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021 - Billy Takes Her Turn at Questioning · Miss Billy Married

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  Speaker 1: Chapter twenty one of Miss Billy Married. This is a
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
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  Speaker 1: For more information or a volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
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  Speaker 1: Recording by Phil Schinever. Miss Billy Married by Eleanor H. Porter,
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  Speaker 1: Chapter twenty one, Billy takes her turn at questioning. Arkwright
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  Speaker 1: did not call to see Alice Greggory for some days.
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  Speaker 1: He did not want to see Alice. Now. He told
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  Speaker 1: himself wearily that she could not help him fight this
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  Speaker 1: tiger skin that lay across his path. The very fact
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  Speaker 1: of her presence on his side would indeed incapacitate himself
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  Speaker 1: for fighting. So he deliberately stayed away from the annex
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  Speaker 1: until the day before he sailed for Germany. Then he
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  Speaker 1: went out to say goodbye. Chagrined as he was at
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  Speaker 1: what he termed his imbecile stupidity in not knowing his
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  Speaker 1: own heart all these past months, and convinced as he
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  Speaker 1: also was, that Alius and Calderwell cared for each other,
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  Speaker 1: he could see no way but for him to play
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  Speaker 1: the part of a man of kindliness and honor, leaving
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  Speaker 1: a clear field for his preferred rival and bringing no
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  Speaker 1: shadow of regret to mar the happiness of the girl
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  Speaker 1: he loved. As for being his old, easy, frank self
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  Speaker 1: on this last call, however, that was impossible, So Alice
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  Speaker 1: found plenty of fuel for her still burning fires of suspicion,
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  Speaker 1: fires which had indeed blazed up anew at this second
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  Speaker 1: long period of absence on the part of Arkwright. Naturally, therefore,
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  Speaker 1: the call was anything but a joy and comfort to
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  Speaker 1: either one. Arkwright was nervous, gloomy, and abnormally gay by turns.
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  Speaker 1: Alice was nervous and abnormally gay all the time. Then
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  Speaker 1: they said good bye, and Arkwright went away. He sailed
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  Speaker 1: the next day, and Alice settled down to the summer
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  Speaker 1: of studying hard work she had laid out for herself.
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  Speaker 1: On the tenth of September, Billy came home. She was brown, plumped, cheeked,
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  Speaker 1: and smiling. She declared that she had had a perfectly
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  Speaker 1: beautiful time, and that there couldn't be anything in the
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  Speaker 1: world nicer than the trip she and Bertram had taken
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  Speaker 1: just they two together. In answer to Aunt Hannah's solicitous inquiries,
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  Speaker 1: she asserted that she was all well and rested now,
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  Speaker 1: but there was a vaguely troubled questioning in her eyes
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  Speaker 1: that Aunt Hannah did not quite like. Aunt Hannah, however,
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  Speaker 1: said nothing even to Billy herself about this. One of
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  Speaker 1: the first friends Billy saw after her return was Hugh Calderwell.
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  Speaker 1: As it happened, Bertram was out when he came, so
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  Speaker 1: Billy had the first half hour of the call to herself.
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  Speaker 1: She was not sorry for this, as it gave her
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  Speaker 1: a chance to question Calderwell a little concerning Alice Greggory,
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  Speaker 1: something she had long ago determined to do at the
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  Speaker 1: first opportunity. Now tell me everything, everything about every body,
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  Speaker 1: she began, diplomatically, settling herself comfortably for a good visit.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you, I'm well and have had a passively agreeable summer,
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  Speaker 1: barring the heat, sundry, persistent mosquitoes, several grievous disappointments, and
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  Speaker 1: a fullon on my thumb. He began with shameless imperturbability.
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  Speaker 1: I have been to Revere once, to the circus once,
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  Speaker 1: to Nantasqua three times, and to Keith's and the movies
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  Speaker 1: ten times. Perhaps to be accurate, I have also, But
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  Speaker 1: perhaps there was someone else you desire to inquire for.
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  Speaker 1: He broke off, turning upon his hostess a bland but
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  Speaker 1: unsmiling countenance. Oh no, how could there be twinkled Billy? Really, Hugh?
