ity Miss
Greenway and I had suffered, wanting to open it and read it anyway, in
spite of all the decencies, I think you would read it to us."

Campbell: "Or at least give Miss Rice her own letter. What in the world
did you do with that?"

Mrs. Campbell: "Put it in my desk, where I thought I put mine. But never
mind it now. I can tell you what was in it just as well. Come in here a
moment, Margaret." She leads the way to the parlor, whither Miss Rice
follows.

Miss Greenway, poutingly: "Oh, mayn't I know, too? I think that's hardly
fair, Mrs. Campbell."

Mrs. Campbell: "No; or--Margaret may tell you afterwards; or Mr.
Welling may, _now_!"

Miss Greenway: "How very formidable!"

Mrs. Campbell, over her shoulder, on going out: "Willis, bring me the
refusals and acceptances, won't you? They're up-stairs."

Campbell: "Delighted to be of any service." Behind Miss Greenway's back
he dramatizes over her head to Welling his sense of his own escape, and
his compassion for the fellow-man whom he leaves in the toils of fate.

IX

_MISS GREENWAY; MR. WELLING_

Welling: "Nelly!" He approaches, and timidly takes her hand.

Miss Greenway: "Arthur! That letter was addressed in your handwriting.
Will you please explain?"

Welling: "Why, it's very simple--that is, it's the most difficult thing
in the world. Nelly, can you believe _any_thing I say to you?"

Miss Greenway: "What nonsense! Of course I can--if you're not too long
about it."

Welling: "Well, then, the letter in that envelope was one I wrote to
Mrs. Campbell--or the copy of one."

Miss Greenway: "The copy?"

Welling: "But let me explain. You see, when I got your note asking me to
be sure and come to Mrs. Curwen's--"

Miss Greenway: "Yes?"

Welling: "--I had just received an invitation from Mrs. Campbell for her
garden-party, and I sat down and wrote to you, and concluded I'd step
over and tell her why I couldn't come, and with that in mind I addressed
your letter--the one I'd written you--to her."

Miss Greenway: "With my name inside?"

Welling: "No; I merely called you 'darling'; and when Mrs. Campbell
opened it she saw it couldn't be for her, and she took it into her head
it must be for Miss Rice."

Miss Greenway: "For Margaret? What an idea! But why did she put your
envelope on it?"

Welling: "She made a copy, for the joke of it; and then, in her hurry,
she enclosed that in my envelope, and kept the original and the envelope
she'd addre