"I am sure we would be justified," she rejoined. "But I am afraid Miss Hermione will find us out. Mr. Etheridge will tell her somebody meddled with the fastening."
"Let me take the letter to the hotel, and I will make that all right. It is not the first——" But here he discreetly paused, remembering that Doris was not yet quite ready to receive the full details of his history.
"But the time? It will take an hour to open and read all there is written here, and Miss Hermione is waiting for me to tell her that I have delivered it to Mr. Etheridge."
"Tell her you had other errands. Go to the stores—the neighbors. She need never know you delivered this last."
"But if you take it I won't know what is in it, and I want to read it myself."
"I will tell you everything she writes. My memory is good, and you shall not miss a word."
"But—but——"
"It is your only chance," he insinuated; "the young ladies will never tell you themselves."
"I know it; yet it seems a mean thing to do. Can you close the letter so that neither he nor they will ever know it has been opened?"
"Trust me," he leered.