Miss Travers stepped to the door, briefly told the soldier there was no answer, thanked him for waiting, and returned.
"You are not going to reply?" asked Mrs. Rayner, in amaze.
"I am not; and I inferred you did not intend to. Now another question. How many days have we been here?"
"You saw me post a letter to Mr. Van Antwerp as we left the Missouri, did you not?"
"Yes. At least I suppose so."
"I wrote again as soon as we got settled here, three days after that, did I not?"
"You said you did," replied Mrs. Rayner, ungraciously.
"And you, Kate, when you are yourself have been prompt to declare that I say what I mean. Very probably it may have been four days from the time that letter from the transfer reached Wall Street to the time the next one could get to him from here, even had I written the night we arrived. Possibly you forget that you forbade my doing so, and sent me to bed early. Mr. Van Antwerp has simply failed to remember that I had gone several hundred miles farther west; and even had I written on the train twice a day, the letters would not have reached him uninterruptedly. By this time he is beginning to get them fast enough. And as for you, Kate, you are quite as unjust as he. It augurs badly for my future peace; and—I am learning two lessons here, Kate."
"What two, pray?"