They were startled and surprised at his generosity, but Hawthorne would not listen to their refusals.
"I love you both like brothers, and I will not be refused. You shall come with me," he declared, and his cordiality won their consent.
Arrangements were speedily made, and after a visit to a detective, the three friends left for New York.
[CHAPTER XL.]
"IT IS LIKE SUICIDE!"
"Round the post-office window are pressing
A motley and turbulent throng.
All eagerly bent on possessing
The letter they've looked for so long.
To some come dark tidings of sorrow,
To others come tidings of bliss;
Uncertain is every to-morrow,
And the world like the post-office is."
Francis S. Smith.
All unconscious of the fact that she had been so near to the lover for whom she mourned, Geraldine returned home with her mother, and even as they went up the steps the postman followed on his afternoon round and placed two letters in her hand.
She glanced at them, and a cry of joy broke from her lips as she saw that one bore the New York postmark and was in Cissy's familiar hand.