It was the first of many similar expeditions. The chair was so light, and Theodora was so strong for her years, that it never tired her, while Billy soon discovered that "a walk" with Theodora was quite another thing from the dull and decorous outings when Patrick tooled him along through the town, in a solemnly respectful silence. With Teddy's hand on the bar of his chair and Teddy's chatter in his ears, in a week he learned more of the town than he had done in the past three months, and he came home, hungry and eager as a boy could be, full of blithe gossip and fun, to enliven his mother over the dinner-table. "Tell you what, it was a good day for us when we came here," he remarked, one night in December, when he and his mother were settled by the open fire in the library. His mother looked up from her book. "How do you mean?" "Everything, especially the Macs. There's Mrs. Mac for you, and Teddy for me. What more can you want?" "What about Hope?" "Hope is a stunner, only there's a sort of Sundayfied flavor to her. Theodora is better for every day. Hope goes with my best necktie; 'tisn't always that I am able to live up to her. Ted doesn't care whether I am sick or well, dressed up or rolled in a blanket; she sticks to me just the same. I say, mother?" "Well?" "Are we going down to New York, this winter?" "Not till later, unless you want to go. Aren't you feeling as well, Will?" This time, Mrs. Farrington threw aside her book and came forward to her son's side. Billy looked up at her with merry eyes which were the duplicate of her own. "How you do worry about me, mother!" he said. "I'm gaining, every day, and you ought to know it. I shall be walking soon. But you've been saying that we'd go down, some time after Christmas, and I wondered why we couldn't take Teddy along with us. I can't discover that she's ever been anywhere, and it's time she had a chance. Don't you think so?" Mrs. Farrington looked thoughtful. "I don't know but you're right, Will. I've been thinking I'd like to give her a little treat, if only because she has been so loyal to you. I had thought of something else; but if you think she'd like this better, we'll see about it. Would you rather have Teddy than Hubert?" "Yes, I like Ted better, even if she is a girl. Hubert has more variety, too, and wouldn't care so much about it." "Very well; I will see about it," Mrs. Farrington repeated. Her son looked up at her gratefully. "What a trump you are!" he said. CHAPTER SEVEN "Well, let's see." Teddy curled one foot under her, in the depths of the great easy-chair. "There must be two heroines, of course, and two,--no, three heroes." "What'll you do with the odd one?" Billy asked. "Kill him, to be sure." Theodora smacked her lips. "When the girl, his girl, you know, marries the wrong man, he will--" She paused and meditatively twisted the end of one of her long pigtails. "Will what?"