THE HEART’S DESIRE
“And what do you think of this, Nell? I’ve wormed out of Bill Kenmore the truth about that mean joke the boys played on us last spring when we were all at Jennie Stone’s. Excuse! I suppose I should say Madame Marchand’s. To think of Heavy Stone being an old married woman now!
“Well, Bill Kenmore always did have a crazy streak—and he wasn’t shell-shocked in France, either. You remember the time you went away down town in answer to a telegram, thinking it was somebody who needed you very much, and you walked into that place and found the boys all dressed up and ready to give you the ‘ha, ha!’?
“I know it got you awfully mad—and I don’t blame you. Chess was there, I know. But he didn’t even know what the row was all about. Bill engineered the whole thing, and he thinks still that it was an awfully good joke. His ideas of humor must have originated in the Stone Age.
“I made him tell me all about it, he thinking I would be amused. Then I turned him right out of our parlor and told him not to call again. I hear that he thinks I am a regular cat!
“But who wouldn’t be cattish with a fellow who has no more sense? Anyhow, we know the truth now. Perhaps Chess Copley is not very sharp, but I couldn’t think of his doing anything really mean. So now you know. If Chess is up there at the Thousand Islands you can tell him from me, at least, that ‘all is forgiven.’ Sounds like a newspaper personal, doesn’t it?”
Ruth stopped reading there, and looked brightly at her chum.
“What do you think of that?” asked the latter, wiping her eyes.
“Well, my dear, I shouldn’t cry about it,” said Ruth. “I think it is an occasion to be joyful.”