I must know this evening!'
exclaimed Olive, as she walked about the room, her light brain now flown
with jealousy and suspicion. 'I'll write him a letter,' she said
suddenly, 'and you must get someone to take it over.'

'But there's nobody about. Why, it is nearly seven o'clock,' said
Barnes, who had begun to realize the disagreeableness and danger of the
adventure she was being rapidly drawn into.

'If you can't, I shall go myself,' cried Olive, as she seized some paper
and a pencil belonging to Alice, and sat down to write a note:

'DEAR CAPTAIN HIBBERT,
'If you have broken your promise to me about not going to the Lawlers'
I shall never be able to forgive you!' (Then, as through her perturbed
mind the thought gleamed that this was perhaps a little definite, she
added): 'Anyhow, I wish to see you. Come at once, and explain that what
I have heard about you is not true. I cannot believe it.
'Yours ever and anxiously,
'OLIVE BARTON.'

'Now somebody must take this over at once to the Lawlers.'

'But, miss, really at this hour of night, too, I don't know of anyone to
send! Just think, miss, what would your ma say?'

'I don't care what mamma says. It would kill me to wait till morning!
Somebody must go. Why can't you go yourself? It isn't more than half a
mile across the fields. You won't refuse me, will you? Put on your hat,
and go at once.'

'And what will the Lawlers say when they hear of it, miss? and I am sure
that if Mrs. Barton ever hears of it she will--'

'No, no, she won't! for I could not do without you, Barnes. You have
only to ask if Captain Hibbert is there, and, if he is there, send the
letter up, and wait for an answer. Now, there's a dear! now do go at
once. If you don't, I shall go mad! Now, say you will go, or give me the
letter. Yes, give it to me, and I'll go myself. Yes, I prefer to go
myself.'

XII

The result of this missive was that next morning the servants whispered
that someone had been about the house on the preceding evening. Olive
and Barnes sat talking for hours; and one day, unable to keep her
counsel any longer, Olive told her sister what had happened. The letter
that Barnes had taken across the field for her had, she declared,
frightened Edward out of his senses; he had come rushing through the
snow, and had spoken with her for full five minutes under her window. He
loved her to dist