t forgotten Billy's surprised: "Why, Bertram, don't
you like Mary Jane?" and he did not like to call forth a repetition of
it. Abruptly, therefore, he changed the subject. "By the way, what did
you do to Pete to-day?" he asked laughingly. "He came home in a seventh
heaven of happiness babbling of what an angel straight from the sky Miss
Billy was. Naturally I agreed with him on that point. But what did you
do to him?"

Billy smiled.

"Nothing--only engaged him for our butler--for life."

"Oh, I see. That was dear of you, Billy."

"As if I'd do anything else! And now for Dong Ling, I suppose, some
day."

Bertram chuckled.

"Well, maybe I can help you there," he hinted. "You see, his Celestial
Majesty came to me himself the other day, and said, after sundry and
various preliminaries, that he should be 'velly much glad' when the
'Little Missee' came to live with me, for then he could go back to China
with a heart at rest, as he had money 'velly much plenty' and didn't
wish to be 'Melican man' any longer."

"Dear me," smiled Billy, "what a happy state of affairs--for him. But
for you--do you realize, young man, what that means for you? A new wife
and a new cook all at once? And you know I'm not Marie!"

"Ho! I'm not worrying," retorted Bertram with a contented smile;
"besides, as perhaps you noticed, it wasn't Marie that I asked--to marry
me!"

CHAPTER XI. A CLOCK AND AUNT HANNAH

Mrs. Kate Hartwell, the Henshaw brothers' sister from the West, was
expected on the tenth. Her husband could not come, she had written, but
she would bring with her, little Kate, the youngest child. The boys,
Paul and Egbert, would stay with their father.

Billy received the news of little Kate's coming with outspoken delight.

"The very thing!" she cried. "We'll have her for a flower girl. She was
a dear little creature, as I remember her."

Aunt Hannah gave a sudden low laugh.

"Yes, I remember," she observed. "Kate told me, after you spent the
first day with her, that you graciously informed her that little
Kate was almost as nice as Spunk. Kate did not fully appreciate the
compliment, I fear."

Billy made a wry face.

"Did I say that? Dear me! I _was_ a terror in those days, wasn't I?
But then," and she laughed softly, "really, Aunt Hannah, that was the
prettiest thing I knew how to say, for I considered Spunk the top-notch
of desirability."

"I think I should have liked to know Spunk," smiled Marie from the othe