"Oh, early!" Alix answered, noncommittally. "I had a bath, and this is my second breakfast!"
Cherry, who was reading a letter, did not hear her. Now she made some inarticulate sound that made Alix look at her in quick concern.
"Cherry, what is it?" she exclaimed.
For answer Cherry tossed her the letter, written on a thick sheet of lavender paper, which diffused a strong odour of scent.
"Read that!" she said, briefly. And with a desperate air she dropped her head on the table, and knotted her hands high above it.
Fearfully, Alix picked up the perfumed sheet, and read, in a coarse and sprawling, yet unmistakably feminine handwriting, the following words:
DEAR MRS. LLOYD: Perhaps you would not feel so pleased with yourself if you knew the real reason why your husband left Red Creek? It was because of a quarrel he had with Hatty Woods.
If you don't believe it you had better ask him about some of the parties he had with Joe King's crowd, and where they were on the night of August 28th, and if he knows anybody named Hatty Woods, and see what he says. Ask him if he ever heard of Bopps' Hotel and when he was in Sacramento last. If he denies it, you can show him this letter.
There was no signature.
Alix, who had read it first with a bewildered and suspicious look, read it again, and flushed deeply at the sordid shame of it. She laid it down, and looked in stunned conviction at her sister.