It was the milk man who had brought out the bundle of flowers, he who brought the milk from Mrs. Higgins, and now that Gloria recalled it, she did remember his speaking to her the other day when he came late and she was out early.
“That’s how Tom found out,” she exclaimed, putting a little snapshot of herself and Trixy in Tom’s letter, and another in Millie’s. “I might have known he would recognize me.”
Then she planned to send something to Tom or his mother.
“I’ll ask Aunt Hattie for a few of her potted slips,” she decided. “She has such rare plants and I am sure she could spare a few.”
So next morning when Jed Stillwell left the milk bottle he took back a basket of plants, all carefully packed so as not to bend or break a single leaf.
Intercourse with Barbend was again “going on.”
CHAPTER XVI
A REVELATION
Once the letter writing began it fairly showered. Millie was at first distinctly peeved that her best friend should have so long neglected her, and at least three of her letters began with such a charge. Also that Sandford was not “one hundred miles away” was repeated time after time, but in spite of all this, Millie must have forgiven Gloria, for there were many pages filled with affectionate declarations, as well as news. It did seem the name of Ben Hardy or just “Ben” headed quite a few items, and it was easy to guess that Millie still considered him a “wonderful young man and all that.” Tom Whitely was so busy that Millie had seen him but seldom, but the direct letters from that faithful friend brought forth the information that he expected to get a place in the new drug store.
Then, one day came a special delivery from Millie. Her folks were going away to the city for the winter, quite unexpectedly, and she didn’t even have time to come out to say goodbye.