of the rest
of you. She can't stay here like this. She must go away, to school,
or--or somewhere."

"And she's going in September," replied the man. "She'll go to
preparatory school first, and to college, probably."

"Yes, but now--right away. She ought to go--somewhere."

"Why, yes, for the summer, of course. But those plans aren't completed
yet. Billy and I were talking of it last evening. You know the boys are
always away more or less, but I seldom go until August, and we let Pete
and Dong Ling off then for a month and close the house. I told Billy I'd
send you and her anywhere she liked for the whole summer, but she says
no. She prefers to stay here with me. But I don't quite fancy that
idea--through all the hot June and July--so I don't know but I'll get a
cottage somewhere near at one of the beaches, where I can run back and
forth night and morning. Of course, in that case, we take Pete and Dong
Ling with us and close the house right away. I fear Cyril would not
fancy it much; but, after all, he and Bertram would be off more or less.
They always are in the summer."

"But, William, you haven't yet got my idea at all," demurred Aunt
Hannah, with a discouraged shake of her head. "It's away!--away from all
this--from you--that I want to get Billy."

"Away! Away from me," cried the man, with an odd intonation of terror,
as he started forward in his chair. "Why, Aunt Hannah, what are you
talking about?"

"About Billy. This is no place in which to bring up a young girl--a
young girl who has not one shred of relationship to excuse it."

"But she is my namesake, and quite alone in the world, Aunt Hannah;
quite alone--poor child!"

"My dear William, that is exactly it--she is a child, and yet she is
not. That's where the trouble lies."

"What do you mean?"

"William, Billy has been brought up in a little country town with a
spinster aunt and a whole good-natured, tolerant village for company.
Well, she has accepted you and your entire household, even down to Dong
Ling, on the same basis."

"Well, I'm sure I'm glad," asserted the man with genial warmth. "It's
good for us to have her here. It's good for the boys. She's already
livened Cyril up and toned Bertram