billy

"Anne," said Jane, still more solemnly, "what do you think of my brother Billy?"

Certainly she did not DISlike Billy. But could the indifferent tolerance with which she regarded him, when he happened to be in her range of vision, be considered positive enough for liking?

"A husband!" Anne had been sitting up in bed, the better to wrestle with the problem of her exact opinion of Billy Andrews.

No, she, Anne Shirley, was lying there, wide awake, in her own bed, and Jane Andrews was beside her, calmly proposing for her brother Billy. Anne did not know whether she wanted to writhe or laugh; but she could do neither, for Jane's feelings must not be hurt.

"Billy has always been far too shy to think of courting.

"I told Billy I didn't believe it was a bit of use to ask you, but he insisted.

They had dinner in the open-air, tree-walled dining-room, and Saxon noted that it was Billy who paid the reckoning for the four.

And Saxon, talking little but studying Billy Roberts very intently, was satisfied that there would be an utter difference in the way he would do such things .

"Oh, out it," Billy said quickly, a cloud-rift of displeasure showing in his eyes.

"Why, Billy Roberts, people don't talk about such things."

"An' if you keep on, Mary, you'll have me blushing," Billy growled.

"Come on, Mary, an' be good, an' cut that stuff," was Billy's dismissal of her, as he turned to Saxon.