'm settled.

"Manuella, the clever little Mexican maid who
has tided us over various emergencies, is
coming to help Betty with the work, so that the
writing may not be interfered with. Yours, once
more on the march towards the Canaan of her
desire,

"M. W."

The next was a note scribbled at some junction near the end of her
journey.

"Five hours late, so we've missed connection
and are side-tracked here, waiting for the fast
express to pass us. Nothing at all has happened
as there usually does on my travels, and I've
met no interesting people. But I've had a
really thrilling time just guessing what my
future is to be like. I've imagined Mrs. Dudley
Blythe to be every kind of a woman that would
be likely to employ a secretary, from a
stern-eyed suffragette to a modern Mrs. Jellyby
interested in the heathen. All I've had to
build on was Madam Chartley's night letter and
Mrs. Blythe's telegram in answer to mine, and
naturally that was slim material.

"What I'm hoping is, that Mrs. Blythe is a
grand society dame, who needs a secretary to
attend to her invitations and list of
engagements. I'd like for her to be that, or
else a successful writer who wanted me to type
her manuscript. It would be so lovely to be
behind the scenes at the making of a book, and
maybe to meet a lot of literary lions at close
range. I've blocked out enough scenes from
those two situations to fill a two-volume
Duchess novel. But, in order to keep from being
too greatly disappointed, I tell myself that
it's not at all probable that Mrs. Blythe will
be either of those things. Most likely she's in
a big mail-order business of some kind that
requires a large correspondence, and I'll be
tamely quoting prices on hats, hair-goods or
imported trimmings for the next dozen years. I
am 'minded that:

"'There are two moments in a diver's life.
One when, a beggar, he prepares to plunge,
One when, a prince, he rises with his pearl.
_Festus, I plunge!_'

"More anon. MARY."

* * * * *

"June 15, RIVERVI