"Tomorrow morning," she muttered, "the papers shall contain the announcement of my marriage to the scion of one of the noblest houses in all America. Leith Pierrepont shall see that his power to hurt me was not so great as he thought, and I shall be saved from that beast, Meriaz."
She did not consider what was to befall her mother, did not think of her future at all, never even remembered her, but consumed the time of the messenger's absence in planning what she should say to Dudley Maltby, her lips curling with scorn as she imagined his joy at receiving her message.
She smiled grimly as she saw the messenger returning with a note in his hand, and received it with the calmest indifference, dismissing the boy with a haughtily murmured:
"That will do!"
Then, when he had gone, she tore the envelope from the missive, pausing to light a cigarette nonchalantly before she read it. She looked at it quite calmly, but the expression of her face changed curiously as she read:
"My Dear Jessica,—You were wiser that day than I. I allowed my passion to carry me away, never pausing to think of the future, after the manner of all hot-headed lovers; but with your usual clear-sightedness and brilliancy of intellect you foresaw what the future would hold for us with barely ten thousand a year to drag us through a monotonous existence, and you laughed at my earnestness. You were quite right. Don't think for a moment that I am upbraiding you. On the contrary, I realize that you have done us both a great service, that the proposition I made would have been sheerest madness. Of course I understand that pity for me prompted your kind note, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart, but it is much better that I should not see you just at present. Thanking you for many happy hours in the past, believe me,
"Very cordially yours,
"Dudley Maltby."
She tore it up without any show of indignation whatever, and threw it into the waste basket, then rang for her maid.
"Is Manuel Meriaz still here?" she asked.
"No, ma'am," her maid replied. "He left half an hour ago, and—and—"
"Well?"