Mr. Fenelby hesitated.
"Of course," he whispered, "you won"t--That is to say, you needn"t tell Laura I went down--"
"Certainly not," whispered Billy. "It was awfully kind of you to think of it. But I"ll make this one do."
Mr. Fenelby waited at the door a moment longer as if he had something more to say, but Billy had closed the door, and he went back to his room.
It was with relief that Bridget heard the door close behind Mr.
Fenelby. She had been standing on the little landing of the back-stairs, where he had almost caught her as she was coming up. If she had been one step higher he would have seen her head. Usually she would not have minded this, for she had a perfect right to be on the back-stairs in the early morning, but this time she felt that it was her duty to remain undiscovered. Now that Mr. Fenelby was gone she softly stepped to Billy"s door and knocked lightly.
"Misther Billy, sor, are ye there?" she whispered. Billy opened the door a crack and looked out.
"Mornin" to ye," she said in a hoa.r.s.e whisper. "I"m sorry t"
disthurb ye, but Missus Fenelby axed me t" bring up th" collar ye left on th" porrch railin", an" t" let no wan know I done it, an" I just wanted t" let ye know th" reason I have not brung it up is because belike someone else has brang it already, for it is gone."
"Thank you, Bridget," whispered Billy. "It doesn"t matter."
She turned away, but when he had closed the door she paused, and after hesitating a moment she tapped on his door again. He opened it.
"I have put me foot in it," she said, "like I always do. W"u"d ye be so good as t" fergit I mentioned th" name of Missus Fenelby, that"s a dear man? I raymimber now I was not t" mention it t" ye."
"Certainly, Bridget," said Billy, and he closed the door and went again to the window, where he was turning his socks over and over in the streak of sunlight that warmed a part of the window sill.
It took the socks a little longer to dry than he had thought it would, and they were still damp enough to make his feet feel anything but comfortable when he heard the breakfast bell tinkle faintly. He hurried the rest of his toilet and went down the stairs, a.s.suming as he went the air of unsuspected innocence that is the inborn right of every man who knows he has done wrong. The bodily Billy was more conscious of the discomfort of his feet, but the mental Billy was all collar. He had never known a collar to be so obtrusive. He felt that he must seem all collar, even to the most casual eye, but he was upheld by the belief that no one would dare to mention collar to him in public. If he had sinned he was not the only sinner, for he was but a partner in conspiracy. He walked down the stairs boldly.
"And to think that his vanity should be the cause of robbing poor little Bobberts," he heard a clear voice say as he neared the dining room door. "It is too mean! I can never look up to man with the faith I have always had in man, after this. But I know they were his foot-prints, Laura."
"Are you so sure, Kitty?" asked Mrs. Fenelby. "Mightn"t they be--mightn"t they be Bridget"s?"
"They were not," said the voice of Kitty, and Billy paused where he was and stood still. "Bridget does not go about in the wet gra.s.s in her stocking feet. Those were Billy"s tracks on the porch. I am no Sherlock Holmes, but I can tell you just what he did. He stole down before we were awake, to look for that collar, and he did not find it on the railing where he had left it. Then he saw it where it had fallen and he went down on the wet lawn and got it. Watch him when he comes in to breakfast. He will be wearing a collar, and it will not be the one he wore last night."
Billy turned and tip-toed softly up the stairs again, undoing his tie as he went. When he came down his neck was neatly, but informally swathed in a white handkerchief. Three pairs of eyes watched him as he entered, but he faced them unflinchingly. Mr. and Mrs. Fenelby let their eyes drop before his glance, but Kitty met his gaze with a challenge. There was nothing of treachery in her face, and yet she had sought to betray him. He looked at her with greater interest than he had ever known himself to feel regarding any girl, and as he looked he had a startled sense that she was fairer than she had been, and he caught his breath quickly and began to talk to Mrs. Fenelby.
"Tom," he said, after breakfast, as Mr. Fenelby was getting ready to leave to catch his train, "I think I"ll walk over to the station with you. I have something I want to say to you."
"Come along," said Mr. Fenelby. "But you will have to walk quickly.
I have just time to catch my train."
"Did you notice anything peculiar about Miss Kitty this morning?"
asked Billy, when they had left the house.
"Peculiar?" said Mr. Fenelby. "No, I don"t think so."
"Well, I don"t want to make trouble, Tom," said Billy, "but I think I ought to speak about this thing. If it wasn"t serious I wouldn"t mention it at all, but I think you ought to know what is going on in your own house. I think you ought to know what kind of a girl Miss Kitty is, so that you can be on your guard. Now, you went down to get that collar for me, didn"t you?"
