TO HARRY HAWTHORNE—I am safe and well, and wondering what has become of you. Do you wish to see me? If so, answer this personal to-morrow, giving your address, and I will write to you, with instructions how to find me.
Anxiously yours,
G. H.
Oh, how happy it would have made her lover's heart if he had chanced on that message in the papers he read that morning.
But, by one of the terrible blunders of fate, he had read, as always, the telegraphic news first, and then thrown the papers from him, in that wild excitement that had determined him to return to New York at once.
Soon the broad, illimitable ocean would roll between their yearning hearts.
Suddenly she heard her mother's step at the door, and sprang up in nervous alarm.
"She has discovered it already, and is coming to reproach me," thought the hapless girl, bracing herself to meet the storm.
Mrs. Fitzgerald came in excitedly, clutching the newspaper in her hand.
"Mamma!" cried Geraldine, tremulously, entreatingly, as if to pray for mercy in advance.
"Geraldine, I have found a startling paragraph in this paper," cried the lady, without noticing her daughter's agitation.
"Yes, mamma," Geraldine answered, forlornly, pushing forward a seat.