"Aren't you going to work this morning?" asked Jessie.
"No. This one day, as Mr. Wordsworth said, we'll give to idleness. I'm going to bathe all the morning instead of half the morning. I want a holiday. I think I'm overworked. What's happening in that foolish England, if you've read the papers?"
"I haven't," said she.
Suddenly his face changed; he began to talk the secret language, which
Jessie understood and Helena counterfeited.
"And what other news?" he asked. "You had a letter from somebody."
Jessie pretended not to understand what she knew so well.
"Yes, I did have a letter," she said, determined that Archie should be more direct than this.
"From Helena or mother?" he said carelessly. "I haven't heard from either of them, except that telegram to say they had got home safely."
He was talking the secret language still; the very carelessness of his tone betrayed it.
"I heard from them both," she said. "The letter was from Helena, and there was an enclosure from Cousin Marion."