"I wish you wouldn"t mention that," said Mr. Fenelby with some annoyance.
"Oh, I know all about that," said Billy, warmly. "You say that because you don"t like to be thanked for all these nice, thoughtful things you do for a fellow. But I do thank you--just as much as if you had found the collar and had brought it up to me. That was all right. You would have paid the duty on it, and that would have been all right. But what do you think Miss Kitty did? Why do you think you could not find that collar? Do you know what she did? She brought that collar into the house--smuggled it in--and she had the nerve, the actual nerve, to give it to me. And I took it. I couldn"t do anything else, could I, when a girl offered it to me? I couldn"t say I wouldn"t take it, could I? I had to be a gentleman about it.
And then she tried to get me into trouble by telling you I would come down to breakfast wearing that collar. She tried to make out that I was a smuggler."
"I suppose it was just a bit of fun," said Mr. Fenelby. "Girls are that way, some of them."
"Well, I want it understood that that collar is in the house, and that I didn"t bring it in," said Billy, "and that if this Domestic Tariff business is to be carried out fairly it is Miss Kitty"s business to pay the duty on it. I want to set myself right with you.
But the thing I wanted to speak about was far more serious. Do you know what she had on this morning?"
"What she had on?" asked Mr. Fenelby. "What did she have on?"
"She had on a pink shirt-waist," said Billy fiercely. "That is what she had on. Right at breakfast there, in plain sight of everyone. A pink shirt-waist!"
"Well, that"s all right, isn"t it?" asked Mr. Fenelby, doubtfully.
"It"s proper to wear a pink shirt-waist at breakfast, isn"t it? I think Laura wears shirt-waists at breakfast sometimes. I"m sure it"s all right. An informal home breakfast like that."
"But it was pink," insisted Billy. "I looked right at it, and I know. Real pink. You wouldn"t notice it, because you are so honest yourself, and so confiding, but I noticed it the first thing. Now what do you think of your Miss Kitty? What do you say to that--a girl coming right down to breakfast in a pink shirt-waist, right before the whole family?"
"I--I don"t know what to say," faltered Mr. Fenelby, and this was the truth, for he did not.
"Well, what would you say if I told you that she had on a white shirt-waist last evening--a white one with fluffy stuff all around the collar?" asked Billy. "Wouldn"t you say that that proved it?"
"I don"t see anything wrong in that," said Mr. Fenelby. "What does it prove?"
"It proves that she has two shirt-waists," said Billy, seriously, "that is what it proves. Two shirt-waists, a white one and a pink one, one for dinner and one for breakfast. I don"t blame you for not noticing it, but I am strong that way. I notice colors and tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs and all that sort of thing. And I tell you she has two. I saw them both and I know it. If that isn"t serious I don"t know what is."
"Well?" said Mr. Fenelby.
"Well," echoed Billy, "she is only supposed to have one. She only paid duty on one, and she has two. That is what I call real smuggling. And n.o.body knows how many more she has. Dozens for all I know. Imagine her talking about my one poor old last year"s collar, and then flaunting around in two shirt-waists right before our eyes.
I call that pretty serious. I"m going to watch her. You can"t be here all day to do it, but I haven"t anything else to do, and I"m going to stay right around her all day and find out about this thing."
"If you don"t want to--" began Mr. Fenelby, remembering Billy"s protestations of dislike for girls.
"I"ll do my duty by you and Bobberts, old man," said Billy, generously.
"I was only going to say that Laura could look out for that sort of thing," said Mr. Fenelby. "I might say a word to her."
"Well, now, I didn"t like to bring that part of it up," said Billy, "but since you mention it, I guess I had better say the whole thing.
It isn"t natural that a woman shouldn"t notice what another woman has on, is it? They are all keen on that sort of thing. I don"t say Laura is standing in with Kitty on this shirt-waist smuggling. I suppose it worries her terribly to see Kitty smuggling clothes in right under her nose, but how can Laura say anything about it? Kitty is her guest, isn"t she? You leave it to me!"
Just then they reached the station and the train arrived and Mr.
Fenelby jumped aboard, and as it pulled out Billy turned and walked back to the house.
VI
BRIDGET
When the Commonwealth of Bobberts had adopted the Fenelby Domestic Tariff it had been Mrs. Fenelby"s duty to inform Bridget of it, and to explain it to her, and for two days Mrs. Fenelby worried about it. It was only by exercising the most superhuman wiles that a servant could be persuaded to sojourn in the suburb. To hold one in thrall it was necessary to practice the most consummate diplomacy.