I told him he
would be held responsible for giving the story to that newspaper,
but he said that as long as it was true, as he could prove by my
letter, that the editor of the newspaper had a perfect right to use
it if he wished. He pointed out that it was nothing against Mr.
Gray's character and therefore legitimate news.

"Then he had the unspeakable temerity to ask me if he might call on
me. You can imagine what I said. Thank goodness and you that I
found him out in time. I would be happier with a blind, deaf and
dumb man who couldn't walk than to be married to such a person. I
am _so_ angry. I have written another letter to dear Mrs. Gray
explaining the whole thing. She was so sweet to me when in Oakdale
that I felt it my duty to tell her everything. Will you go to her
and explain even more fully? You can fill in any gaps which my
letter to her may contain. Tell her every single thing about me. I
wish her to know it. I am sending her letter by special delivery
also. Must hurry and post both letters, so I will close. Write to
me soon.

"Faithfully,

"DAFFYDOWNDILLY THAYER

("To the end of the chapter.")

Grace laid down this energetic communication with a faintly glad sigh.
This snarl at least had righted itself. Suppose it were an omen? "The
beginning of the end," she had said. It was a little thing, but in some
indefinable fashion her heart grew lighter. As Arline's letter had come
to her in time of need, perhaps out of the vast unknown would come some
sign of or from the lost one.

Her straight brows arched themselves in surprise as she devoted herself
to the reading of a letter from Miriam Nesbit.

"BELOVED LOYALHEART:

"Can you, your father and mother come to New York City at once?
Everett and I are to be married on Friday evening at eight o'clock,
then take a night train for California. So my well-laid plans for a
grand wedding the last of October will have to end in mere
announcement cards. But I'll explain. You know I told you of those
wonderful open-air performances of Greek plays that have been going
on at a spot not far from Ravenwood, the motion picture studio
where Everett and Anne filmed Hamlet and Macbeth. To go back to the
Greek plays--they will end next week. They have proved so
successful that the management wishes to follow them with a