Sheila Pat hesitated. Longing to see if it were by any chance another telegram from Ireland, and determination not to let Ted Lancaster catch her, fought within her small bosom.
"Are you afraid?" Miss Kezia said, coming forward. "I will open it for you."
Now at the opening words of her sentence Sheila Pat's head had been uplifted with a disgusted jerk, but as Miss Kezia finished speaking, a sudden impish glow shone in her face, and gravely she held out the orange envelope. Miss Kezia took it. They watched breathlessly. She tore open the envelope, she read what was written on the form inside. A great and triumphant satisfaction illumined the Atom's small features as she watched the expression that overspread her aunt's countenance.
"It is, I suppose, intended to be witty," Miss Kezia observed at last. "I consider it a vulgar and sinfully wasteful joke. Sheila, did you know what the telegram contained?"
"I thought it was somethin' like that," the Atom said. "Please give it to me." She turned to Nell. "There can't be two April Fools over one thing, can there?"
The telegram was long; it was addressed in full to Miss Sheila Patricia Kathleen O'Brien, and it said: "Shure and isn't it afther being the 1st of April then, och begorra, and isn't it meself will be having the laugh of ye entoirely at all at all, for when ye rade this, won't ye be afther being taken in ochone acushla!"
"That telegram," said Miss Kezia, in awful tones, "cost four shillings and eightpence to send."
Nell eyed her admiringly.
"How quickly you can add up!" she said.
A little later Molly stole guiltily away up to her room. She locked the door, and sitting down on her bed began to tear open envelopes. Presently to her through the keyhole came a whisper:—