“That is all my story, Queenie,” she concluded, and the girl that bent over her never dreamed that the most thrilling chapter in little Jess’ life history had been omitted from the tale. No one in the wide world would have guessed that little Jess had left—a husband on that lonely farm whom she had learned to love with all the strength of her young heart.
She had obeyed his instructions to the letter, not to let any human being know of her marriage until he gave her permission to do so.
“So there little Jess’ romance seems to end,” murmured Queenie. The girl nodded and hid her face, painful with rosy blushes, upon the shoulder of her false friend.
“Now I am going to tell you a little romance which will no doubt surprise you very much, Jess,” declared Queenie, “and I will begin with the statement that I know John—John Dinsmore, the lover whom you have so foolishly discarded—very well.”
“You know him?” gasped Jess, opening her great, dark, velvety eyes very wide and wonderingly.
Queenie nodded assent, adding: “I knew all about his courtship, for he made a confidant of me, writing me all about it, as we were such very old friends.”
Before Jess could speak she went on hurriedly: “You are making the greatest mistake of your life, dear, in attempting to break your engagement with him, for he loves you so passionately that he can never live without you—he said that in his letter to me—that if anything happened to part you, that he would shoot himself, and put an end to his sorrow and despair.”
“I am greatly surprised that you know him, and like him so well,” cried Jess, impatiently.
“I like him so well I have asked him to visit us at my country seat to which I am going next week, bearing you with me. He was more than surprised to hear that you were coming to New York to visit me, of all people, and accepted the invitation by return mail.
“I suppose I am telling tales out of school when I also tell you that the dear fellow was well-nigh heartbroken because you had bound those whom you left behind you with a solemn promise not to divulge to him your destination. Strange how he found it out, wasn’t it?”