"Now with your usual propensity for doing stupid things, you have drawn us into a fine entanglement," scolded Beatrice, as they reached the sidewalk. "I never heard of anything so arrogant in my life as his asking if he might return the call. And it was not your place to give him permission, either. You quite forget you are my younger sister." "I think him extremely courteous and high-bred," returned Miss Billy with spirit, "and his asking to call upon us was a delicate and kind thing to do, under the circumstances. But don't let us quarrel about him, Bea. How old do you suppose he is? I think he can't be over twenty-one,--but his grave manners make him appear older." "I have no suppositions whatever upon such a subject," said Beatrice loftily. "But at least, you cannot deny he is a gentleman?" Beatrice raised her pretty eyebrows. "Into that I shall not inquire. It is enough for me that he is a relative of Mr. Schultzsky's." CHAPTER XVI THE CHILD GARDEN "As I went up Pippin Hill Pippin Hill was dirty." "NO, I will not," said Beatrice decidedly. "But the children will be so disappointed. They will have their reports all ready, and there will be almost no one here to hear them. Neither mother nor father can be present. And the little ones are so fond of you." Even this mixture of pathos and diplomacy failed to touch Bea's flinty heart. "I don't wish to be here," she replied. "But you said last night you would." "That was before I knew you were going to invite every Tom, Dick and Harry in the neighbourhood." Miss Billy was roused immediately. "I suppose by that you mean Mr. Francis Lindsay," she said with spirit; "I invited him here on purpose. I want to be especially nice to him just because you were so mean and sniffy to him the night of our call. That was my blunder, and you needn't empty the vials of your wrath on him. He was as gentlemanly and pleasant as he could be, and did his very best to make us forget that we were two girls calling upon a boy. Besides, he is interested in this kind of work--he told me so himself. And the children all adore him,--and mother said I might." The speaker paused, breathless. "It is none of my affair whom you choose to invite to the house," said Beatrice coldly. "But I prefer not to see him." "All right, don't, then," retorted Miss Billy wrathfully. "I'll ask Marie Jean, instead. She'll be glad to come, I guess. But I don't understand you at all, Bea. It isn't like you to be so petty and small." Beatrice walked away without another word, and Miss Billy marched defiantly to the Hennesy fence, and vaulted lightly over. It was wicked of Miss Billy, for she knew that this tomboyish expression of independence would be most irritating to Beatrice. Marie Jean Hennesy, sitting with her embroidery on the back porch, looked amazed at the breathless apparition which appeared over the fence.