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  Speaker 1: I always knew you had a pretty good opinion of yourself,
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  Speaker 1: but I didn't credit you with thinking you were everybody.
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  Speaker 1: Go on, I'm so interested, Hugh chuckle softly, but there
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  Speaker 1: was a plaintive tone in his voice as the end answered. Thanks, No,
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  Speaker 1: I've rather lost my interest now. Lack of appreciation always
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  Speaker 1: did discourage me. We'll talk of something else, please. You
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  Speaker 1: enjoyed your trip very much. It just couldn't have been nicer.
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  Speaker 1: You were lucky. The heat here has been something fierce.
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  Speaker 1: What made you stay? Reasons too numerous and one too
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  Speaker 1: heartbreaking to mention. Besides, you forget with dignity. There is
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  Speaker 1: my profession. I have joined the workers of the world,
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  Speaker 1: now you know, oh fudge, Hugh laughed. Billy, you know
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  Speaker 1: very well your as likely as not to start for
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  Speaker 1: the ends of the earth tomorrow morning. Hugh drew himself up.
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  Speaker 1: I don't seem to succeed in making people understand that
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  Speaker 1: I'm serious, he began, aggrievedly. I with an expressive flourish
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  Speaker 1: of his hands. He relaxed suddenly and fell back in
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  Speaker 1: his chair. A slow smile came to his lips. Well, Billy,
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  Speaker 1: I'll give up, you hit it, he confessed. I have
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  Speaker 1: thought seriously of starting to morrow morning for half way
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  Speaker 1: to the ends of the earth Panama. You well, I have.
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  Speaker 1: Even this call was to be a good bye if
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  Speaker 1: I went. Oh Hugh, But I really thought, in spite
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  Speaker 1: of my teasing, that you had settled down this time. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: so did, I sighed the man a little soberly. But
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  Speaker 1: I guess it's no use, Billy. Oh, I'm coming back,
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  Speaker 1: of course, and link arms again with their worthy highnesses
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  Speaker 1: John Doe and Richard Doe. But just now I've got
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  Speaker 1: a restless fit on me. I want to see the
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  Speaker 1: wheels go round. Of course, if I had my bread
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  Speaker 1: and butter and cigars to earn, twould be different. But
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  Speaker 1: I haven't, and I know I haven't, and I suspect
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  Speaker 1: that's where the trouble lies. If it wasn't for those
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  Speaker 1: natle silver spoons of mine that Bertram is always talking about,
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  Speaker 1: things might be different. But the spoons are there and
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  Speaker 1: always have been, and I know they're all ready to
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  Speaker 1: dish out mountains to climb and lakes to paddle in anytime.
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  Speaker 1: I have a mind to say the word, So I
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  Speaker 1: just say the word, that's all. And you said it now, Yes,
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  Speaker 1: I think so for a while, and those reasons that
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  Speaker 1: have kept you here all summer, ventured Billy. They aren't
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  Speaker 1: in a commission any longer. No, Billy hesitated, regarding her
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  Speaker 1: companion meditatively. Then, with the feeling that she had followed
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  Speaker 1: a blind alley to its termination, she retreated and made
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  Speaker 1: a fresh start. Well you haven't yet told me everything
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  Speaker 1: about everybody, you know, she hinted smilingly. You might be
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  Speaker 1: in that, I mean the less important everybody's, of course,
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  Speaker 1: now that I've heard about you, meaning oh, Aunt Hannah,
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  Speaker 1: and the Gregory's, and Cyril and Marie and the twins,
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  Speaker 1: and mister Arkwright and all the rest. But you had letters, surely, yes,
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  Speaker 1: I've had letters from some of them, and I've seen
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  Speaker 1: most of them since I came back. It's just that
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  Speaker 1: I wanted to know your viewpoint of what's happened through
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  Speaker 1: the summer. Very well. Aunt Hannah is as dear as ever,
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  Speaker 1: wears just as many shawls, and still keeps her clock
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  Speaker 1: striking twelve when its half past eleven. Missrs Greggory is
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  Speaker 1: just as sweet as ever, and a little more frail.
