Two days later they gathered around Margaret, keen for the exciting revelations that they felt sure were awaiting them. Margaret had resumed her sphinxlike attitude of mystery and would reveal no clue to what she had discovered. When they were settled and quiet, Alexander remarked:
"Go ahead, kid! Shoot! Get it off your mind!" And smiling indulgently on him, Margaret began:
"You remember where we left off in the other half of the journal—a sentence just stopped in the middle. It was this:—'For Madame M. will accept naught from him and—' Now, on this first page, she completes it. And, by the way, I had the worst time puzzling out that first page! It was so stained and faded and torn. Sometimes I wasn't even sure I was getting it right. But I guess now I have it correct. She goes on to finish:
"—yet I scarce could tell him so. He must have guessed my predicament, for he only smiled and said it was of no moment. An she would not care for it, I might keep it for myself. 'Twas rarely kind in him. I long to tell him about myself, but I dare not—not yet.
"Then comes a break. Now she says:
"His lady did pass me to-day, walking in the garden; and since the high shrubbery screened us, I curtesied deeply to her. I scarce dare notice her when any of the household are by. She looked at me long, then spoke me fair, asking had she not met me before she came here. I answered, yes, the day her coach broke down on the road last year, and I helped to hold the frightened horses while 'twas mended. She did thank me anew, and asked me what it was I was about to tell her then, when Madame M. had dragged me suddenly away. I replied that I dared not repeat it there, but would seek some chance to speak with her alone when we did have more time and were not observed. Then I heard footsteps approaching, and I fled quickly away."
"Wonder what it could have been that she was trying so hard to tell Lady Washington!" sighed Corinne. "This doesn't grow any less mysterious, apparently! Go on, Margaret!"
"Another break, then she says:
"I have at last learned what is this wicked plot—"