the admiral worried himself almost sick over phil highwood's inability to find the missing sketches, and his condition of mind and body was not improved by a meeting which he had with the projector of the new mining company. that gentleman insisted that the sketches should be filed at once, for his promise from his fellow-incorporators had been merely verbal, and he warned the admiral that such promises were frequently ignored in business, and that he, the projector, would be powerless to force the matter should his associates vote against him.
the admiral explained the cause of the delay and the importance of the matter to jermyn in particular, and this affected the projector so strongly, he once having been a poor young man engaged to be married, that he succeeded in exacting from the directors a written promise that if the sketches were deposited with the company within three days from date the stock should be delivered; otherwise it would be disposed of elsewhere.
all this caused the old gentleman to once more speak to jermyn about the matter, and jermyn, noting the condition to which excitement had brought his friend, and not knowing that the admiral had already made a clean breast of the matter to the highwoods, one morning went to throw himself upon trif's mercy, but, as already intimated, he saw only fenie. he succeeded in telling her the story, but when he learned that the sketches had disappeared he became about as miserable as the admiral.
had he spoken when first the sketches were asked for, there would have been no trouble, he learned; he therefore reproached himself severely for his friend's sake and for kate's, and began wondering how he could ever make amends to the man who had done so much for him. as an army officer's opportunities for making fifty thousand dollars are practically non-existent, he became so moody that kate thought her suspicions about him and fenie were verified.
but kate was not going to lose a happy evening from the short remainder of jermyn's leave of absence, as she persisted in calling his assignment to duty at sandy hook. as she was going to be magnanimous, and had begun finely, she resolved to complete the task, so she exclaimed to jermyn suddenly one evening:
"my dear boy, i want you to stop thinking about that letter. don't start—nor ask me any questions. i'll promise to overlook it, and forget all about it, in the course of time, if you will be your old self once more."
"but i never can forget it," replied jermyn, "never! think of the cruelty of it, to you?"
"but if i ignore it, and cast it from my mind forever, why should you persist in cherishing it and being miserable about it?"
"why? because i am a man and love you."
"i shall love you the more, because you have been so miserable about the matter. won't that satisfy you?"
how grand a woman she was, jermyn thought! still, how could she have learned about that letter, and the drawings that made it so valuable? had the admiral told her, and asked her to add her entreaties to his own? trif could not have been the informer; she had every reason for avoiding the subject, in conversation with kate. kate had said he must not ask her how she learned about the tormenting paper; but suddenly he found out, or thought he did, for kate said:
"will it make your mind any easier to know that i have fully forgiven her?"
"then you really know all?" said he, looking into her eyes. he did it very coolly, in the circumstances, kate thought, but she was not going to recede a bit from the greatness of magnanimity upon which she had resolved, so she said:
"yes, all; but why should i harbor any ill feeling? besides, she is quite weak and silly. she will know more when she grows older."
"i am sorry to hear you speak of her in that way," said jermyn, gravely. "i had hoped that you and she would become very warm friends; indeed, i supposed you were so already."
kate darted a suspicious look at jermyn. was there duplicity in a man apparently so honest? if so, her faith in human nature would be forever lost.
"why do you wish us to be warm friends?" she asked, coldly. "so that you may frequently have her near you?"
jermyn looked amazed and indignant as he exclaimed:
"kate, i swear to you that the tender regard i once had for her is gone forever. do believe me."
"then it was not you who wrote the letter about which you and she have been so troubled about in the last few days?"
"i? why, you said you knew all about it! don't you know that she wrote it?"
"the forward minx!"
"i thought you said you had forgiven her?"
"i wish i hadn't! the idea of a girl as careful as fenie wardlow professes to be——"
"my dear girl, you've been dreadfully misinformed in some way. fenie didn't write the letter; 'twas her sister."
"jermyn!" exclaimed kate, utterly aghast. what was the world coming to? she had heard of married women who pretended to adore their husbands, and who intrigued with other men, but she supposed they were far from the society in which she moved. so it was trif and her—carelessness, call it, over which fenie had been so uncomfortable when kate called, a few hours back! oh, the wickedness of the world! whom now was there to trust?
