THE Admiral and the met face to face in the Army and Navy Club at Washington, and each looked as if he were a about to tumble into the clutches of the law. After a moment of mute of each other's faces the Admiral asked:  
"Jermyn, how on earth did you reach here? I thought I left you at Fort Monroe?"
 
"And I," said Jermyn, "supposed I had left you at Old Point, when I suddenly ran up here on a matter of personal business."
 
"Ah! Trying to be transferred to some other branch of the service, where there's more chance of ? Well, I can't blame you. In time of peace a man must wait a long while for his just deserts, and in time of war he may be killed before they can reach him. 'Tis a queer world."
 
"It certainly is, or some things in it are very queer."
 
"Excuse a plain question, please. That letter upon which you and I a day or two ago at the club—was it——"
 
"Bless my soul, Jermyn, is that letter on your mind too? My dear boy, my sole purpose in [Pg 95]hurrying off to Washington last night was to recover that letter. I can't imagine where it is unless our enterprising friend Blogsham took it with him."
 
"You knew its contents?"
 
"Yes—unfortunately for my peace of mind since I was asked to read it. But you——"
 
"I," said Jermyn, "glanced at it, supposing it to be about the property you were discussing; I had no idea that it could be a private letter. You will understand why I would like to know something further about it, principally to save one woman, possibly two women, from great should the letter itself fall into the wrong hands."
 
"Possibly two women?" repeated the Admiral. "Do you mean to say that you don't know who the writer was?"
 
"I've not the slightest idea."
 
The Admiral knocked the ashes from his cigar, and took several , regarding Jermyn quizzically in the meantime, before he replied:
 
"Dear boy, you've a powerful friend at court, if your interests are what they might be. The writer of the letter, who I assure you is not a member of my own family, was writing to some one to whom she has an entire right to open her mind freely. If that little scamp Trixy hadn't—"
 
"Aha! Mrs. Highwood was the writer, eh?"
 
Jermyn seemed greatly relieved by his discovery, but the Admiral said indignantly:
 
"Jermyn, you ought to be ashamed of yourself for an old friend in that way— [Pg 96]you really ought. Beside, you ought to be grateful that so good a woman is taking so great interest in you. As to the lady whom she named, any man alive ought to be glad of an opportunity to make love to her, and marry her, but if you don't think so——"
 
"I agree with you, Admiral, but if the lady herself chances to hear of it—if our mining acquaintance chances to be one of the fellows who sees a joke in everything, and doesn't care to whom he tells it, and if he has the letter, and shows it to acquaintances—well, you know how a story gains by being passed from man to man."
 
"Quite true, quite true," the Admiral with a . "We must look the fellow up, and at once. Bless me! To think that all this trouble came about through a child asking me to finish a letter to her father. If I could lay my hands upon that youngster at this moment I'd—I'd——"
 
"You'd probably with her as pleasantly as if nothing had occurred."
 
"Yes, probably."
 
Trixy would have been glad of some one to romp with at that moment, for she was very unhappy. Her mother seemed wretched; at other times when Trif was troubled in mind, Trixy had been quick to note it and to be very affectionate, and had been so successful as to be called her mamma's greatest comfort. Fenie, too, was , for Trif had told her what was in the missing letter, and Fenie was sure that if the letter itself fell into hands, [Pg 97]and Kate should hear about it, and learn who was the writer, there would be another danger of coolness between the two families, for Kate was too proud to endure any interference with her own affairs. Fenie had her own reasons for objecting to any such trouble, for she was very happy with ; there had been no talk of love, but none was necessary. Young people have ways of understanding each other quite independently of words; do not even deaf mutes fall in love?
 
Now, however, even Fenie's pleasant chats with Harry might have to be suspended, for Trif was in such fear and mortification that she would scarcely leave her room, and Fenie did not like to appear unattended and unwatched by her sister. No one would talk if she were seen with Kate and Harry together, but Fenie herself, like Trif, had imagined all sorts of possible and impossible ways by which that dreadful letter, or some report of it, might reach Kate.
 
So, the sisters sat in their room, and feared, and felt like a couple of criminals to whom the worst might happen. They exchanged forebodings, all of which were overheard by Trixy, who received a reproachful look with each, and did quite a lot of silent weeping on her own account, and neither her mother nor her aunt dried her eyes with kisses, as they usually did at home after she had done something wrong, and .
 
But the kind power that looks after children and fools came finally to Trixy's relief, for Trif suddenly said:
 
 
 
"Surely the mail is distributed by this time, and I can have at least the of a letter from dear Phil. Trixy, go down to the office and ask for letters for our room."
 
Trixy flew away like a bird from an opened cage, and no sooner did she reach the lower floor than she dashed through one of the exits to the beach. How delicious the sunlight was, after part of a morning in a half-darkened room!—the child felt as if she were bathing in it. And the beach, too, with its long edging of smooth, hard sand,—she must have just one run on it, from to pier, and back again.
 
It was a merry run, but it put her out of breath, so she threw herself down upon the sand to rest for a moment, and the warm-hearted sand welcomed her so pleasantly that she waited a moment longer, and then another, and soon she began to , for contemplation of other people's troubles had wearied her early in the day.
 
Suddenly she was roused by the touch of a parasol-tip. Looking up, she saw Kate Trewman, who said:
 
"Trixy, is your family ill, or merely sleepy? They usually are down early to............