Billy did not reply. For once Bess could not understand him, and was distressed. He was the playmate of her lifetime, the one boy comrade she had treated as frankly as a brother. But now she realized he had interests apart from hers, cared no longer for things she could share; and the knowledge hurt her.
“And then that Erminie Fisher! She’s no more to be compared with May Nell than—”
“Go easy, Bess. You saw that Miss Fisher went with me, didn’t you?” There was a look in his eye, a tone in his voice that chilled her, that added to her feeling of distance from him.
She glanced up almost shyly. “Then do you wish it to be ‘Mr. Bennett’ and ‘Miss Carter’ after this?”
“Oh, piffles, Bess! You’re always to the good. The reason I said that is because it makes me mad to hear every one say mean things of Erminie. She’s a lot better than—” He did not finish. An uncomfortable memory of her self-revelation during the night on the island told him why girls like Bess shunned her. But what she had said of her mother also came to him, and what he knew of her father. How could she be the sort of girl Bess was, whose parents were not only loving, but wise?
“Well, there must be something good about her, Billy, when you like her. But I can’t see how you can neglect May Nell for her.”
“I don’t neglect May Nell. But I am no J. Pierpont; I’ve got my living to earn. Do you suppose May Nell will want me ringing her door-bell after I don overalls and grease?”
“Will Erminie?”
“Yes.”
“Then she’s different from what I think. But anyway you won’t do that. You’ll do something splendid; something with your brains; or you’ll go out into the mountains or desert and juggle old lady Nature, and—”