“No, no. I mean it has seemed an infernal long time since the ‘Comet’ pulled up down there in the road and you lagged behind.”
“Not ten minutes.”
“I guess it would have seemed long to you if you had been sitting here since eight a. m. watching every vehicle that passed. Not long ago a big black car stopped down there and I was pretty sure it had come to fetch me.”
He gave her one of his ingratiating smiles.
“Who was it?” asked Billie.
“I don’t know. They saw the doctor for a minute and then went on. But I don’t want to talk about them. Why didn’t you hurry?”
“I always heard that sick men were children,” laughed Billie, “and I can see that you are quite ill because you are such a child. We shall take you home now and feed you up on cream and eggs, providing we can get any.”
Billie was glad to see Dr. Hume again. They clasped hands like old comrades. There was a peculiar radiance in his brown eyes as he looked at her.
“You’ve had a great honor paid you, Miss Billie,” he said.
“What in the world?”