Royall had grown so impatient of Daisie’s long absence that he had insisted on having Mrs. Fleming find out the cause.
So the unsuspecting lady called Letty Green, who was flirting with Cullen at the end of the hall, and demanded to know what Miss Bell was doing upstairs so long.
Letty tossed her pert brown head, and replied that Miss Bell hadn’t gone upstairs at all.
“Didn’t she go with you to remove her veil, girl?” cried Royall impatiently.
“No, sir; she sent me upstairs to take it, and went to meet her beau,” returned the saucy maid.
“What do you mean, Letty? Explain yourself, without any more trifling!” exclaimed her mistress, in a tone of sudden, sharp anxiety.
Perhaps Letty had a grudge against her mistress, and knew that she could pay it off now, for she proceeded to recount, with sly enjoyment, her rencontre with Dallas Bain.
“He actually thought at first that ’twas a real marriage, and I almost feared the man would drop dead at my feet, he was so upset,” she cried. “But when I explained all to him—oh, what a change! His eyes just flashed with joy, and he crammed my hands full of money, saying: ‘I never loved any girl in my life but Daisie Bell, and I want you to slip in there and get her to come out here and see me, won’t you?’”
Letty thought her mistress would drop down dead, too, she clung so tightly to Royall Sherwood, and turned so deathly white, while she muttered, in impotent wrath:
“How dared you do it?”