d soberly, taking a letter
and the flat package out of my pocket. "You see, my theory worked out.
_Here_ is Aunt Jane, and _there_ is the money from the Russia leather
bag."

I laid the packet in Margery's lap, and without ceremony opened the
letter. It began:

"MY DEAREST NIECE:

"I am writing to you, because I can not think what to say to
Sister Letitia. I am running away! I--am--running--away! My
dear, it scares me even to write it, all alone in this empty
house. I have had a cup of tea out of one of your lovely cups,
and a nap on your pretty couch, and just as soon as it is dark
I am going to take the train for Boston. When you get this, I
will be on the ocean, the ocean, my dear, that I have read
about, and dreamed about, and never seen.

"I am going to realize a dream of forty years--more than twice
as long as you have lived. Your dear mother saw the continent
before she died, but the things I have wanted have always been
denied me. I have been of those that have eyes to see and see
not. So--I have run away. I am going to London and Paris, and
even to Italy, if the money your father gave me for the pearls
will hold out. For a year now I have been getting steamship
circulars, and I have taken a little French through a
correspondence school. That was why I always made you sing
French songs, dearie: I wanted to learn the accent. I think I
should do very well if I could only sing my French instead of
speaking it.

"I am afraid that Sister Letitia discovered that I had taken
some of the pearls. But--half of them were mine, from our
mother, and although I had wanted a pearl ring all my life, I
have never had one. I am going to buy me a hat, instead of a
bonnet, and clothes, and pretty things underneath, and a
switch; Margery, I have wanted a switch for thirty years.

"I suppose Letitia will never want me back. Perhaps I shall not
want to come. I tried to write to her when I was leaving, but I
had cut my hand in the attic, where I had hidden away my
clothes, and it bled on the paper. I have been worried since
for fear your Aunt Letitia would find the paper in the basket,
and be alarmed at the stains. I wanted to leave things in
order--please tell Letitia--but I was so nervous, and in such
a hurry. I walked three miles to Wynton and took a s