e sudden departure of Bridget had upset the domestic affairs
somewhat, and Kitty and Mrs. Fenelby were busy in the kitchen, but
after the dishes were washed, and the rooms set to rights, and the
beds made, and Bobberts given his bath, Kitty came out. It had been
a long and tedious morning for Billy. There is nothing so helpless
as a detective who can't work at his business of detecting, and when
the job is to detect a pretty girl, and she won't show up, the
waiting is rather tiresome. At one time Billy was almost tempted to
go in and ask her to come out, and he would probably have gone in
and snooped around a bit, if she had not appeared just then.

Kitty came out with all the brazen effrontery of a hardened
criminal. That is to say she came out singing, and with her hair
perfectly in order, and looking in every way fresh and charming.
Billy recognized this immediately as the wile of a malefactor trying
to throw an officer of the law off the scent, but he was not to be
discouraged by it, and he jumped out of the hammock and went up to
her. She still wore the pink shirt-waist, and it was very becoming.
She looked just as well in it as if she had paid the lawful ten per
cent. duty on it. It is not the duty that makes that kind of a
shirt-waist pretty; it is the way it is made, and the trimming. The
girl that is in it helps some, too. It is a fact that a shirt-waist
looks entirely different on different girls. You have to consider
the girl and her shirt-waist together, as a whole or unit, if you
are going to be able to recognize it when you see it again, and
Billy was ready to consider it that way. If he ever saw that pink
confection with that saucy chin and merry face above it again he
meant to be able to recognize the combination. That is one of the
duties of a detective.

"Let's go out under the tree," he said, "and sit down, and--and talk
it over. I have something I want to talk about."

"Talk it over," said Kitty, lifting her eyebrows. "Talk what over?"

You couldn't nonplus Billy that way, when he was in pursuit of his
duty.

"Well," he said, "we--that is, I didn't thank you for bringing me up
that collar this morning. I want to thank you for it."

"Yes?" said Kitty. "Well, here I am. Thank me. You did thank me
once, but I don't care. Do it again."

"Thank you," said Billy.

"You're welcome," Kitty said, and then they both laughed.

"What do you think of this Domestic Tariff business?" asked Billy,
seekin