Meanwhile Teddy and Billie had dropped Vi at her house and had turned down the broad, elm-shaded street on which stood the Bradley home.
For some reason or other they did not talk very much. They did not seem to find anything to say. Billie had never been alone like this with Teddy before, and she was wondering why it made her tongue-tied.
“I say, Billie,” began Teddy, clearing his throat and looking down at her sideways—for all the world, as Billie thought, as if she were a mouse trap and might go off any minute—“is it really settled that you are going to start day after to-morrow?”
“Yes. And isn’t it wonderful?” cried Billie, finding her voice as the blissful prospect opened up before her again. “I’ve never stayed at the seashore more than a day or two, Teddy, in my life, and now just think of spending the whole summer there. I can’t believe yet that it isn’t a dream.”
“You want to be careful,” said Teddy, staring straight before him, “if you go in bathing at all. There are awfully strong currents around there, you know.”
“Oh, of course I know all about that,” returned Billie, with the air of one who could not possibly be taught anything. “Connie says her Uncle Tom knows of a darling little inlet where the water’s so calm it’s almost like a swimming pool. Of course we’ll do most of our swimming there. Oh, Teddy, you ought to see my new bathing suit!” She was rattling on rapturously when Teddy interrupted with a queer sort of question.
“Who is this Uncle Tom?” he asked, still staring straight ahead.
“Why, he’s Connie’s uncle, of course! The keeper of the light on Lighthouse Island,” answered Billie, as surprised as if he had asked her who Abraham Lincoln was. “Connie says he’s a darling——”
“Is he married?”
“Why no. That is, I don’t think so,” answered Billie, knitting her brows in an effort to think whether Connie had ever said anything on this point. She had never even thought to ask if “Uncle Tom” was married. “Why, no, of course he can’t be,” she answered herself and Teddy at the same time. “If he was married he wouldn’t be living in that old lighthouse all alone. And Connie said he did live there all alone. I remember that.”