Certainly it seems so now," he finished.
Billy was silent.

She was trying to find something, _anything_, to say, when Arkwright began speaking again, still in that dull, hopeless voice that Billy thought would break her heart.
"As for the 'Mary Jane'-- that was another foolishness, of course.

My small brothers and sisters originated it; others followed, on occasion, even Calderwell.

Perhaps you did not know, but he was the friend who, by his laughing question, 'Why don't you, Mary Jane ?' put into my head the crazy scheme of writing to Aunt Hannah and letting her think I was a real Mary Jane.

You see what I stooped to do, Miss Neilson, for the chance of meeting and knowing you." Billy gave a low cry.