ow I
am going to tell you how your letter came, and Jack brought it to
me, and stood staring at me while I read it, and then he said:

"'She has asked you to go to America?'

"'Yes,' I answered, without looking up; and he continued:

"'And you are going?

"'I'd like to,' I said, 'I would rather go to America than to any
other place in all the world.'

"'Rather than stay here with me?' he asked.

"Something in his voice made me look up, and then--and then--I do
not believe I can tell you, except that I suddenly found out that I
had been caring a great deal for Sir Jack Trevellian. Yes, a great
deal; while he--well, I may as well tell you, for Sir Jack is not
the man to say he loves a girl if he does not, and he told me he
loved me, and wanted me for his wife; and I, well, I just covered up
my face so he could not see it, and cried with all my might, I was
so happy and glad.

"I know what transpired at Stoneleigh, and that I am not his first
choice, but I am satisfied. How could he help loving you. I am sure
I could not if I were a man, and so we are to be married in June,
here, in grandma's house, where she brought me the minute she heard
of the engagement.

"'It is highly improper for you to stay at Trevellian Castle a day,
under the circumstances,' she said, as if Sir Jack, as my promised
husband, had been suddenly transformed into a monster, who would
work me harm.

"I wish you could come to the wedding, and so does Jack. He is here,
and has been for a week, and when I finish this letter we are going
out to sit upon the rocks and see the tide come in and the moon
rise, and shall naturally sentimentalize a little, and he will tell
me how much he loves me, and call me his Irish lassie; he has done
that a hundred times, but when he gets too spooney and
demonstrative, I ask him if he loves me better than he did you, and
that quiets him, for like your president, or king, George Somebody
or other, he cannot tell a lie, and says:

"'Not better, perhaps, but differently, just as you are different
from her. She is fair, you know, and you are dark--' and so I infer
that his love for you was white, and his love for me black. '_Ah,
bien; je suis contente_.'

"And now I _must_ close, for Jack has come in, hat in hand, and bids
me hurry, as there is the funnies