It was from John Temple, and inclosed a letter for May. And it struck Miss Webster’s simple mind at once to wonder why he should not write to his “young cousin,” as he called her, direct. And something—she knew not what—induced Miss Webster not to give this letter to May in the presence of Ralph Webster.
Perhaps she felt that his keen eyes would see more in it than there really was. At all events she put it into May’s hand when they were alone, and she noticed the quick blush and the glad look with which the girl received it.
May retired at once with her new letter to her own room, and when she got there she read as follows in John Temple’s handwriting:
“My Dear One—My Dear Little Sweetheart: I have been thinking of you so much to-day that I must write. But I think it safer to send it under cover to dear kind Miss Webster, as one never can tell what spies there are about, and your disappearance from home has naturally created a great sensation here. The morning after you left your father came to Woodlea, and asked to see my uncle, and then me. He questioned me pretty sharply, and asked when I had last seen you. I risked it, and said at church, and that you had said nothing to me about leaving your father’s house. Then Mrs. Temple attacked me on the subject, and finally yesterday I met that brute young Henderson, and I wish you had seen the desperate look he gave me as he passed me on the road. They say he drinks heavily, and is altogether going to the bad, and that he made a frightful scene when he heard you were gone. So you see altogether we can not be too careful. I dare not in fact leave here at present, or people—Henderson, and Mrs. Temple I am certain—would suspect I was going to join you.
“Therefore, my dear one, we must wait a little while yet before I can go to you. For the reasons I told you of our marriage must be a secret one for the present, though this is very hard both on you and me. But I hope you are happy with Miss Webster, and I need not tell you that the moment I can do so with safety that I will join you, and then we can be married at once. Brighter days are, I am sure, in store for us, my Mayflower, but in the meantime when you write will you give your letters to Miss Webster to inclose to me, as it would not do for your letters to come here. Always devotedly yours,
John Temple.”
CHAPTER XIX.
THE BIG LETTER.
A vague sense of disappointment stole into May Churchill’s heart as she read this letter of John Temple’s—a vague sense of disappointment and pain. He seemed so terribly afraid that people should talk about them, and then, her father—for the first time May felt remorse about her father—and began to realize that she might have caused him great anxiety.