"Mr. Ferguson," she said, "this is--this is Captain Jones' sister. I want
for a very particular--a very imperative reason--to speak at once to
the--to your friend--that man--why the man that mends the boats, you
know. Could you get word for him to come here--here, to my house--right
away? Tell him it's very--oh _very_ important. Tell him Miss Jones says
she--needs him."

Ferguson said it was just quitting time. He'd go up there on his wheel.
He thought he could find him. He would send him right down.

She admired the way he controlled what must have been his astonishment.

The man who mended the boats would come. He would know what to do. He
would help her. She would keep as calm as she could until he got there.

But surely--surely--Ann wouldn't go away and leave her without a word!
Ann couldn't be so cruel as to let her worry like that. Why of
course--Ann had left a note for her.

So she looked for the note--tossed everything in the room topsy-turvey.
Even looked in the closet.

Again she heard Nora in the hall. "Nora," she said, and Katie's face
was white and pleading, "didn't Miss Ann say anything about leaving
me a note?"

"Why yes, Miss Kate--yes--sure she did. I was so upset about them
champagne glasses--"

"Well, where is it? Oh, hurry, Nora. Tell me."

"Why it's in the desk, Miss Kate. She said you was to look in the desk."

She ran to it with a sob. "Nora, how could you let me--"

Nora was saying again that she was so worried about the champagne
glasses--

The desk, of course, would be the last place one would think of looking
for a note!

She found, and with trembling fingers smoothed out the note; it had been
crumpled rather than folded. It was brief, and so written she could
scarcely read it.

"You see, Katie, you _can't_--you simply _can't_. So I'm going. When you
come back, you won't want me to. That's why I've got to go now. I'd tell
you--only I don't know. I'll get a train--just any train. I can't write.
Because for one thing I haven't time--and for another if I began to say
things I'd begin to cry--and then I wouldn't go. I've got to keep just
this feeling--the one I told you about its _having_ to be--

"Katie, you're not like the rest of your world, but it is your world--and
see what you get when you try to be any different from it!

"Oh Katie--I didn't think I'd be leaving like _this_. I didn't think I'd
ever say to you--"

There it ended.

"Miss Kate," Nora said, "Major Dar