but she let it lie;
she knew so well what it would say! She knew all about her friend, of
course; except poor old Nelson, who didn't, But she had never imagined
that Ellie would dare to use her in this way. It was unbelievable... she
had never pictured anything so vile.... The blood rushed to her face,
and she sprang up angrily, half minded to tear the letters in bits and
throw them all into the fire.

She heard her husband's knock on the door between their rooms, and swept
the dangerous packet under the blotting-book.

"Oh, go away, please, there's a dear," she called out; "I haven't
finished unpacking, and everything's in such a mess." Gathering up
Nick's papers and letters, she ran across the room and thrust them
through the door. "Here's something to keep you quiet," she laughed,
shining in on him an instant from the threshold.

She turned back feeling weak with shame. Ellie's letter lay on the
floor: reluctantly she stooped to pick it up, and one by one the
expected phrases sprang out at her.

"One good turn deserves another.... Of course you and Nick are welcome
to stay all summer.... There won't be a particle of expense for you--the
servants have orders.... If you'll just be an angel and post these
letters yourself.... It's been my only chance for such an age; when we
meet I'll explain everything. And in a month at latest I'll be back to
fetch Clarissa...."

Susy lifted the letter to the lamp to be sure she had read aright. To
fetch Clarissa! Then Ellie's child was here? Here, under the roof with
them, left to their care? She read on, raging. "She's so delighted, poor
darling, to know you're coming. I've had to sack her beastly governess
for impertinence, and if it weren't for you she'd be all alone with a
lot of servants I don't much trust. So for pity's sake be good to my
child, and forgive me for leaving her. She thinks I've gone to take a
cure; and she knows she's not to tell her Daddy that I'm away, because
it would only worry him if he thought I was ill. She's perfectly to be
trusted; you'll see what a clever angel she is...." And then, at the
bottom of the page, in a last slanting postscript: "Susy darling, if
you've ever owed me anything in the way of kindness, you won't, on your
sacred honour, say a word of this to any one, even to Nick. And I know I
can count on you to rub out the numbers."

Susy sprang up and tossed Mrs. Vanderlyn's letter into the fire: then
she came slowly back to the chair. T