Part 15 (1/2)
”Then why not adopt your father's suggestion, and cable? It isn't you who are cabling, you know.”
”I couldn't consent to that. It would look as if we were in a hurry, wouldn't it?”
”Then let me cable.”
”You? To whom?”
”Hand me up that despised book, Kate, and I'll write my cablegram on the fly-leaf. If you approve of the message, I'll go to the hotel, and send it at once.”
Katherine gave her the book, and lent the little silver pencil which hung jingling, with other trinkets, on the chain at her belt. Dorothy scribbled a note, tore out the fly-leaf, and presented it to Katherine, who read:
”Alan Drummond, Bluewater Club, Pall Mall, London. Tell Lamont that his letter to Captain Kempt was delayed, and did not reach the Captain until to-day. Captain Kempt's reply will be sent under cover to you at your club. Arrange for forwarding if you leave England.
”Dorothy Amhurst.”
When Katherine finished reading she looked up at her friend, and exclaimed: ”Well!” giving that one word a meaning deep as the clear pool on whose borders she stood.
Dorothy's face reddened as if the sinking western sun was s.h.i.+ning full upon it.
”You write to one another, then?”
”Yes.”
”And is it a case of--”
”No; friends.h.i.+p.”
”Sure it is nothing more than that?”
Dorothy shook her head.
”Dorothy, you are a brick; that's what you are. You will do anything to help a friend in trouble.”
Dorothy smiled.
”I have so few friends that whatever I can do for them will not greatly tax any capabilities I may possess.”
”Nevertheless, Dorothy, I thoroughly appreciate what you have done. You did not wish any one to know you were corresponding with him, and yet you never hesitated a moment when you saw I was anxious.”
”Indeed, Kate, there was nothing to conceal. Ours is a very ordinary exchange of letters. I have only had two: one at Bar Harbor a few days after he left, and another longer one since we came to the hotel, written from England.”
”Did the last one go to Bar Harbor, too? How came you to receive it when we did not get ours?”
”It did not go to Bar Harbor. I gave him the address of my lawyers in New York, and they forwarded it to me here. Lieutenant Drummond was ordered home by some one who had authority to do so, and received the message while he was sitting with me on the night of the ball. He had got into trouble with Russia. There had been an investigation, and he was acquitted. I saw that he was rather worried over the order home and I expressed my sympathy as well as I could, hoping everything would turn out for the best. He asked if he might write and let me know the outcome, and, being interested, I quite willingly gave him permission, and my address. The letter I received was all about a committee meeting at the Admiralty in which he took part. He wrote to me from the club in Pall Mall to which I have addressed this cablegram.”
There was a sly dimple in Katherine's cheeks as she listened to this straightforward explanation, and the faintest possible suspicion of a smile flickered at the corner of her mouth. She murmured, rather than sang:
”'A pair of lovesick maidens we.'”
”One, if you please,” interrupted Dorothy.