the dinner was all that trif had promised, and the guests were in high spirits, although some of them had believed in advance that it would be almost like a funeral feast, for were there not two blocks of stock which would not go out of the minds of at least two of the party?
good manners prevented any show of sadness, and good company soon did the rest. there was an abundance of merry chat, and the host and hostess, with harry and fenie, encouraged the admiral and jermyn to tell stories of field and flood, of which civilians seem never to tire, so it was not until late in the evening that the party arose from the table. then the ladies were begged for music, and the officers were coaxed to sing, and time flew so rapidly that it was almost midnight when the guests said they must take their leave, and trif murmured that trixy ought to have been put to bed hours before, but the dear child had been so quiet that her mother had scarcely known she was present.
"i dislike to bring up unpleasant subjects on such an occasion," said phil, "but before we separate i must express my great sorrow and [pg 236]mortification at the loss of those pictures. i never before had so serious an accident, and i wish it were in my power to make some reparation."
"there is one way in which you can do it, my dear sir," replied the admiral.
"what? do name it and it shall be done."
"it is merely this. kindly persuade your wife to re-write, from memory, and on the same kind of paper, if possible, the letter which, through my stupidity, has caused all the trouble. have her write it with the same kind of ink; then give the letter to me!"
"i'll do it at once," said trif.
"and you'll show me the letter?" added kate.
"not for worlds!" answered trif, with a laugh and a blush that made kate still more curious.
"what then?" asked phil.
"then," said the admiral, firmly, "i shall duplicate my pencil sketch upon the back of it; jermyn shall duplicate his on the back of the written page, and i shall file both as vouchers."
"a most brilliant plan!" exclaimed phil. "eh, jermyn?"
"brilliant enough," was the reply, "but i don't entirely like it. my friend, the admiral, is the most honest man alive, yet to me the plan seems very like forgery."
"oh, not at all!" said phil. "a man can't forge his own writing or drawing. besides, there's no question of morals involved. the company is willing to give the stock, in payment for services rendered, the services made by you [pg 237]gentlemen, showing how to get water to property which would be worthless without it. no other man, should he find the originals, can possibly present them or use them in any way, for he would not know what they signified, nor could he find any one but the existing company who could apply them to the property in question. neither of you have talked of the matter elsewhere?"
"i don't believe," said the admiral, with a long sigh, a shake of the head, and a reminiscent wink at jermyn, "that any matter which affected business has ever been kept close by two men—eh, jermyn?"
"quite right, admiral. still, as to duplicating my sketch——"
"you can't prevent me, at least," the admiral replied, "so i shall beg mrs. highwood to re-write the letter at once. if jermyn chooses to throw away fifty thousand dollars—oh, miss trewman, you have more influence over him than any one else; do reason with him. better still, command him. don't let him throw good money to the dogs."
"what dogs? who's throwin' money to 'em?" drawled trixy, who had begun to fall asleep.
"mr. jermyn, my dear, is doing it," said phil, "and all because your own father stupidly lost a couple of pictures."
"gracious!" exclaimed the child, yawning and rubbing her eyes.
"what shall i do, my dear?" asked jermyn, as kate turned an anxious face toward him. "the money, should i get it, will be practically yours; that is, it will enable me to support my wife far better than my unaided salary will."
the admiral, fenie and harry looked intently at kate. trif, at a table in the sitting room, had been writing rapidly with her husband looking over her shoulder. when she had finished phil took the pen and did something to the letter, at which trif nodded approvingly and then slyly drew phil's face down to her and kissed it. then she tore the two leaves of the sheet apart, and gave one to each of the despoiled men, saying,
"admiral, this is the portion which you used. jermyn, this is yours. kate, have you brought him to his senses?"
"shall i?" asked jermyn.
"yes," said kate, "if you think it right."
"but i don't."
"then you shan't" exclaimed kate, snatching the paper from him. "no one shall ever blame you, though, for 'tisn't you who are throwing away the money; it is i."
she stepped quickly toward the grate, extended her hand, stopped, turned her head and said:
"as some reward for my self-sacrifice, mayn't i read the letter before i burn it?"
"you poor child!" murmured trif.
"what? was it as bad as that?"
"look at it, kate," said phil, "and you will know what trif means."
in a second kate was under the chandelier and turning the sheet, but as she looked her face became blank, for phil, supposing the paper was to go into the hands of a lot of business men, had penned over every line so skillfully, after the manner of commercial correspondents who make erasures in letters, that not a word of the original writing was decipherable.
"you shall know it all, you dear disappointed girl," said trif. "i shall tell you every word of it this very evening—this very moment. come with me; i know the others will excuse us under the circumstances."
together they started to leave the room, but encountered trixy, who was just entering.
"i most forgot about that s'prise," said the child to jermyn, as she stopped before him. "the dinner was so good, and you folks talked so much, that i didn't get a chance to say nothin', and then i got sleepy while you was singin', and i'd have forgot all about it entirely if you hadn't begun to talk about throwin' money to dogs, and papa explained how it was."
then she raised both hands high in the air and shouted:
"here's your old pictures."
"come on, boys," shouted the admiral, springing forward, and snatching both sketches. he explained afterward, very sheepishly, that he believed his mind had been weakened by long anxiety about those sketches, for he imagined himself young again, and taking part in a landing party in mexico.
"oh, trixy," exclaimed trif, snatching her child into her arms, "you naughty, precious, dreadful, blessed, awful, angelic, terrible, lovely darling!"
"jermyn!" exclaimed kate, and jermyn opened his arms, while fenie gasped "harry!" and harry made haste to support her. the ladies being thus disposed of, the admiral and phil could only shake hands, which they did with a vigor that made each man wince. finally phil said:
"my dear, will you kindly stop kissing that child long enough for me to ask her a question? trixy, where did you get those sketches?"
"why, i found out that 'twas you that took one of 'em out of my scrap-book, and i thought it was just one of your tricks, so i'd play one on you, and the first thing i knew i got the chance, 'cause a lot of papers fell out of a coat of yours on a chair, and there was one of the pictures on the outside of a letter, and 'twas my own picture, so i took it, and afterwards i found there was one somethin' like it on the inside part of the letter, and i was goin' to tell you, some time, how nicely i had tricked you. then i heard a lot of talk about pictures that the admiral and mr. jermyn wanted, and i thought mebbe i had 'em, and i knew mamma was goin' to have both of the gentlemen here to dinner in a day or two, and i thought i'd keep the s'prise till then, when there'd be more people to laugh at it."
"suppose," said trif with frightened eyes, "that i had set the dinner for to-morrow instead of to-day!"
"but you didn't, my dear madam," said the admiral. "all the world loves a lover, and i devoutly believe heaven does too. suppose [pg 241]that you had put trixy to bed at the usual hour!"
"oh, don't!"
"let me see the sketches, admiral," said kate. she looked at them carelessly, turned them over, and said:
"trif, the writing on this page has been erased. may i read it?"
"yes, dear, if you will take it into the next room."
kate was absent several moments—a long time, jermyn said, to read what his own eyes had seen at a glance, but when she returned she embraced trif effusively and jermyn told himself that kate's eyes were most angelic when they were dewy.
there was a double wedding in june, and the admiral, by permission of both families, gave away both brides. trixy strewed flowers in front of each couple as they walked up the aisle of the church, and she looked and felt as important as if she were both brides. neither couple asked her to be their guest on their wedding journey, which she thought rather strange, in view of their extreme affection for her, and her mother had much difficulty in explaining. both brides, however, had her visit them soon afterward, and for so long a time that trif began to complain that she had no daughter.
