"He probably finds a moment now and then for that purpose," laughed Billy. "Oh, I don't mean that he doesn't think of me! Of course he does that all the time. I mean that he must have little time for writing." "You must feel very sure of him when you say he thinks of you all the time. How often have you thought of him since he left?" asked Billy. "Once," replied the girl, smiling and blushing. "Do you mean all the time?" queried Billy. She nodded her head. "Yes, all the time. Oh, Billy Little, you won't mind if I tell you about it, will you? I must speak--and there is no one else." "What is it you want to say, Rita?" he asked softly. "I hardly know--perhaps it is the great change that has taken place within me since the night of Scott's social and the afternoon I shot Doug Hill. I seem to be hundreds of years older. I must have been a child before that night." "You are a child now, Rita." "Oh, no," she replied, "trouble matures one." "But you are not in trouble?" "N-o--" she answered hesitatingly, "but--but this is what I want to say. Tell me, Billy Little, do you think anything can come between Dic and me? That is the thought that haunts me all the time and makes me unhappy." "Do you feel sure of Dic?" asked Billy. "Indeed, I do," she replied; "I am as sure of him as I am of myself." "How about that fellow in there?" asked Billy, pointing toward the house with his thumb. "How? In what way?" inquired the girl. "Don't you find him interesting?" asked Billy. For reply she laughed softly. The question was not worth answering. The bachelor heart had felt a strong twinge of jealousy on Williams's account, because it knew that with wealth, an attractive person, and full knowledge of the world, Williams would, in the long run, prove a dangerous rival to any man who was not upon the field. The fact that Rita dismissed him with a laugh did not entirely reassure the bachelor heart. It told only what was already known, that she loved Dic with all the intensity of her nature. But Billy also knew that many a girl with such a love in her heart for one man had married another. Rita, he feared, could not stand against the domineering will of her mother; and, should Williams ply his suit, Billy felt sure he would have a stubborn, potent ally in the hard Chief Justice. There was, of course, an "if," but it might easily be turned into a terrible "is"--terrible for Billy, Dic, and Rita. Billy had grown used to the thought that Rita would some day become Dic's wife, and after the first spasm of pain the thought had brought joy; but any other man than Dic was a different proposition, and Billy's jealousy was easily and painfully aroused. He endured a species of vicarious suffering while Dic was not present to suffer for himself. Soon he began to long for Dic's return that he might do his own suffering.