"From Trixy," answered Kate, feebly; at which Jermyn laughed heartily before he replied:
"I might have imagined it. The little marplot! Now listen: the letter is one which Mrs. Highwood wrote her husband, from Old Point, on two subjects, one of which was very delightful, for it was you; I was the other. By an accident, which I will explain later, the letter fell into the Admiral's hands, and he, not distinguishing it from several others which he took from his pocket an hour or two afterward, made a sketch upon the back of it; I, who chanced to be with him, made another. Both sketches are now needed, at once, to perfect some business arrangements in which the Admiral and I are greatly interested and by which we might profit greatly, but Highwood, to whom his wife sent the letter when she regained it, has mislaid the sheet, or the two parts of it, and the Admiral and I, as well as the entire Highwood family, are greatly troubled about it."
"So is Harry and Fenie," said Kate, as if talking to herself. "What an idiot I have been! How they will laugh at my expense! But oh, I am so happy, although I don't deserve to be, for I have been jealous, suspicious, hateful——"
"Do restrain yourself, my dear girl."
"I've also been meddlesome," Kate continued, "and impertinent, and, worse than all, inexpressibly stupid, on account of that dreadful letter. Meanwhile, I am being heartless, for you said the loss of the letter was making trouble for you and the Admiral. How much is the trouble—to you?"
"Oh, merely fifty thousand dollars worth."
"Jermyn! I supposed that I had promised to marry an army officer with nothing but his salary, and I was priding myself on marrying for love alone, without any of the sordid ideas which fill women's heads, as well as men's, in these selfish days, but you seem——"
"Don't change your mind, I beg, for I am fully as poor as you thought me. I expect to be fifty thousand dollars better off if that letter with my sketch comes to light within a few hours; otherwise my entire fortune is the couple of thousand dollars I have saved."
Kate smiled bravely and sweetly as she replied:
"Please don't omit me, while you're giving an account of your possessions. Not that I have any money, but——"