The Admiral explained the cause of the delay and the importance of the matter to Jermyn in particular, and this affected the projector so strongly, he once having been a poor young man engaged to be married, that he succeeded in exacting from the directors a written promise that if the sketches were deposited with the company within three days from date the stock should be delivered; otherwise it would be disposed of elsewhere.
All this caused the old gentleman to once more speak to Jermyn about the matter, and Jermyn, noting the condition to which excitement had brought his friend, and not knowing that the Admiral had already made a clean breast of the matter to the Highwoods, one morning went to throw himself upon Trif's mercy, but, as already intimated, he saw only Fenie. He succeeded in telling her the story, but when he learned that the sketches had disappeared he became about as miserable as the Admiral.
Had he spoken when first the sketches were asked for, there would have been no trouble, he learned; he therefore reproached himself severely for his friend's sake and for Kate's, and began wondering how he could ever make amends to the man who had done so much for him. As an army officer's opportunities for making fifty thousand dollars are practically non-existent, he became so moody that Kate thought her suspicions about him and Fenie were verified.
But Kate was not going to lose a happy evening from the short remainder of Jermyn's leave of absence, as she persisted in calling his assignment to duty at Sandy Hook. As she was going to be magnanimous, and had begun finely, she resolved to complete the task, so she exclaimed to Jermyn suddenly one evening:
"My dear boy, I want you to stop thinking about that letter. Don't start—nor ask me any questions. I'll promise to overlook it, and forget all about it, in the course of time, if you will be your old self once more."
"But I never can forget it," replied Jermyn, "never! Think of the cruelty of it, to you?"
"But if I ignore it, and cast it from my mind forever, why should you persist in cherishing it and being miserable about it?"
"Why? Because I am a man and love you."
"I shall love you the more, because you have been so miserable about the matter. Won't that satisfy you?"