“Kitty? I think so. We want her to. But you needn’t bother about Kitty. She won’t bother you a bit. She’s the right sort, Billy. Not like Laura, of course, for I don’t believe there is another woman anywhere just like Laura, but Kitty is not the ordinary flighty girl. You should hear her appreciate Bobberts. She saw his good points, and remarked about them, at once, and the way she has caught the spirit of the Domestic Tariff that I was telling you about is fine! Most girls would have hemmed and hawed about it, but she didn’t! No, sir! She just saw what a fine idea it was, and when she saw that she couldn’t afford to have her three trunks brought into the house she proposed that she leave them at a neighbor’s. Did not make a single complaint. Don’t worry about Kitty.”
“That is all right about the tariff,” said Billy. “I can’t say I think much of that tariff idea myself, but so long as it is the family custom a guest couldn’t do any less than live up to it. But I don’t like the idea of having to spend a number of weeks in the same house with any girl. They are all bores, Tom, and I know it. A man can’t have any comfort when there is a girl in the house. And between you and me that Kitty girl looks like the kind that is sure to be always right at a fellow’s side. I was wondering if Laura would think it was all right if I stayed in town here?”
“No, she wouldn’t,” said Tom shortly. “She would be offended, and so would I. If you are going to let some nonsense about girls being a bore,—which is all foolishness—keep you away from the house, you had better—Why,” he added, “it is an insult to us—to Laura and me—just as if you said right out that the company we choose to ask to our home was not good enough for you to associate with. If you think our house is going to bore you—”
“Now, look here, old man,” said Billy, “I don’t mean that at all, and you know I don’t. I simply don’t like girls, and that is all there is to it. But I’ll come. I’ll have my trunk sent over and—Say, do I have to pay duty on what I have in my trunk?”
“Certainly,” said Mr. Fenelby. “That is, of course, if you want to enter into the spirit of the thing. It is only ten per cent., you know, and it all goes into Bobberts’ education fund.”
Billy sat in silent thought awhile.
“I wonder,” he said at length, “how it would do if I just put a few things into my suit-case—enough to last me a few days at a time—and left my trunk over here. I don’t need everything I brought in that trunk. I was perfectly reckless about putting things in that trunk. I put into that trunk nearly everything I own in this world, just because the trunk was so big that it would hold everything, and it seemed a pity to bring a big trunk like that with nothing in it but air. Now, I could take my suit-case and put into it the things I will really need—”
“Certainly,” said Mr. Fenelby. “You can do that if you want to, and it would be perfectly fair to Bobberts. All Bobberts asks is to be paid a duty on what enters the house. He don’t say what shall be brought in, or what shall not. Personally, Billy, I would call the duty off, so far as you are concerned, but I don’t think Laura would like it. We started this thing fair, and we are all living up to it. Laura made Kitty live up to it and you can see it would not be right for me to make an exception in your case just because you happen to be my brother.”
“No,” agreed Billy, “it wouldn’t. I don’t ask it. I will play the game and I will play it fair. All I ask is: If I bring a suit-case, do I have to pay on the case? Because if I do, I won’t bring it. I can wrap all I need in a piece of paper, and save the duty on the suit-case. I believe in playing fair, Tom, but that is no reason why I should be extravagant.”
“I think,” said Tom, doubtfully, “suit-cases should come in free. Of course, if it was a brand new suit-case it would have to pay duty, but an old one—one that has been used—is different. It is like wrapping-paper. The duty is assessed on what the package contains and not on the package itself. If it is not a new suit-case you will not have to pay duty on it.”