“Well, we may be doing her the most awful injustice,” Gay said, “but Lorna and I have been wondering if there _is_ a Bill. We wonder if Henrietta is n't just pretending there is a Billy Vane--and all.”
Freeman seemed more bored than interested.
“Why should she pretend a thing like that--a crazy thing like that?” he asked indifferently.
“Don't you know how girls love to wear rings on their engagement fingers?” asked Gay. “It's that sort of thing, Lorna and I think. It gives her a romantic hue. She thinks it makes us feel she is fortunate. Is n't it killing!”
Freeman looked at the ants scurrying across the walk at his feet.
“I don't know anything about it,” he said. “You girls may have seen a lot I never saw.
You would n't think of such a thing unless you had some reason. How about all the presents she says he sends her?”
“We think she buys them herself,” Gay said. Freeman turned his hand and looked at his long, well-kept nails.
“Do you remember the silver-backed hand mirror Billy Vane sent her? With her monogram engraved on it?”
“All right! Johnnie Alberson ordered that for her from Chicago. I saw it when it came and I saw her when she came into the store to pay the bill.”
“Why, Freeman Todder! And you just this minute said you didn't know anything about it!”
“About there being no Billy Vane,” he explained. “There might be a Billy Vane who did not do his duty in the way of presents. He might be a close-fist. Your Henrietta might be afraid you would think he was a cheap skate if presents did not come along regularly.”
“Yes,” she said, after a moment, “that might be, but we suspected there was no Billy before we thought of the presents at all. Of course, the presents she has to buy explain why she never has any money--why she is always borrowing--but that is not all. You won't say a word, will you, Freeman?”
“No. It don't interest me at all,” he said. Miss Redding, rosy-cheeked, came to the door then, and tinkled a small supper-bell. Gay, with an exclamation, jumped up and went to find Lem and Lorna and the promised flowers, and Freeman Todder picked up his hat and cane. He hung the hat on the rack in the hall and stood his cane in the umbrella jar and then climbed the stairs. As he reached the top Henrietta Bates's door opened and she came out. They met just outside her door and she slipped something into his hand.