"Beside, Miss Blanche, you are labouring under a delusion. I assure you we enjoy our new home in Cherry Street."
"Oh, it's very pleasant," conceded Miss Blanche hastily. "By the way, what has become of that lovely little étagère of yours? I missed it the moment I stepped into the room."
Miss Billy threw patience and prudence to the winds. "It's stored in a storing-room," she declared. "The last time I saw it, there was a bird-cage and a foot-stool on top of it. We had to pack a good deal of our furniture. We haven't fourteen rooms now, you understand."
"Good-afternoon, ladies," said a voice in the doorway. It was Theodore, looking very mischievous. "I'm sorry I can't shake hands with you,—but I've been giving a hand in the erection of the conservatory on the south side—a fad of Miss Billy's."
Miss Billy gasped. A conservatory! He must mean the glass sash he had been fitting over the pansy bed!
"We've been at no end of trouble and expense since we moved here," went on Theodore. "You see it is the first 'place' we have really had. There's one hundred and fifty feet of ground here. Beatrice has planned for a sort of Southern California verandah from which she can serve afternoon teas, and mother wants the lawn wired with electricity for social purposes."
"How delightful," murmured the guests, looking a bit uncertain, while Miss Billy sat rigidly upright, trying in vain to catch Theodore's eye. Certainly, her mother had said that at the breakfast table, but it had been a joke, nothing more.
"I have a leaning toward an up-to-date stable and riding ponies, myself," went on Theodore airily, and looking at Miss Billy now as if to say: "No word of untruth in that!" "Still, there's the college grind to consider,—I shall be qualified next year, you know,—and a fellow gets precious little time for recreation."
"Are you—ah—still at Brown's drug store?" interpolated Miss Maude, looking mystified. "Sister Myrtle has spoken of seeing you there. The child thinks so much of you."
"And of ice-cream sodas," thought Theodore grimly. "Yes," he said aloud, "Mr. Brown wanted me to help him out on Saturdays for a little while. He's in the church, you know. But I shall give it up when vacation comes."