FullReads

“He’s an awfully grand old fellow, you know. I could never talk to him as I do to the boys. If he thinks it his duty to marry me, I don’t know if I can help myself. Poor Uncle George! I’ve always called him ‘uncle’ like his own nieces, who are all my friends. I never thought that I should be ‘poor-ing’ Uncle George! But he can’t have heard yet of Micky’s marriage. Fancy his going down to the ranch to stay with Micky and that woman! And then for a girl like me to toss him aside, after such a journey and such kindness! I don’t know how I shall ever have courage to do it. There are fine women in London who would jump at the chance of being Mrs. Harshaw–not Mrs. Micky, nor Mrs. Stephen, nor Mrs. Sidney, but Mrs. Harshaw, you understand?” I understood.

“And now,” she said, producing the second letter, “you will laugh! And you may!”

The envelope contained a notification, in due form, of the arrival from New York, charges not paid, of some five hundred pounds of second-class freight consigned to Mrs. Harshaw, Harshaw’s ranch, Glenn’s Ferry (via Bisuka).

“These things belong to me,” said Kitty. “They cost me the last bit of money I had that was my own. Mrs. Percifer, who is so clever at managing, persuaded me I should need them directly on the ranch–curtains and rugs and china, and heaven knows what! She nearly killed me, dragging me about those enormous New York shops. She said it would be far and away cheaper and better to buy them there. I didn’t mind about anything, I was so scared and homesick; I did whatever she said. She saw to getting them off, I suppose. That must have been her idea, directing them to Mrs. Harshaw. She thought there would be no Kitty Comyn, no me, when these got here. And there isn’t; this is not the Kitty Comyn who left England–six weeks, is it?–or six years ago!”

“How did the letter reach you?” I asked. We examined the envelope. It bore the postmark, not of Bisuka, but of Glenn’s Ferry, which is the nearest post-office to the Harshaw ranch. Micky’s wife had doubtless opened the letter, and Micky, perceiving where the error lay, had reinclosed, but some one else had directed it–the postmaster, probably, at his request–to Kitty, at our camp. That was rather a nice little touch in Micky, that last about the direction.

“Come, he is honest, at the least,” I said, “whether Mrs. Micky would have scrupled or not. She could claim the things if she chose.”

“She is quite welcome,” said Kitty. “I don’t know what in the world I shall do with them. There’ll be boxes and bales and barrels–enough to bury me and all my troubles. I might build me a funeral pyre!”

We fell into each other’s arms and screamed with laughter.

“Kitty, we’ll have an auction,” I cried. “There’s nothing succeeds like an auction out here. We’ll sell the things at boom prices–we’ll sell everything.”

“But the bride,” said Kitty; “you will have to keep the bride.” And without a moment’s warning, from laughing till she wept, she began to weep in earnest. I haven’t seen her cry so since she came to us, not even that miserable first night. She struggled with herself, and seemed dreadfully ashamed, and angry with me that I should have seen her cry. Did she suppose I thought she was crying because she wasn’t going to be a bride, after all?

* * * * *

“Oh, Mrs. Daly, I feel so ill!” were Kitty’s first words to me when I woke this morning. I looked her over and questioned her, and concluded that a sleepless night, with not very pleasant thoughts for company, might be held responsible for a good share of her wretchedness.