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  Speaker 1: I fear bless her heart. Mister Arkwright is still abroad,
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  Speaker 1: as I presume you know. I hear he is doing
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  Speaker 1: great stunts over there, and we'll sing in Berlin and
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  Speaker 1: Paris this winter. I'm thinking of going across from Panama later.
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  Speaker 1: If I do, I shall look him up. Mister and
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  Speaker 1: missus Cyril are as well as could be expected when
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  Speaker 1: you realize that they haven't yet settled on a pair
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  Speaker 1: of names for the twins. I know it in the
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  Speaker 1: poor little things three months old too. I think it's
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  Speaker 1: a shame you've heard the reason, I suppose. Cyril declares
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  Speaker 1: that naming babies is one of the most serious and
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  Speaker 1: delicate operations in the world, and that, for his part,
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  Speaker 1: he thinks people ought to select their own names when
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  Speaker 1: they've arrived at years of discretion. He wants to wait
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  Speaker 1: till the twins are eighteen and then make each of
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  Speaker 1: them a birthday present of the name of their choosing. Well,
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  Speaker 1: if that isn't the limit left, called dewell. I've heard
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  Speaker 1: some such thing before, but I hadn't supposed it was
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  Speaker 1: really so. Well, it is. He says he knows more
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  Speaker 1: tomboys and enormous fat women called Grace and Lily, and
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  Speaker 1: sweet little mouselike ladies staggering along under a sonorous Jerusale
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  Speaker 1: Theodosia or Zebniah Jane, and that if he should name
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  Speaker 1: the boys Friends and Felix after Schubert and Mendelssohn, as
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  Speaker 1: Marie wants to, they'd as likely as not turn out
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  Speaker 1: to be men who hated the sound of music and
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  Speaker 1: doted on stocks and dry goods. Und De Caldowell. I
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  Speaker 1: saw Cyril last week and he said he hadn't named
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  Speaker 1: the twins yet, but he didn't tell me why. I
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  Speaker 1: offered him two perfectly good names myself, but he didn't
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  Speaker 1: seem interested. What were they? El Dodd and Bill Dodd?
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  Speaker 1: Hugh protested Billy, Well, why not, bridled the man. I'm
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  Speaker 1: sure those are new and unique and really musical too,
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  Speaker 1: way ahead of your friends and Felix. But those aren't
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  Speaker 1: really names, indeed they are. Where did you get them
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  Speaker 1: off our family tree though their Bible names? Bell says,
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  Speaker 1: perhaps you didn't know, but sister Bell has been making
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  Speaker 1: the dirt fly quite lively of late around that family tree.
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  Speaker 1: Of ours, and she wrote me some of her discoveries.
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  Speaker 1: It seems two of the roots are branches, say our
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  Speaker 1: ancestors roots or branches were called El Dodd and Bill Dodd.
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  Speaker 1: Now I thought those names were good enough to pass along.
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  Speaker 1: But as I said before, Cyril wasn't interested. I should
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  Speaker 1: say not, laughed Billy. But honestly, Hugh, it's really serious.
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  Speaker 1: Marie wants them named something, but she doesn't say much
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  Speaker 1: to Cyril. Marie wouldn't really breathe, you know, if she
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  Speaker 1: thought Cyril disapproved of breathing. And in this case, Cyril
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  Speaker 1: does not hesitate to declare that the boys shall name themselves.
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  Speaker 1: What a situation, laughed Calderwell, isn't it? But do you
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  Speaker 1: know I can sympathize with it in a way, for
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  Speaker 1: I've always mourned so over my name. Billy was always
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  Speaker 1: such a trial to me. Poor Uncle William wasn't the
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  Speaker 1: only one that prepared guns and fishing rods to entertain
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  Speaker 1: the expected boy. I don't know, though, I'm afraid if
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  Speaker 1: I'd been allowed to select my name, I should have
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  Speaker 1: been a Helen Clarabella all my days, for that was
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  Speaker 1: the name I gave all my dolls with first, second, third,
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  Speaker 1: and so on added to them for distinction. Evidently, I
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  Speaker 1: thought that Helen Clarabella was the most feminine appellation possible,
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  Speaker 1: and the most foreign to the despised Billy. So you see,
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  Speaker 1: I can sympathize with Cyril to a certain extent. But
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  Speaker 1: they must call the little chap something, now, argued Hugh.
