Next morning Jael Dence asked Mr. Raby whether the threatened letter must be allowed to go.
“Of course it must,” said Raby. “I have gone as far off the straight path as a gentleman can. And I wish we may not repent our ingenuity. Deceive a mother about her son! what can justify it, after all?”
Mrs. Little wrote her letter, and showed it to Jael:
“DEAR MISS CARDEN,—They tell me you are about to be married. Can this be true, and Henry Little alive?”
An answer came back, in due course.
“DEAR MRS. LITTLE,—It is true, and I am miserable. Forgive me, and forget me.”
Mrs. Little discovered the marks of tears upon the paper, and was sorely puzzled.
She sat silent a long time: then looking up, she saw Jael Dence gazing at her with moist eyes, and an angelic look of anxiety and affection.
She caught her round the neck, and kissed her, almost passionately.
“All the better,” she cried, struggling with a sob. “I shall have my own way for once. You shall be my daughter instead.”