“What do you mean?” the others asked, more puzzled than ever by this flow of words.

“Why,” Billie went on to explain, glancing at the letter again, “Miss Beggs says that the statue had been broken before and she had attempted to mend it.  She says that I’m not to worry over it, for it would have been only a matter of time before it had fallen to pieces itself anyway.  Now what do you think of that?”

“I think,” said Violet, with a sigh, “that we have wasted a good deal of time and worry over nothing at all.”

“Well, I don’t see any use of looking doleful about it,” said Laura briskly.  “I should think you’d be glad, Billie, that you won’t have to buy a statue.  It will give you that much more money to have for yourself.”

“Oh, but I’ll buy a little statue, anyway,” said Billie decidedly.  “It’s awfully nice of Miss Beggs to tell me not to bother about it, but the fact is that I rebroke the statue, whether it was broken before or not.  And, anyway, I’ll be glad to do it now,” she added, with a little gleam in her eye, “just to show Amanda Peabody that I can!”

“I say, up there, aren’t you ever coming down?” called Chet’s voice from the bottom of the stairs, and Laura went out into the hall to see what he wanted.

“We’re making plans for the fall,” Chet added, and in his voice was a little joyous thrill that made Billie’s heart sing.  Dear old Chet—­if ever a boy deserved to get what he wanted, he did.  “And if you don’t come down and help us, we’re going to leave you out,” he added challengingly.

“Better come up here,” suggested Laura, adding decidedly.  “We can’t come down, you know.”

“I’d like to know why not!”

“We can’t leave the trunk,” Laura explained patiently, as if she were addressing a particularly stupid child.  “It’s too precious.”

So in the end the girls had their way, and the boys joined them in the upstairs room which came the nearest to being cheerful of any room in the house, except the kitchen.

At first the boys talked and the girls listened.  But gradually the bits of fancy work were laid aside, the girls joined in the conversation, while eyes shone bright and faces glowed with anticipation of what the autumn held in store for them.

And while Laura and Violet and the two boys were talking happily and all at once, Teddy took the opportunity to whisper in Billie’s ear: 

“I suppose, being a young lady with a large fortune,” he said teasingly, delighting in the color that rose to her face, “you won’t find time to recognize your old friends any more.”

And with a dimpling smile and mischief in her eyes Billie answered him.

“Of course not,” she said, adding a trifle more seriously:  “Except only the friends who stood by me so loyally and offered to help when I had no ‘large fortune,’”

“And are you going to tell me,” asked Teddy eagerly, “the names of those favored friends?  I know I didn’t do anything, Billie, but am I one of them?”