Rosalind took the message and read as follows:
"Will arrive some time this evening.
"WILLIAMS."
Reginald Williams, the persistent one, was coming! Rosalind gasped. Not that she minded Williams or his persistence. He was well enough in his way, and he could always be properly discouraged. She had no fears on that point.
But Reginald was the bracelet man! And the bracelet was now upon the smoothly tanned arm of Gertrude. And Reginald would see it—and recognize it. And he would wonder and ask questions and blurt something. There would be explanations and revelations and—
Rosalind shuddered, and pondered the matter deeply.
"It simply cannot be!" she exclaimed aloud.
"What can't be, dear?" asked Gertrude.
"Why—oh, nothing. I was just doing some oral thinking."
Gertrude smiled wisely. She knew about Reginald. And she knew—or thought she knew—that Reginald would ask again, and that, as Rosalind said, it simply could not be.