“I know it was,” Kitty admitted frankly, “but you know how little we women can bring into the house. Hardly anything. We shop and shop, but we hardly ever really buy anything, and all the time I am just crazy to be paying duty, and to know whether it is ten per cent. or thirty per cent., and all that, as if I was a man, and so, when I happened to think of that collar that you had left down here on the porch railing, I saw it was my chance, and I decided to come down and get it and bring it into the house, so I could have the fun of paying the duty on it. So I came down and got it. And just as I reached the landing on my way up I met you, and I was so surprised that I just handed the collar to you.”
“Of course,” said Billy. “That was just the way it was, except that I had just reached the landing on my way up, when you handed me the collar. You couldn’t have just reached the landing, because if you had we would have been going up the stairs together, side by side, and we were not doing that. I was going up the stairs, and just as I reached the landing you came from somewhere and handed me the collar.”
“Isn’t that what I said?” asked Kitty sweetly. “It amounts to the same thing, anyway, doesn’t it? I had the collar, and you got it. I suppose you paid the duty on it?”
“Me?” said Billy. “Not much! I didn’t bring it into the house; you brought it in. You have to pay the duty.”
“I pay the duty on your collar?” laughed Kitty. “Well, I should think I would not! I went down and got it for you, and that was nothing but an act of kindness that anybody would do for anybody else. You can pay your own duties.”
“Oh, I sha’n’t pay a duty on it!” scoffed Billy. “I didn’t want the collar. I didn’t need it, and I refused to bring it into the house on principle. I don’t believe in tariff duties. I’m a free trader. I wouldn’t smuggle, and I wouldn’t pay duty, and so I left it outside. You should have left it there. You didn’t leave it there, and so it is your duty to pay the duty.”
“Never!” declared Kitty.
For a few minutes they were silent, and Billy looked glumly at the street. Then he cheered up suddenly. He looked at Kitty and smiled.
“I’ll tell you what let’s do!” he exclaimed. “Let’s go out under the tree and talk it over. We’ll go out under the tree and talk it all over. That is the only way we can settle it.”
“It is settled now,” said Kitty. “I don’t think it needs any more settling.”