"So you entertained him?"
"No, I didn't either. I wanted to, 'cause I like him lots, but he and Aunt Fee began talkin' about a letter, and then Aunt Fee told me to get all my new dolls to show him, now that they've all got new dresses, and it took me a lot of time to get them all together, and when I came back with 'em he was gone."
Kate was angry, but of one thing she informed herself at once—it was that she was not going to lose Bruce Jermyn because of any flirtation he might have had with that flighty girl, or of any letters that might have passed between them. Men would be flirts, she supposed—that is, bachelors would—but she would marry Bruce Jermyn, even if he had flirted with half the women in creation. She had long cherished the fine belief that no man ever strays from a woman who appreciates him; when she became Mrs. Jermyn she would be everything to him that wife could be to husband, and then she would defy anyone, even a girl as pretty as Fenie, to get and keep a bit of his heart.
As to Fenie, it would break Harry's heart to lose her, and if temptation were out of her way she probably would love Harry sincerely after they were married. Jermyn would be out of the way in a day or two,—but, oh, how she did wish she knew what was in the letter which the two had talked about?
Fenie finally returned and Kate said to her:
"You expect Harry this evening, I suppose?"
"Oh, yes, I suppose so."
"I hope you will have a very pleasant evening with each other."
"Oh, so do I. I hope it will be pleasanter than last evening. If that dreadful let——"
Fenie stopped abruptly, but it was too late. Kate was regarding her searchingly, and Fenie's face became scarlet.