The next afternoon Mr. Prescott sent the auto for Aunt Mary and Miss King, and they both came.
Billy had never seen Aunt Mary look so well. She had on a lavender and white striped muslin, with white lace and some tiny black velvet buttons on it. Uncle John liked to have her wear lavender.
Miss King had on a pretty white dress, a different kind from what she wore in the office. Her hat was white, trimmed with blue, and her white silk gloves went up to her elbows.
Billy took them out through the drawing-room balcony, and down the steps into the garden.
They didn’t talk very much while they walked around, but a great deal of politeness went on in the garden that afternoon.
Aunt Mary smiled and kept calling him “Billy.” He counted till he got up to ten times, then he was so busy showing them the flowers that he forgot to count.
When they went into the summer house where the waitress had set a little table, they all sat down on the same side. That brought Billy between Aunt Mary and Miss King.
He helped them to ice-cream and cakes. There really wasn’t much helping to do, for the ice-cream was made like strawberries, leaves and all, only each one was about three times as large as strawberries grow.
They sat there a long time, keeping on being polite; but not a bit of the politeness was wasted, for they were all very happy when they were through.
Then Mr. Prescott came in the auto. After Aunt Mary and Miss King had gone, Mr. Prescott said that he should like a strawberry, so Billy had a chance to be polite to Mr. Prescott, too.