The good-looking young woman poked her head in from the kitchen. "Winnie, you leave Towler be. You know he doesn't like to be teased. Why don't you go on giving Emmaline and Sally Jane their baths. There! Now, see what's happened—basin upset and water all over the floor. That's the third time to-day I've had to mop up after you."
Little Winnie was a damsel of parts. "I'm sorry, auntie. I'll mop up. Towler, you git."
Towler got. Winnie began to sop up the water with a floor rag which she wrung out in the washbasin.
"I'll finish giving you your bath, Sally Jane, soon as I get fresh water. Emmaline is nice and clean, but you're a dirty, dirty girl, Sally Jane."
Sally Jane! There it was again. Merely a coincidence, of course, but it was odd to run across this combination of proper names. Billy began to take more than a passing interest in the eight-year-old.
The little girl resumed her animated monologue. "I tell you what, Sally Jane, if you don't keep yourself cleaner, I'm gonna go back to calling you Maria again."
Then it was that the hunch came to Billy Wingo.
"Winnie," he said, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees and wearing his most engaging smile, "Winnie, that Sally Jane dolly is sure one fine-looking lady."
Winnie regarded him with an indulgent eye. "She's my favorite, Sally Jane is."
"Sally Jane is a pretty name too."