"How can we possibly get away to-night?" she asked him. "There are no stages until the morning."
"We shall have to let the Doc's fertile brain solve it for us, Tillie. He has a plan, I believe. Of course, if we have to wait until morning and fight it out with your father, then we'll have to, that's all. But I hope that may be avoided and that we may get away quietly."
They sat in silence for a moment. Suddenly Fairchilds leaned toward her and spoke to her earnestly.
"Tillie, I want to ask you something. Please tell me—why did you never answer my letters?"
She lifted her startled eyes to his. "Your letters?"
"Yes. Why didn't you write to me?"
"You wrote to me?" she asked incredulously.
"I wrote you three times. You don't mean to tell me you never got my letters?"
"I never heard from you. I would—I would have been so glad to!"
"But how could you have missed getting them?"