Erminie was the first to speak. “Billy, I can’t tell you how sorry I am for that break.”
“I’m glad.”
“It’s something terrible. Jim’ll make you pay for it,—me too, for he isn’t above hurting a girl; but I deserve it, and—”
Billy turned, quickly moving closer. “Erminie, you must not worry about this thing any longer. He’ll have to reckon with me on more than one count. I—hoped to get through the year without a clash, but I see it’s bound to come; when it does I’ll get in your score too.”
“No, no, Billy! You mustn’t fight him! He’ll say things, do things that will lose Hector the vote because you are his cousin. He’ll—” She broke off suddenly and covered her face with her hands.
Billy reached over and drew one hand down in his own. “Erminie!” His voice was tender. “I can’t let you worry about this. You must tell me just why you are afraid of him, so I won’t be doing things in the dark.”
She lifted her face to the moonlight and sighed; and Billy thought she had never been so lovely, never so womanly. “Oh, Billy!” There was a catch in her voice that made his hand close quickly on hers. “Before I knew you I thought it great fun to be engaged to several boys at once—Jim was one of them. It was like a game, and—”
“Yes?” he prompted, and did not know that his grasp of her hand loosened.
“I’m ashamed to tell about it now, but I thought it all right then. I used to like to see how the different ones did it, to see if I could catch the difficult ones—” She stopped again, divining Billy’s disapprobation; but when he did not speak she continued:
“I thought it fun to watch them get jealous of each other; to plan to keep them apart or let them meet, whichever I was in the mood for at the time.”