“Oh yes, my dear. The nobility always marries. Singleness is against the rules. He married and has a family of six.”
“And is that the end of the story?” asked Billie.
“No, there is a sequel. It seems that when the Rev. and Mrs. Archibald Jones disappeared from the stage of life without explanation only one person, after a decade or more, still clung to the belief that they were not dead. None other than Miss Phoebe Jones herself, spinster, living in Surrey, England. She recently died leaving her property to her nephew, his wife or possible heirs. It seems that the gentlemen who just now dropped me at your door——”
“Yes. The broken-hearted noble with a wife and six children, knew about this will because the lawyers in trying to trace Mr. Jones and his wife had got into communication with him.”
“And so they won’t be poor,” said Nancy. “I’m glad of that. Phoebe looked beautiful in good clothes.”
Everybody laughed, and then the doctor remarked:
“And so the story has a plain ending, after all. Phoebe is not a princess and you are all disappointed.”
“No, no, no,” they protested, but the doctor knew better.