"'P.S. The Jessica Brown was a made-up name.'
"Do you think that's all right, King?"
"Yep, it's fine! Seal her up, and write the address and leave it on the hall table, and come on."
And so the "bread-and-butter" letter went to Mr. and Mrs. Geary both, and was kept and treasured by them as one of their choicest possessions.
"I knew she was a little lady by the way she pretended not to notice our poor things," said old Zeb.
"I knew by her petticoats," said his wife.
And so the episode of Marjorie's runaway passed into history. Mrs. Maynard, at first, wanted to give up her part in the play of "The Stepmother," but she was urged by all to retain it, and so she did. As Mr. Maynard said, it was the merest coincidence that Marjorie overheard the words without knowing why they were spoken, and there was no possibility of such a thing ever happening again. So Mrs. Maynard kept her part in the pretty little comedy, but she never repeated those sentences that had so appalled poor Marjorie, without a thrill of sorrow for the child and a thrill of gladness for her quick and safe restoration to them.
And the days hurried on, bringing Marjorie's birthday nearer and nearer.
On the fifteenth of July she would be thirteen years old.