“But how very sudden!” exclaimed Miss Alicia, opening her note and beginning to read it. Plainly it had been written hurriedly indeed. It read as though he had been in such haste that he hadn't had time to be clear.
Dear little Miss Alicia:
I've got to light out of here as quick as I can make it. I can't even stop to tell you why. There's just one thing—don't get rattled, Miss Alicia. Whatever any one says or does, just don't let yourself get rattled.
Yours affectionately,
T. TEMBAROM.
“Pearson,” Miss Alicia exclaimed, again looking up, “are you sure everything is all right?”
“That was what he said, ma'am. `All right,' ma'am.”
“Thank you, Pearson. I am glad to hear it.”
She walked to and fro in the sunshine, reading the note and rereading it.
“Of course if he said it was all right, it was all right,” she murmured. “It is only the phrasing that makes me slightly nervous. Why should he ask me not to get rattled?” The term was by this time as familiar to her as any in Dr. Johnson's dictionary. “Of course he knows I do get rattled much too easily; but why should I be in danger of getting rattled now if nothing has happened?” She gave a very small start as she remembered something. “Could it be that Captain Palliser—But how could he? Though I do not like Captain Palliser.”