r I had packed my bag, I wrote a little note to him and put it
in a biscuit-box under a stone not far from my window, which we had
arranged for a post-office, just the day before."

"A post-office!" cried Mrs. Archibald.

"Yes," said Margery. "Of course there wasn't any need for one--at least we
did not suppose there would be--but we thought it would be nice; for, you
must know, we are engaged."

"What!" cried Mrs. Archibald. "Engaged? Impossible! What are you talking
about?"

"Yes," said Margery, "we are really engaged, and it was absolutely
necessary. Under ordinary circumstances this would not have happened so
soon, but as things were it could not be delayed. Mr. Clyde thought the
matter over very carefully, and he decided that the only way to keep me
from being annoyed and frightened by Mr. Raybold was for him to have the
right to defend me. If he told Mr. Raybold I was engaged to him, that of
course would put an end to the young man's attentions. We were engaged
only yesterday, so we haven't had any time to tell anybody, but we
intended to do it to-day, beginning with you and Uncle Archibald. Harrison
came over early to the post-office, hoping to find some sort of a note,
and he was wonderfully astonished when he read what was in the one I put
there. I told him not to say anything to anybody, and he didn't, but he
started off for Sadler's immediately, and came almost on a run, he says,
he was so afraid I might go away before he saw me."

"Margery," exclaimed the elder lady, tears coming into her eyes as she
spoke, "I am grieved and shocked beyond expression. What can I say to my
husband? What can I say to your mother? From the bottom of my heart I wish
we had not brought you with us; but how could I dream that all this
trouble would come of it?"

"It is indeed a very great pity," said Margery, "that Mr. Clyde and I
could not have been engaged before we went into camp; then Mr. Raybold
would have had no reason to bother me, and I should have had no trouble
with Martin."

"Martin!" cried Mrs. Archibald. "What of him?"

"Oh, he was in love with me too," replied the young girl, "and we had
talks about it, and I sent him away. He was really a young man far above
his station, and was doing the things he did simply because he wanted to
study nature; but of course I could not consider him at all."

"And that was the reason he left us!" exclaimed Mrs. Archibald. "Upon my
word, it is amazing!"

"Yes," said Marger