[Frontispiece: It came to the last round. I put down my card. The Queen of Hearts. Good omen, eh? (Page 21)] THE GIRLS AT HIS BILLET By BERTA RUCK (MRS. OLIVER ONIONS) Author of "His Official Fiancee," "In Another Girl's Shoes," "The Wooing of Rosamond Fayre," Etc. WITH FRONTISPIECE By E. C. CASWELL A. L. BURT COMPANY Publishers New York Published by Arrangement with Dodd, Mead & Company COPYRIGHT, 1916 DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY, INC. CONTENTS CHAPTER I The Hen-Party II The "Boy at Last" III The Incubus in the House IV The Strange Case of Mr. Curtis V The New Interest VI The Disgraceful Party VII The Lonely Subaltern Again VIII The Frightful Row IX Another Shock! X The Zeppelin Night XI The Making of a Man-Hater XII The Anything-But-Joy Ride XIII The Search for the Bride XIV Mostly About Relations XV The Bride Writes Home XVI Something Quite Unexpected XVII An Evening of Thrills XVIII A Day of Despair XIX Out of Danger XX I Play Providence XXI Nancy to the Rescue XXII Two More Engagements XXIII The Visit XXIV A Middle-Aged Romance XXV Love's New Name THE GIRLS AT HIS BILLET CHAPTER I THE HEN-PARTY Imagine three really pretty girls like ourselves--and then this hole of a place that we live in! Oh, dear! Why on earth did we have parents who disapproved of early marriages? They married early enough themselves, goodness knows. Father was twenty-one, and had only just taken on the big yacht-building business in this place. Mother was seventeen. A whole year younger than I am now, if you please. (I am what they called at school "a precocious eighteen.") Just because I've read a lot, and thought a good deal about what I've read. But what price Mother's precocity? which really seemed to be a distinct success. I know she and our good-looking Dad were awfully fond of each other, and awfully happy for the ten years of their married life. So why on earth did they make that absurd stipulation in their will? That has been at the root of all our troubles! Why did they say that Aunt Victoria (Mrs. Verdeley) was to take charge of their three daughters (that's us) "until they arrived at the age of twenty-five, in order that the said daughters may not plunge recklessly into the dangers of a too early marriage"? Since this was what they wished (for Evelyn, Nancy and me to remain old maids until we are twenty-five) they've certainly done the right thing in sending us to live here. Let me try to describe the sweet spot. Imagine a village, a God-forsaken village on the bleakest part of the East Coast of England. Imagine mud flats and wind-swept marshlands, and a sea that crawls out over miles and miles of shore that looks like nothing on earth but sheets and sheets of wet brown paper.