armchair in which he had been
seated but a few moments before. None of the others had observed it, she
thought, for she alone was in a position, a little to his left, to
notice it, when it had become loosed.

She picked it up and regarded it carelessly, nervously, peering the
while into the great room beyond to discover, if possible, an
eye-witness to her secret. From its appearance it was no more than a
friendly communication written on conventional letter paper. It was
unsealed, or rather the seal had been broken and from the wrinkled
condition of the paper gave evidence of not a little handling. It
belonged to Peggy. There was no doubt about that, for there was her name
in heavy bold script on the outside.

She balanced it in her hand, weighing, at the same time, within her
mind, one or two possibilities. She might read it and then, if the
matter required it, return it immediately to His Excellency with an
explanation. Yet it would smack of dishonor to read the private
correspondence of another without a sufficiently grave reason. It
belonged to Peggy, who, in all probability, had been acquainting the
General with its contents as Mr. Anderson and herself intruded upon the
scene. She therefore resolved to return it unread.

Hastily folding it, she stuck it into her bodice, and made her way into
the room where she became lost among the guests. There would be time
enough when the formalities of the departure were over, when Peggy was
less occupied, to hand it her. She would wait at any rate until later in
the evening.

CHAPTER VIII

I

But she did not return the paper. For with the commotion of the guests
in the several orders of their going, a serious business of felicitation
and devoir was demanded alongside of which all other matters only served
as distractions. Consequently, the note once placed within her bodice,
all thought of it vanished for the remainder of the evening.

Only when she had returned home that night, fatigued and almost
disgusted with the perfunctory performances of the evening, did she
discover it, and then not until she was about to remove the garment
within whose folds it lay concealed. It fell to the ground; she stooped
to pick it up.

"Oh, dear! I quite forgot it. I must attend to it the first thing in the
morning."

And she placed it on the dresser where it could not escape her eye. Then
she retired.

But she did not sleep. There she lay wide awake tossing nervously to a