"You will do better without me than with me.
"R. R."
Fleda mused over the letter for several minutes, and then touched her aunt who had fallen on a chair with her head sunk in her hands.
"What does he mean?" said Mrs. Rossitur, looking up with a perfectly colourless face.
"To leave the country."
"Are you sure? is that it?" said Mrs. Rossitur, rising and looking over the words again;--"He would do anything, Fleda--"
"That is what he means, aunt Lucy;--don't you see he says he could not be safe anywhere in America?"
Mrs. Rossitur stood eying with intense eagerness for a minute or two the note in her niece's hand.
"Then he is gone! now that it is all settled!--And we don't know where--and we can't get word to him--"
Her cheek which had a little brightened became perfectly white again.