As she talked, Virginia was opening the envelope. The first line in the letter caused her to cry joyfully, “Girls! Girls! Listen to this!”
“Dear White Lily,” the letter began. “I was married yesterday—”
“What! Winona married to Fleet Foot?” Margaret and Betsy exclaimed in excited chorus.
“I’m sure I don’t know,” Virg told them. “Just wait a minute and we’ll find out.” Her eyes went rapidly down the sheet and then turning she gave Margaret an ecstatic little hug. “Oh, what glorious news! Think of it! Our wonderful Winona has married that splendid Harry Wilson. It seems that his mother has been ill for a long time and Winona has been there as nurse ever since we came from school. That’s why we haven’t seen her.” Then, turning a page, Virg read aloud:
“I had never even thought of marrying anyone. Of course I knew that most of all I admired Harry, but I believed that his mother would want him to marry one of his own kind, but, Virginia, can you think how great is my happiness when I tell you that his mother loves me, really loves me, and asked me to be her daughter.
“I have always been so alone, for my father, Chief Grey Hawk, and my brother, Strong Heart, were much away, that it seems strange to me that anyone should care.
“I told Harry that much as I love him, I feared that it would be hard for me to be as domestic as his wife should be, for there are times when I feel that I am kin to the wind that sweeps over the desert or to the bird that flies where it will. Then it was that Harry told me his own good news. He has received an appointment as state geologist and we are soon to start on horseback (our honeymoon we call it) and travel all over Arizona that he may obtain specimens of rock to send to Smithsonian Institute.
“We would not go were it not that Mrs. Wilson is rapidly regaining her strength and that her recently widowed sister in the East is coming to keep house, and to make this her home.
“I am sorry not to see my school-mates before we depart, but that cannot be, as we leave on horseback at dawn tomorrow and journey north.”
There were tears in the eyes of Virginia as she lifted them from the letter to look at her friends.