When the horse ceased running Billy must also have lifted her down. The next thing she was conscious of was hearing him say:
“I don’t think you need be frightened, Vera; she has not really fainted.”
Billy Gave an Upward Leap
Then Mrs. Burton discovered that she was seated on the ground with her back against a tree, and with her riding hat dangling rakishly over one eye. Above her a girl whom she had never seen before was anxiously bending.
Without making an effort to speak until the pain in her side grew less severe and her breathing more natural, Polly at once tried to straighten her hat.
But Billy continued to talk as if nothing unusual had occurred and as if his aunt could give him her undivided attention.
“I have been thinking the matter over, Tante, and I want to explain something to you,” he said as he made a slight movement with his hand toward the girl. “This is Vera Lageloff, a friend of mine. I took your money before you had a chance to give it to me because Vera’s people needed it and I knew it would be useless to ask father. I hope you will pardon me. I suppose it was not square. Vera’s father is one of my father’s farmers, who has been working a part of our land on shares. He has not been straight or industrious and father has asked him to go. Of course, he had to find some other place to go, but he had no money and there are several other children. Vera told me that he had a chance, if he could only get the money for a railroad ticket, but had to have it at once. I had been to their house the night I met you. I did not tell them at home, because father does not like my interfering with his working people. And he does not trust Vera’s father. I don’t trust him, either, but I don’t wish his children to suffer. Do you?”
Billy had at last concluded his speech.
While he was talking it occurred to his aunt, who was accustomed to having a good deal of attention paid to her health, and indeed to all her concerns, that her nephew was but little interested in her accident. But then he was never interested in anything which he considered unessential. Nevertheless, there was something about this youthful Billy Webster, which made him difficult to answer readily. If he was not going to become a socialist or an anarchist, at any rate he was a law unto himself.