"Your old friend,
"Jo Poker,
("Joseph T. Middleton.")
"Mother! Mother!" cried Mary Lee. "Oh, it's wonderful! Only a fairy tale could turn out so beautifully. How shall we tell them?"
"Them?"
"Why yes. Oh, don't you see? The señorita is Mr. St. Nick's granddaughter."
"Why Mary Lee. Of course. I didn't take it in at first. It is wonderful."
"I am so excited I can scarcely breathe. Where are Nan and Aunt Helen? we must tell them first. Nan will be simply wild. Oh, you dear Jo Poker, I hope you're in heaven with your little Pepita." She ran from the room to find Nan and Miss Helen to whom the marvelous news must be told. Then all four gathered in Mrs. Corner's room where the letter was re-read and discussed.
"It has been Mary Lee's theory all along," said Nan. "I pooh-poohed it, but she has said a dozen times that it might be so. One time we thought Jo Poker himself might be Miss Dolores' father, but I am glad enough he was not. Mary Lee has just dinged and dinged at this for weeks and I think she ought to have the honor of telling the señorita."
"I think so, too," agreed Miss Helen, and Mrs. Corner echoed her.
"Oh, how shall I begin?" said Mary Lee.
"Ask her what her cousin's last name was, and then tell her Jo Poker's story; after that it will be easy to work around to her own," suggested Nan.