egraph,--getting her to address it in
one of her envelopes and seal it with her own new seal, he said, with a
pensive smile that made him very handsome, "Garnet will think it's from
a woman--till he opens it."

It read as follows:

"Your Construction Company smells. _Courier_ mum--but firm--money
all got to stay in Three Counties, no matter who's on top. Last man
one Yank too many. _Courier_ may have to combine with Halliday.

"Yours to count on, J. J."

John did not see Fannie that evening on his return from the station. He
only received at second hand her request to call in the morning. She had
gone to bed and taken her medicine, and was resting quietly, said the
nurse. But when John asked if the patient was asleep, the nurse
confessed she hardly thought so. She might have told how, listening
kindly at the patient's door, she had heard her turn in bed and moan,
"Oh, God! why can't I die?" But she had often heard such questions asked
by persons with only a headache. And besides, there is always the
question, To whom to to tell things. Where did this most winning young
man stand? The only fact quite clear either to her, the clerks,
bell-boys or chambermaids, was that when he stood in front of the
bridegroom he completely hid him from view.

Though lost to sight, however, Fannie was still a tender care in the
memory of John March--if we may adapt one of his mother's gracefulest
verses. He went to his hotel fairly oppressed with the conviction that
for Fannie's own sake it was his duty to drop a few brief lines to
Barbara Garnet--ahem! Mr. March's throat was absolutely sound, but
sometimes, when he wasn't watching, it would clear itself that way. To
forestall any rumor that might reach Miss Garnet from Suez, it was but
right to send her such a truthfully garbled account of the Ravenels and
himself that she would see at a glance how perfectly natural, proper and
insignificant it was for him to be lingering in a strange city with a
sick bride whom he had once hoped to marry, the bridegroom being sick
also and several hundred miles away. At the same time this would give
him opportunity to explain away the still mortifying awkwardness of his
last parting with Miss Garnet--without, however, really alluding to it.
No use trying to explain a thing of that sort at all unless you can
explain it without alluding to it.

He was ready, early in the evening, to begin; but lost some time trying
to decide whet