"You better tell Tabitha—" began Toady in genuine solicitude; but Billiard again misconstrued his brother's meaning, and interrupted, "Aw, shut up! Let a feller alone for once, can't you?" And as Billiard wriggled into bed, puzzled Toady lapsed into silence.
Tabitha, too, was puzzled by the older boy's actions. She had hoped that the poisoning of his brother would awake his better nature if nothing else would, so she was keenly disappointed, as well as surprised, at the change which now took place in him.
"It seems so strange," she confided to Gloriana. "He acted so terribly cut up the day he brought Toady home sick, that I thought it would cure him of his mean mischief, at least. But now he seems bent on trying to find the limit of human endurance—doubling his mischief and being more aggravatingly hateful than ever."
"Perhaps he is getting even for Toady's reform," suggested the red-haired girl, looking worried.
"Toady—bless the boy!" exclaimed Tabitha fervently. "I should go wild if he had taken the streak Billiard has."
"And yet I can see how provoking it must be to Bill——"
"Why, Gloriana!"
"I mean that Toady's declaration of independence would naturally rouse Bill's 'mad,' as Rosslyn says, when Toady had blindly followed his leadership for so long. And besides, the way Toady flaunts his virtues in his brother's face——"
"That is rather amusing, isn't it?"
"Provoking? I should, say! Billiard has been used to saying the word and Toady has obeyed. It's rather a—a—jar, to be defied, or ignored all of a sudden. Bill is bright——"