“I do not think I should like to do that without mamma’s sanction,” Virgie answered; “but I will tell her your errand, and no doubt she will take measures to return the package to you at once.”
“Very well,” replied Lady Linton; “tell her to send it immediately to my brother’s residence; the street and number are on my card, which you have. I shall leave town to-morrow, and would like it before I go.”
Virgie promised to deliver the message, and her ladyship took her leave, with a heart lighter than she had known for years, for the burden of a great dread had been rolled from it.
But she did not receive the package before leaving for Heathdale, as she had confidently expected.
She had arranged to go on the fifteenth, taking Lillian with her, and although she waited until the last minute, hoping for the appearance of her long-lost diary, she was obliged to depart without it.
She did not worry over it very much, however, for she told herself that if it had been kept all these years with the seal unbroken, there was not much danger of its being disturbed at this late day.
Just as she was about to enter the carriage there arrived a telegram from her brother. It contained just two lines:
“Shall leave Englewood Wednesday noon; arrive at Heathdale on the 7:30 express. Meet us there if you like.”
“Rather a curt bidding to a wedding feast,” Lady Linton sarcastically observed, showing it to her daughter; but she would have been more than content had she not been bidden at all, for her brother’s marriage was, to her, an unlooked-for triumph over her enemy, a release from a much dreaded doom.