'But look!'
Meenie took the letter in her hand; and regarded the address; and laughed.
'It is very formal,' said she. 'There is no mistake about it. "Miss Wilhelmina Stuart Douglas"—when was I ever called that before? And "Inver-Mudal, Sutherlandshire, N.B." He should have added Europe, as if he was sending it from the moon. Well, it is clearly meant for me, any way—oh, and open too——'
The next minute all the careless amusement fled from her face; her cheeks grew very white, and a frightened, startled look sprang to her eyes. She but caught the first few lines—
'O wilt thou be my dear love?
(Meenie and Meenie)
O wilt thou be my ain love?
(My sweet Meenie)?
and then it was with a kind of shiver that her glance ran over the rest of it; and her heart was beating so that she could not speak; and there was a mist before her eyes.
'Maggie,' she managed to say at length—and she hurriedly folded up the paper again and placed it on the table with the others—'I should not have read it—it was not meant for me—it was not meant that I should read it—come away, come away, Maggie.'