He rather thought it would.

She was stooping a little over the flour barrel, and her back was toward him.
More daring than he would have believed of himself, he reached out his arms and caught her to him, and--It was not Flora at all.

It was Mama Joy.
"Oh, I--I beg your pardon--I--" stammered Billy helplessly.
"Billy! You're a bad boy; how you frightened me!" she gasped, and showed an unmistakable inclination to snuggle.
Charming Billy, looking far more frightened than she, pulled himself loose and backed away.

Mama Joy looked at him, and there was that in her eyes which sent a qualm of something very like disgust over Billy, so that in his toes he felt the quiver.
"It was an accident, Mrs.Bridger," he said laconically, and went out hastily, leaving her standing there staring after him.
Outside, he twitched his shoulders as if he would still free himself of something distasteful.

"Hell! What do I want with _her_ ?" he muttered indignantly, and did not stop to think where he was going until he brought up at the stable.