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  Speaker 1: Billy gave a sudden merry laugh. They do, she gurgled.
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  Speaker 1: And that's the funniest part of it. Oh, Cyril doesn't.
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  Speaker 1: He always calls them impersonally. They are it. He doesn't
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  Speaker 1: see much of them anyway. Now I understand. Marie was
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  Speaker 1: horrified when she realized how the nurses had been using
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  Speaker 1: his din as a nursery annex and she changed all
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  Speaker 1: that instanter when she took charge of things again. The
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  Speaker 1: twins stay in the nursery, now, I'm told. But about
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  Speaker 1: the names, the nurses, it seems have got into the
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  Speaker 1: way of calling them dot and dimple. One has a
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  Speaker 1: dimple in his cheek and the other is a little
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  Speaker 1: smaller of the two. Marie is no end distressed, particularly
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  Speaker 1: as she finds that she herself calls them that, And
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  Speaker 1: she says, the idea of boys being dot and dimple.
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  Speaker 1: I should say so, laughed Calderwell. Not I regard that
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  Speaker 1: as worse than my el Dodd and Bill Dodd. I
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  Speaker 1: know it. And Alice says, by the way, you haven't
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  Speaker 1: mentioned Alice, but I suppose you see her. Occasionally Billy
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  Speaker 1: paused in evident expectation of a reply. Billy was in
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  Speaker 1: fact quite pluming herself on the adroit casualness with which
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  Speaker 1: she had introduced the subject nearest her heart. Calderwell raised
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  Speaker 1: his eyebrows. Oh, yes, I see her, but you hadn't
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  Speaker 1: mentioned her. There was the briefest of pauses. Then, with
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  Speaker 1: a half quizzical dejection, there came the remark, you seem
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  Speaker 1: to forget. I told you that I stayed here this
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  Speaker 1: summer for reasons too numerous and one too heartbreaking to mention.
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  Speaker 1: She was the one you mean, Yes, the usual thing.
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  Speaker 1: She turned me down. Oh, I haven't asked her yet
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  Speaker 1: as many times as I did you. But Hugh Hugh
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  Speaker 1: tossed her a grim smile and went on imperturbably. I'm
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  Speaker 1: older now, of course, and no more. Perhaps Besides, the
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  Speaker 1: finality of her remarks was not to be mistaken. Billy,
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  Speaker 1: in spite of her sympathy for Calderwell was conscious of
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  Speaker 1: a throb of relief that at least one stumbling block
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  Speaker 1: was removed from Arkwright's possible pathway to Alice's heart. Did
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  Speaker 1: she give any special reason? Hazarded Billy a shade too anxiously. Oh, yes,
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  Speaker 1: she said she wasn't going to marry anybody, only her music. Nonsense,
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  Speaker 1: ejaculated Billy, falling back in her chair a little. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: I said that, too, gloomed the man. But it didn't
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  Speaker 1: do any good. You see, I had known another girl
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  Speaker 1: who said the same thing once. He did not look up,
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  Speaker 1: but a vivid red flamed suddenly into Billy's cheeks, and she,
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  Speaker 1: when the right one came forgot all about the music
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  Speaker 1: and married the man. So I naturally suspected that Alice
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  Speaker 1: would do the same thing. In fact, I said so
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  Speaker 1: to her. I was bold enough to even call the
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  Speaker 1: man by name. I hadn't been jealous of Arkwright for nothing,
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  Speaker 1: you see. But she denied it and flew into such
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  Speaker 1: an indignant allegation that there wasn't a word of truth
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  Speaker 1: in it that I had to sue for pardon before
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  Speaker 1: I got anything like peace. Oh, said Billy in a
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  Speaker 1: disappointed voice, falling quite back in her chair this time.
