“Oh, yes, I do,” retorted Billy, airily. “I'm going to keep it up, and I want you here. “Fiddlededee, Billy! As if I'd let you keep up this house just for me,” scorned Aunt Hannah. “'Tisn't just for you. It's for--for lots of folks.” “My grief and conscience, Billy! What are you talking about?” Billy laughed, and settled herself more comfortably on the hassock at Aunt Hannah's feet. “Well, I'll tell you. Just now I want it for Tommy Dunn, and the Greggorys if I can get them, and maybe one or two others. There'll always be somebody. You see, I had thought I'd have them at the Strata.” “Tommy Dunn--at the Strata!” Billy laughed again ruefully. “O dear! You sound just like Bertram,” she pouted. “He didn't want Tommy, either, nor any of the rest of them.” “The rest of them!” “Well, I could have had a lot more, you know, the Strata is so big, especially now that Cyril has gone, and left all those empty rooms. _I_ got real enthusiastic, but Bertram didn't. He just laughed and said 'nonsense!' until he found I was really in earnest; then he--well, he said 'nonsense,' then, too--only he didn't laugh,” finished Billy, with a sigh. Aunt Hannah regarded her with fond, though slightly exasperated eyes. “Billy, you are, indeed, a most extraordinary young woman--at times. Surely, with you, a body never knows what to expect--except the unexpected.” “Why, Aunt Hannah!--and from you, too!” reproached Billy, mischievously; but Aunt Hannah had yet more to say. “Of course Bertram thought it was nonsense. The idea of you, a bride, filling up your house with--with people like that! Tommy Dunn, indeed!” “Oh, Bertram said he liked Tommy all right,” sighed Billy; “but he said that that didn't mean he wanted him for three meals a day. One would think poor Tommy was a breakfast food! So that is when I thought of keeping up this house, you see, and that's why I want you here--to take charge of it. And you'll do that--for me, won't you?” Aunt Hannah fell back in her chair. “Why, y-yes, Billy, of course, if--if you want it. But what an extraordinary idea, child!” Billy shook her head. A deeper color came to her cheeks, and a softer glow to her eyes. “I don't think so, Aunt Hannah. It's only that I'm so happy that some of it has just got to overflow somewhere, and this is going to be the overflow house--a sort of safety valve for me, you see. I'm going to call it the Annex--it will be an annex to our home. And I want to keep it full, always, of people who--who can make the best use of all that extra happiness that I can't possibly use myself,” she finished a little tremulously. “Don't you see?” “Oh, yes, I _see_,” replied Aunt Hannah, with a fond shake of the head.