"I promise, Billy, kid."
"Promise you won't say a thing until I speak."
"I won't say a thing until I can't help it, but what good will that do?"
"Let's be happy while we can," returned Billy, with a pretty evasion. "We have one more day."
"Oh, Billy," whispered the Watermelon.
Billy turned and led the way up the path to the house while the Watermelon picked up the two suit-cases and followed her.
At the house they found the general with his usual inability to conceal a thing, explaining that they had no money, but wished to have a two-seated team and a driver to take them to the nearest town.
The farmer did not hail the proposition with unalloyed joy. He looked thoughtfully from one to the other while Bartlett explained earnestly who he was, who the general was, who they all were, in a vain attempt to undo the general's commendable, if mistaken, frankness. Upon promising to let the driver keep his watch as a guaranty of good faith, to be returned when the money they were to telegraph for arrived, Bartlett persuaded the man to give in and go to the barn for the horses.
Billy drew her father aside, while the general, Henrietta and the Watermelon retired discreetly to the well for a drink.
"Father," said Billy, coming directly to the point and evading it with a skill that befitted her father's daughter. "Jerry wants to marry me. Oh, father, I love him so. I love him as much as you do Henrietta."