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  Speaker 1: And so that's why I'm wanting, especially just now, to
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  Speaker 1: see the wheels go round smile, called Owell a little wistfully. Oh,
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  Speaker 1: I shall get over it. I suppose it isn't the
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  Speaker 1: first time I'll own, but some day, I take it
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  Speaker 1: there will be a last time. Enough of this, however,
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  Speaker 1: you haven't told me a thing about yourself. How about it?
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  Speaker 1: When I come back? Are you going to give me
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  Speaker 1: a dinner cooked by your own fair hands? Going to
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  Speaker 1: still play bridget? Billy laughed and shook her head. No,
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  Speaker 1: far from it. Eliza has come back, and her cousin
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  Speaker 1: from Vermont is coming a second girl to help her.
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  Speaker 1: But I could cook a dinner for you if I
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  Speaker 1: had to, now, sir, and it wouldn't be potato mush
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  Speaker 1: and coal lamb, she bragged shamelessly, as there sounded Bertram's
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  Speaker 1: particular ring and the click of his key in the lock.
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  Speaker 1: It was the next afternoon that Billy called on Marie.
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  Speaker 1: From Marie's. Billy went to the annex, which was very
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  Speaker 1: near Cyril's new house, and there, in Aunt Hannah's room,
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  Speaker 1: she had What she told Bertram afterwards was a perfectly
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  Speaker 1: lovely visit. Aunt Hannah too, enjoyed the visit very much,
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  Speaker 1: though yet there was one thing that distir the vaguely
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  Speaker 1: troubled look in Billy's eyes, which today was more apparent
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  Speaker 1: than ever. Not until just before Billy went home did
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  Speaker 1: something occur to give Aunt Hannah a possible clue as
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  Speaker 1: to what was the meaning of it. That's something was
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  Speaker 1: a question from Billy Aunt Hannah. Why don't I feel
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  Speaker 1: like Marie did? Why don't I feel like everybody does?
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  Speaker 1: In books and stories, Marie went around with such a detached,
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  Speaker 1: heavenly absorbed look in her eyes before the Twins came
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  Speaker 1: to her home. But I don't. I don't find anything
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  Speaker 1: like that in my face when I look in the glass,
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  Speaker 1: and I don't feel detached and absorbed in heavenly. I'm happy,
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  Speaker 1: of course, but I can't help thinking of the dear,
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  Speaker 1: dear times Bertram and I have together, just we two,
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  Speaker 1: and I can't seem to imagine it at all with
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  Speaker 1: a third person around Billy. Third person indeed, there I
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  Speaker 1: knew to shock you more in to Billy, it shocks me.
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  Speaker 1: I want to feel detached and heavenly and absorbed, But Billy, dear,
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  Speaker 1: think of it calling your own baby a third person.
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  Speaker 1: Billy sighed despairingly. Yes, I know, Anne, I suppose I
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  Speaker 1: might as well own up to the rest of it too.
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  Speaker 1: I'm actually afraid of babies, Aunt Hannah. Well I am,
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  Speaker 1: she reiterated, in answer to Aunt Hannah's gasp of disapproval.
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  Speaker 1: I'm not used to them at all. I never had
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  Speaker 1: any little brothers and sisters, and I don't know how
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  Speaker 1: to treat babies. I'm always afraid they'll break or something.
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  Speaker 1: I'm just as afraid of the twins as I can be.
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  Speaker 1: How Marie can handle them and toss them about as
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  Speaker 1: she does. I don't see toss them about. Indeed, well
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  Speaker 1: it looks that way to me, sighed Billy. Anyhow, I
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  Speaker 1: know I could never get to handle them like that,
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  Speaker 1: and that's no way to feel. And I'm ashamed of
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  Speaker 1: myself because I can't be detached and heavenly and absorbed,
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  Speaker 1: she added, rising to go. Everybody always is, it seems,
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  Speaker 1: but just me fiddle de dee, my dear, scoffed Aunt Hannah,
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  Speaker 1: patting Billie's downcast face. Wait till a year from now,
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  Speaker 1: and we'll see about that third person. Bugaboo you're worrying about.
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  Speaker 1: I'm not worrying now, so you'd better not. End of
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  Speaker 1: chapter twenty one