“Billy!” she exclaimed, “Are these your cigars?”
“Why, say!” he said, after one glance at her face on which suspicion was but too plainly imprinted. “Those are cigars, aren’t they? That’s a whole box of cigars, isn’t it?”
“It is,” said Mrs. Fenelby, severely, “and I found it in your room. I don’t remember having received any duty on a box of cigars, Billy. I hope you were not trying to smuggle them in. I hope you were not trying to rob poor, dear little Bobberts, Billy.”
Billy held the nozzle limply in one hand and let the stream pour wastefully at his feet.
“That box of cigars—” he began weakly. “That box of cigars, the box you found in my room, well, that is a box of cigars. You see, Mrs. Fenelby,” he continued, cautiously, “that box of cigars was up there in my room, and—Now, you know I wouldn’t try to smuggle anything in, don’t you? Now, I’ll tell you all about it.” But he didn’t. He looked at the box thoughtfully. He saw now that he had been silly to buy a whole box. A man should not buy more than a handful at a time.
“Well?” said Mrs. Fenelby, impatiently.
“Isn’t that the box you bought when you went over to the station with Tom this morning?” asked Kitty, sweetly. “You brought back a box when you returned you know.”
Billy turned his head and glared at her. But she only smiled at him. He did not dare to look Mrs. Fenelby in the eye.
“Tom smokes a great deal, doesn’t he?” Kitty continued lightly. “I wondered when you brought that box of cigars back with you if he hadn’t asked you to bring them over for him. That was what I thought the moment I saw you with them.”
“Why, yes, of course,” said Billy, with relief. “That was how it was. I—I didn’t like to say it, you know,” he assured Mrs. Fenelby, eagerly, “I—I didn’t know just how Tom would feel about it. Tom will pay the duty. When he comes home this evening. He couldn’t come home from the station—and miss his train—and all that sort of thing—just to pay the duty on a box of cigars, could he? So I brought them home. It is perfectly plain and simple! You see if he doesn’t pay the duty as soon as he gets in the house. Tom wouldn’t want to smuggle them in, Mrs. Fenelby. You shouldn’t think he would do such a thing. I’m—I’m surprised that you should think that of Tom.”