or Miss Rice, and my wife neatly imitated
your hand on an envelope and sent it over to her just before you came
in. Funny, isn't it? Laugh on! Don't mind _us_!"

Welling, aghast: "Thought my note was for Miss Rice? Sent it to her?
Gracious powers!" They all stand for a moment in silence, and then
Welling glances at the paper in his hand. "But there's some mistake. You
haven't sent my note to Miss Rice: here it is now!"

Campbell: "Oh, that's the best of the joke. Mrs. Campbell took a
copy"--Mrs. Campbell moans--"she meant to have some fun with you about
it, and it's ten times as much fun as _I_ expected; and in her hurry she
sent off her copy and kept the original. Perhaps that makes it better."

Mrs. Campbell, detaching herself from him and confronting Mr. Welling:
"No; worse! She'll think we've been trying to hoax her, and she'll be in
a towering rage; and she'll show the note to Miss Greenway, and you'll
be ruined. Oh poor Mr. Welling! Oh, what a fatal, fatal--mix!" She
abandons herself in an attitude of extreme desperation upon a chair,
while the men stare at her, till Campbell breaks the spell by starting
forward and ringing the bell on the table.

Mrs. Campbell: "What are you doing, Willis?"

Campbell: "Ringing for Jane." As Jane appears: "Did you give Miss Rice
the note?"

IV

_JANE; MRS. CAMPBELL; WELLING; CAMPBELL_

Jane: "No, sir; I gave it to the man. He said he would give it to Miss
Rice."

Campbell: "Then it's all up. If by any chance she hadn't got it, Amy,
you might have sent over for it, and said there was a mistake."

Jane: "He said Miss Rice was out driving with Miss Greenway in her
phaeton, but they expected her back every minute."

Mrs. Campbell: "Oh, my goodness! And you didn't come to tell me? Oh, if
we had only known! We've lost our only chance, Willis."

Jane: "I did come and knock on your door, ma'am, but I couldn't make you
hear."

Campbell: "There's still a chance. Perhaps she hasn't got back yet."

Jane: "I know she ain't, sir. I've been watching for her ever since. I
can always see them come, from the pantry window."

Mrs. Campbell: "Well, then, don't stand there talking, but run at once!
Oh, Willis! Never tell me again that there's no such thing as an
overruling providence. Oh, what an interposition! Oh, I can never be
grateful and humble enough--Goodness me, Jane! why don't you go?"

Jane: "Go where, ma'am? I don't know what you want me to do. I'm willing
enough