THE COURT OF APPEAL
It was not until after they had gone, when Kit was by herself, that she remembered all Billie had told her, at the very last of his stay.
They had walked along the lake shore together, a little behind the others, after the Beaubien family had been visited.
"You haven't told me anything at all," Kit said, "about home. When were you in Gilead last?"
"Just before we came west," Billie answered.
"Was everything all right?" Billie hesitated. "Oh, for heaven's sake, Billie, tell me if there is anything. You can't give me any nervous shocks at all, and I'm dying to find an excuse to get back home."
"Why, there isn't anything the matter, exactly," Billie said, cheerfully, but with a certain reservation in his tone, that made Kit long to get him with a good grip in his curly hair and shake him the way she used to do two years ago. "The only thing that I know about, I heard grandfather telling Uncle Jerry. I don't suppose I ought to repeat it either."
"Billie, I wish I could shake you right here by the Michigander sea. How dare you keep back any news of my family from me?"
"It was something about there not being any more dividends until after the war, on some stock. I guess it hit grandfather, too, but I heard him say that there wasn't a farm up there that couldn't support itself, properly run, and he guessed they'd all weather the storm."
Kit frowned heavily.