rattled, and the
small boy who had brought the message eyed him with curiosity.

"Any answer?"

The question was reassuring. It suggested that Persis was still to be
reached by mundane means of communication. Joel regarded the lad
appealingly.

"Say, son, do you know what's in this?"

"Naw!" The boy's tone showed impatience tinged with contempt. "Why
don't you look and see for yourself?"

The suggestion seemed reasonable, and Joel followed it. The
typewritten enclosure blurred before his eyes, and so strong is the
force of apprehension that he seemed to see words of ominous import
staring up at him through the confusion. Then the mist cleared and his
forebodings with it.

"Home on four-twenty train not necessary to meet me tell Mary to have
plenty for supper.

"Persis Dale."

Joel felt the sense of grievance which is the almost inevitable sequel
to groundless fears. "There's no answer," he told the boy gruffly.
The urchin sidled away and Joel stood rigid, regarding the slip in his
hand. His first move was to count the words. Seventeen! Joel
groaned. What extravagance. If she had said "unnecessary" instead of
"not necessary" there would have been a saving of one to begin with.
And the closing injunction might have been omitted altogether. "Tell
Mary to have plenty for supper." What an extraordinary request to
telegraph from the city of Boston. Could it be that in the metropolis
of New England she had lacked for food to satisfy the pangs of appetite?

So absorbed did he become in attempting to solve the riddle that he
almost forgot to impart the contents of the telegram to Mary. The
fresh-colored farmer's daughter who had found life extremely monotonous
without the vivacious presence of her mistress, heard the news with
elation and showed no surprise over the concluding request.

"I've heard how they feed folks in them city places. Ma's cousin was a
waiter in a Boston boarding-house onct, and she says she was fairly
ashamed to set before folks the little dabs that was served out, for
all the world like samples. I guess after two whole weeks of that kind
of food, Miss Dale's good and hungry."

Joel noticed with irritation that Persis had carried her independence
to the point of suggesting that it was not necessary for him to meet
her, though she was well aware that his presence at the station when
the four-twenty train came in, had taken on almost the sacredness of a
religious rite. "