“Merry Christmas, dear Daisy, and all good wishes for the coming year! Who knows what it may have in store for us?
“Wear my little present sometimes for the sake of yours devotedly, A. D.”
“So much for note number one!” said Margaret. “It would be interesting to have a glance at note number two, which I have no doubt is equally tender and gracious.”
She took up the little leather case and opened it, revealing a beautiful locket. In spite of herself, she could not withhold a tribute to her cousin’s taste. The workmanship and design of this little ornament were so effective and so uncommon that she felt sure Alan must have gone to some trouble about it, and most likely had it made expressly for her.
“He is kind,” she said, regretfully. “It was good of him to go back to Baltimore, in order that Amy and the children should not be disappointed. I almost wish I had not made this new discovery about him; but no, no, no! It would have been dreadful to be ignorant of the real truth of the matter.”
It occurred to her now to open the locket and, on doing so, her cousin’s high-bred face looked out. The very sight of it made her recoil inwardly. How well she remembered the look of these same eyes, as they had been bent upon Mrs. Vere, with an expression she would have liked to forget. What right had he to expect her to wear his picture? Why should she?
He had sent another note and another present elsewhere. Was there another picture, which some one else had been gracefully urged to wear, for the sake of hers devotedly? It was more than probable!
“I half believe I begin to understand him,” she said to herself, indignantly. “It is one of his sage and correct opinions that a man should marry, but all the same a man wants his little diversions. Under these circumstances he had better marry an amiable, easy-going young thing, who is healthy and cheerful, who knows nothing of the world, and who will leave him to pursue his little diversions undisturbed. It is perfectly humiliating! I will return his locket, for the very sight of it would always sting me.”