“So much has happened, I don’t know where to begin to tell you. In the first place, Mr. Fenton has got home with the rest of his money; but such a time as he has had to get it. Why, the adventures of Sinbad the sailor were nothing to the escapes he has had and the troubles he has been in. I don’t think he is much to speak of, compared with the rest; but that isn’t what I am thinking about. The best of all is, that it has come out why Robert Lester couldn’t enlist before, and now he has joined the company as a private soldier; but, my word for it, he wont be one long.”
“Are you at liberty to state the reason?” I inquired.
“Oh, certainly. It seems that the rich old uncle who left him his fortune, made a condition in his will, that if Robert died without heirs, the property was to go to another cousin, one Dick Satterlee, who is a flaming rebel. Our Mr. Lester knew that if he was killed, all that mint of money would go right into the hands of the Confederate government, to help on the rebellion. So he thought he could do more for the Union cause with the money, than by carrying a musket and getting shot himself. Besides, his poor little sister would be left without any friends, and poor to boot; so he just made up his mind to stand it out, and let everybody misjudge him if they would.
“Last week he saw in the list of killed in some battle, the name of his cousin Richard Satterlee; so he went right on to find out all about it. The body hadn’t been discovered, but everybody said he was dead. When Mr. Lester came back, he waited long enough to make his will, and then enlisted; and a happy looking man he was, I can tell you.
“But that isn’t all. He was once engaged to Miss Lilian Grey; but she was so angry with him because he didn’t go into the army, that every thing was broken off between them, though she loves him as she does her life, and he thinks full as much of her. But of course it will all be made up now, and I’m glad of it, for they are just exactly suited to each other.”
When I had expressed my surprise and pleasure at the good news brought by Miss Letty, I inquired what she intended to do about little Willie, the son of a deceased sister, to whom she had been a second mother from his infancy.
“Well, there’s no help for it, I suppose,” she answered, while a cloud flitted over her bright face; “he is bound to go as a drummer-boy with the regiment, and I can’t persuade him to stay at home willingly, though he says he wont go without my consent. It’s well his poor mother isn’t living, for her heart would break to have him go, such a baby as he is, only twelve years old. But I must say for him, he’s the best boy I ever saw, and the men all love him so, he’ll be well taken care of, if he doesn’t get killed. It’s hard for me; but I’ve got nothing else to give, and though it’s like taking the heart out of my body, I’ll try to do it cheerfully.”
Miss Letty was sewing at the Tyrrell House when she learned from Mr. Ryder the facts in relation to Robert Lester, and no time was lost by her in communicating them to the family. Mrs. Fenton and Elinor heard with thankfulness that his fame was publicly cleared, though they had never doubted that it would be so in the end.
But to the ardent and enthusiastic Lilian, by whom he had been so bitterly condemned, the news was like a reprieve from death. She threw her arms round Miss Letty’s neck, exclaiming,
“Oh, you are the best and dearest Miss Letty in the whole world. I didn’t think any thing could have made me so happy.”