so much like
life that it was hard to think there was not real love and tenderness in
the eyes which looked into hers so steadfastly.

It was the hardest to forgive the letter hidden so long, and Jerrie did
feel a pang of resentment, or something like it, as she took it in her
hand and thought of the day when Arthur had confided it to her, saying
he could trust her when he could not another. And she had trusted Frank,
who had not been true to the trust, and here, after the lapse of years,
was the letter, in her hands, with its singular superscription, covering
its whole side, and its seal unbroken. But she would break it now.
Surely she might do that, if Arthur was never to see it; and after a
moment's hesitancy, she opened it, and read, first, wild, crazy
sentences, full of love and tenderness for the little Gretchen to whom
they were addressed, and whom the writer sometimes spoke to as living,
and again as dead. There was the expression of a strong desire to see
her, a wish for her to come where her husband was waiting for her, and
her diamonds too. Here Jerrie started with an exclamation of surprise,
and involuntarily read aloud:

'The most exquisite diamonds you ever saw, and I long to see them on
you. They are safe, too--safe from her--Mrs. Frank Tracy--who had the
boldness to flaunt them in my face at a party the other night. How she
came by them I can't guess; but I know how she lost them, I found them
on her dressing-table, where she left them when she went to breakfast,
and took possession at once. That was no theft, for they are mine, or
rather yours, and are waiting for you in my private drawer, where no one
has ever looked, except a young girl called Jerrie, who interests me
greatly, she is so much like what you must have been when a child. There
has been some trouble about the diamonds--I hardly know what, my head is
in such a buzzing most of the time that everything goes from me but you.
Oh, if I had remembered you years ago as I do now--'

Jerrie could read no further, for the letter dropped from her hands, as
she cried joyfully:

'I knew he had them. I was sure of it, though I did not know where they
were.'

Then very briefly she explained to Frank that on the morning when the
diamonds were missed, Arthur was so excited because Harold had been in a
way accused, and had rambled off into German, and said many things which
made her know that he had taken them himself and secreted them.

'You remember