having a really, truly sweetheart of our own is such a new experience – ”
“Come down on the steps and be comfy,” added Lorna.
“No, I’ll read it here,” said Henrietta, and she opened the letter. “Well – there’s part I can’t read to you – ”
“Of course.”
“And then he says, ‘I thought of you a hundred times while on my fishing trip. Some day you must learn to cast a fly so we can make some of these trips together. You would be the best of companions. And now, dearest girl, I want to ask you the most important question of all. Do you think you can make your preparations so that we can be married in August?’”
“In August!” cried Gay. “I thought it was going to be impossible before next year, Etta?”
“It is a change in his plans,” said Henrietta. “Shall I read the rest?”
“Do, please,” said Gay, and “Yes, indeed,” said Lorna.
“‘I’m asking this, dear,’ he goes on,” said Henrietta, “‘because I have just had most wonderful news. I’m to be sent to Africa. A big job’ – the biggest I ever had. It is wonderful country and I want you to enjoy it with me. It is too far to go without you. So it must be an August wedding because we have to sail in September!’”
“Henrietta! How grand!” Gay cried.
“Isn’t it?” Henrietta agreed. “Africa, girls! Just think of it! Am I not the luckiest thing?”
“Think of it, young Lemuel,” Lorna said.
“Her sweetheart is going to marry her and carry her off to Africa, where the lions are. You see what I shall expect of you, young man. The very least you can do is to get ready to carry me off to Europe.”
“And me to Asia,” said Gay.
Lem said nothing. He knew they were teasing. “And listen to this, girls,” Henrietta continued. “‘You’ll forgive me, Etta dear, for asking you to agree to such an early wedding. I know it is apt to find you unprepared and you must let your crude lover do the unconventional this once. I want you to tell me I can send you a few of my miserable dollars – ten hundred, let us say, so they may be made happy dollars by aiding your preparations.’”
Henrietta folded the letter.
“What do you think of that, Gay?” she asked. “Should I let him? Would it be right?”
“Of course! Why not, under the circumstances?” Gay answered.
“When he asked you to go so far and so soon,” said Lorna.
“I hoped you would say so,” said Henrietta. “I only wanted your approval. You know what it means to me. It will let me use what I have saved – the money I would never touch – and I can pay you both all I owe you, and what I owe Miss Susan. It makes everything so much easier and happier for me. And of course you’ll help me get ready; I’ll have so much to do!”
“As if we were n’t mad to,” said Gay. “You must write him at once, Henrietta; tell him it is all right.”
“I ‘m going right upstairs to do it this minute,” Henrietta answered, and she went into the house, humming happily.
Gay looked at Lorna quizzically. Lorna laughed.
“What do you think of it now?” Gay asked in a low tone. “Did you notice? She would not come down to the step to read the letter.”
“I did notice. And did you see the ink spot on the back of the envelope? The same spot that was on it when she read the last letter from her ‘William’ and the one before that?”
“Yes, I did notice. I’m positive it is the same envelope. I believe you are right; I believe she does write the letters to herself. Is n’t it funny? Is n’t it amazing?”
“Or sad or something?” Lorna said. “Gay, what do you think of it, really? What does it mean?”
“Did she try to borrow some money from you this morning?” Gay asked.
“Yes, twenty-five dollars, but I did not have it.”
“I did have twenty. She got that,” Gay said and giggled.
“Then you’ll see! She’ll get another present from her dear William to-morrow,” Lorna said. “Is n’t it just as I said; every time she borrows from us she gets a present from dear William? You’ll see. It will be something worth about twenty dollars. Say, Gay – ”
“Yes?”
“You know I said I did not believe her William was really engaged to her at all?”
“Yes?”
“Well, I don’t believe there is any William. I don’t believe he exists. I think Henrietta made him up entirely. I believe she invented him.”
“Oh, lovely!” Gay cooed. “Is n’t she wonderful? But why, Lorna? Why should she?”
“That’s what I’ve been wondering. Not just to get money from us, because she uses it to buy the presents she says her William sends. She has no need to buy presents for her William to send. We would believe in her William quite as easily without the presents.”
“Is n’t it exciting?” Gay cooed again.
“Well, I never knew anything like it, I’ll say that,” agreed Lorna. “When you think of the trouble she has gone to, and how she has kept it up. Gay, do you think she has any idea we don’t believe her?”
“Of course not! But isn’t it the strangest thing for anybody to do?”
“I don’t know,” said Lorna thoughtfully. “I’ve been thinking about it a lot since I first had a suspicion, and it is n’t really so strange. You know what Henrietta is like. She loves to shine. She hates to play second fiddle. Do you remember when we first heard of her dear Billy?”
“When she was at Spirit Lake, where she said she met him. She wrote about the engagement from there.”
“Yes,” said Lorna; “and do you remember what was going on here in Riverbank just before she went on vacation?”
“I don’t remember.”
“Don’t tell me you don’t remember how Carter Bruce was rushing you then!” scoffed Lorna. “I remember perfectly well that Henrietta and I agreed you and Carter would be engaged before the summer ended.”
“Oh, Carter Bruce!” admitted Gay. “Of course, he was fussing around. He is always fussing around. Or was.”
“Yes, and we thought he was going to steal you, Gay. Well – that’s the answer!”
“You mean – ”
“Of course! Henrietta just couldn’t stand having you engaged when she was not. So she invented Billy Vane while she was at Spirit Lake, and told us he had gone out to Colorado, where he would be out of the way.”
“But who writes her the letters from Colorado?”
“How do I know? She may have a brother out there. That is easy. She would have dear Bill go wherever there was some one who could write her a letter now and then. And Henrietta does the rest. It is n’t so impossible when you think of it that way, is it? After she had invented dear Bill it was natural enough that she should keep him alive and interested, when we were so interested.”
“Lorna, it is the greatest thing I ever heard of!” exclaimed Gay. “And I think you are a wizard to discover the truth.”
“No, I’m not,” said Lorna. “Just think back, Gay. The strange thing is that we did not hit on it sooner. Think! Can’t you remember a hundred things that should have made us suspicious?”
“Yes,” Gay admitted. “Especially the presents, and the way she borrows just before the presents come.”
“And never letting us see a single letter, and always moving away when we come