"so," said kate, slowly and coldly, "it was a married woman, one whom i have respected and loved, who wrote you the letter which——"
"stop, kate—at once. there is a dreadful mistake somewhere. let us be entirely frank with each other, for the good of all concerned. the only letter about which i have had any discomfort is one which mrs. highwood wrote to her own husband."
"her own husband!" echoed kate, with a blank stare.
"yes. let us begin at the beginning, and get your mind out of this dreadful tangle. do tell me from whom, and how, you got your information about that unspeakably troublesome letter?"
"from trixy," answered kate, feebly; at which jermyn laughed heartily before he replied:
"i might have imagined it. the little marplot! now listen: the letter is one which mrs. highwood wrote her husband, from old point, on two subjects, one of which was very delightful, for it was you; i was the other. by an accident, which i will explain later, the letter fell into the admiral's hands, and he, not distinguishing it from several others which he took from his pocket an hour or two afterward, made a sketch upon the back of it; i, who chanced to be with him, made another. both sketches are now needed, at once, to perfect some business arrangements in which the admiral and i are greatly interested and by which we might profit greatly, but highwood, to whom his wife sent the letter when she regained it, has mislaid the sheet, or the two parts of it, and the admiral and i, as well as the entire highwood family, are greatly troubled about it."
"so is harry and fenie," said kate, as if talking to herself. "what an idiot i have been! how they will laugh at my expense! but oh, i am so happy, although i don't deserve to be, for i have been jealous, suspicious, hateful——"
"do restrain yourself, my dear girl."
"i've also been meddlesome," kate continued, "and impertinent, and, worse than all, inexpressibly stupid, on account of that dreadful letter. meanwhile, i am being heartless, for you said the loss of the letter was making trouble for you and the admiral. how much is the trouble—to you?"
"oh, merely fifty thousand dollars worth."
"jermyn! i supposed that i had promised to marry an army officer with nothing but his salary, and i was priding myself on marrying for love alone, without any of the sordid ideas which fill women's heads, as well as men's, in these selfish days, but you seem——"
"don't change your mind, i beg, for i am fully as poor as you thought me. i expect to be fifty thousand dollars better off if that letter with my sketch comes to light within a few hours; otherwise my entire fortune is the couple of thousand dollars i have saved."
kate smiled bravely and sweetly as she replied:
"please don't omit me, while you're giving an account of your possessions. not that i have any money, but——"
"bless you!" exclaimed jermyn, with the demonstration appropriate to the circumstances. there was a short silence, which kate broke by saying:
"i wonder what was in that letter about you and me."
jermyn did not answer.
"do you know?" kate asked.
"yes."
"then tell me."
"i can't, my dear—really i can't."
"do you think it right that either of us should keep anything from the other?"
"no; but a communication from a husband to his wife belongs only to the two—mr. and mrs. highwood."
"never mind. i shall know it all some day. fenie promised that i should."
"indeed? when is she to tell you?"
"after i am married."
"and you are very, very curious to know?"
"wildly so!"
"i can see but one way to assist you."
"what is it?"
"can't you imagine?"
"no. do tell me—at once."
jermyn took her hands in his and replied:
"'tis only this; get married as soon as possible. i shall soon be entitled to ask for two more weeks of absence, and then——"
"i shall be ready," said kate softly, yet with a look which made jermyn wonder how much happier a man could be without losing his senses.
"one thing i must do at once, though," said kate, suddenly regaining her alertness and self-control. "i must apologize abjectly to fenie for my shameful suspicion that she had been engaged in a flirtation with you. i must do it this very evening. please take me around there at once."
"and rob myself of one of my few remaining hours of bliss?"
"you must learn to be blissful while doing whatever i wish you to do."
fenie was so surprised by the communication which kate made that she did not think to be indignant; on the contrary, she laughed, which was the worst punishment she could have inflicted. meanwhile, trif was telling jermyn that he and kate must take dinner with her and phil the next night. the other happy couple would be present, so would the admiral, and the dinner would be the finest she had ever arranged.
"yes," said trixy, "there's to be ice-cream, and the other kind of ice, and mamma says i can eat a lot of both; and there's to be a s'prise, too."
trif nodded warningly at trixy. she could not remember which of her prospective dishes had been alluded to in family conversation as a surprise, yet she warned her daughter to be quiet.
"she doesn't mean the letter?" whispered jermyn.
"alas, no!" sighed trif. "how i wish it might be!"
