AS and Fenie had no fortunes complicated by of paper in another man's pocket, they had every reason to be happy, yet soon they found themselves very much to the contrary. Fenie had begun early, like a loyal wife that was to be, to tell Harry of everything that was on her mind, and Harry, like a good brother, began to be concerned about his sister's . The family fortunes were not in as bad condition as Trixy had led the Admiral to fear, but what loving brother could be entirely cheerful while his sister was in danger of losing fifty thousand dollars?  
He began to be absent-minded at home, and Kate quickly noticed it, and asked him what was the matter, and when he replied, "Nothing," he did it in a tone that whatever was the matter was the reverse of nothing, so she set herself to discovering what it could be. She at once assumed that it was trouble of some sort between him and Fenie, and she to it, no matter what it might be. They were children, Harry and Fenie, in Kate's estimation, and would need her sisterly care and until they were safely married.
 
 
With the best of intentions she called upon Fenie to find out all about it, and she found the girl in a state of high excitement, for she had been Trif to search every place in the house where those awful could possibly have been put, for Phil, like many another man, was an at dropping the contents of his pockets in unexpected places. Kate was thinking of nothing but the business on which she had come, so she proceeded to business.
 
"Harry seems quite unhappy," she began bluntly. "He is entirely unlike his usual merry self."
 
"Indeed?" replied Fenie vacantly.
 
"Yes; he looks as if he had slept scarcely a last night."
 
"Pshaw!" exclaimed Fenie with a slight frown.
 
Kate was somewhat provoked at this, but she controlled herself and continued:
 
"I asked him what was troubling him, but he wouldn't tell me, although he has always made me his confidant."
 
Fenie looked uncomfortable, but she showed no sign of becoming communicative, so Kate went on:
 
"Don't you suppose I would be of any service to you or him in the matter?"
 
"Not in the slightest degree," said Fenie, with a start. She was thinking only of the ridiculousness of Kate assisting at the work of the pockets of the various garments which Phil had worn since he missed the sketches, but Kate naturally failed to imagine that, so she misconstrued the gesture.
 
 
"I do hope, dear," she said, as sympathetically as she could, "that it isn't anything serious!"
 
"But it is," said Fenie, looking as if she would like the subject dropped. For that very reason Kate clung to it .
 
"Serious?—for two people who ought to love each other very dearly?"
 
"Yes," replied Fenie bluntly. She was afraid to say much, for, if she gave Kate any clue to the matter, she did not know how much further she might be persuaded to go. She knew that her tongue sometimes ran away with her, and she was not going to let Kate know anything about the missing letter and its double contents.
 
Suddenly Trif, who did not know that there was a visitor in the , called Fenie, and the girl, glad of an excuse, hurried away with the promise that she would return in a moment. When, however, she explained to her sister, Trif told her she was very silly not to see that Kate was misunderstanding matters, and supposing there was trouble between Fenie and Harry.
 
"But," said Fenie, "as she already knows that it concerns a couple who ought to love each other very dearly—those were her own words—she will think there is something wrong between her and Jermyn, or between you and Phil." Trif was by this view of the matter, so she and her sister set themselves to devise some way of throwing Kate off the , and, as neither of them had any experience in deceit, they evolved and discarded several plans in rapid succession.
 
Kate was becoming . She had a woman's sense of the courtesy that was due her, and she began to feel hurt by what seemed to be neglect. Just then Trixy into the parlor, from nowhere in particular, and Kate had no about questioning her.
 
"Trixy, dear," she said, "I'm very glad to see you."
 
Trixy indulged in a long stare before she replied:
 
"That's funny! You don't look as if you was."
 
"Don't I? I'm very sorry for it. The truth is, I'm greatly troubled about several things. I'm afraid, for one thing, that Harry and Fenie aren't as happy as they have been."
 
"I guess you're right," was the reply, "though I wouldn't have thought of it if you hadn't said so. They talked awful solemn to each other last night. I don't know what they was talkin' about, but once Harry put his hands all over his face and said: 'Oh, 'twill be awful—awful!'"
 
"Dear me! And what did your Aunt Fee say?"
 
"She didn't say nothin' for a long time, and then she said she thought he was makin' altogether too much fuss about it."
 
"About what?"
 
"I don't know, except she said somethin' about Mr. Jermyn bein' a real fine fellow anyway, so she thought Harry ought to be quiet, and make the best of it."
 
Jermyn! Aha! Harry was jealous! How much cause had he? If any, then she, Kate, had quite as much. Oh, the ways of very young women! Was Fenie's head still turned by the attention which Jermyn............