“There is no harm in answering the notice; it may mean something.”
“Why, of course it does,” cried Mr. Jessop, emphatically. “Get a pen, give me the infant, and write a line now, and I’ll post it.”
And Madeline accordingly sat down and wrote to Mrs. Harper on the spot, whilst her companions watched her in silence.
“Dear Mrs. Harper,
“I have seen your notice in the Times of to-day. My address is—2, Solferino Place, Westminster.
“Yours truly,
“M. W.”
She was so accustomed to sign merely her initials, and was so flurried between anticipation, anxiety, excitement, and the screams of the baby, that she never had the presence of mind to write her full name, and on this slight omission, this one little cog, turned a most important factor in her future career.
CHAPTER VII.
A TELEGRAM FOR MISS WEST.
The very morning after Madeline had despatched her letter, a telegram was handed in for Miss West, 2, Solferino Place. The landlady herself mounted, breathless, to the attics, with the tan-coloured envelope in her hand.
“I was just for sending it away, Mrs. Wynne,” she gasped, surveying her with an inquiring eye; “but it came into my mind as I’d show it to you on the chance.”