OF CALIF. LIBRARY, LOS ANGELES
 
 TRIFandTRIXY 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN HABBERTON 
 
 AUTHOR OF " HELEN S BABIES." 
 
 A STORY OF A 
 DREADFULLY DE 
 LIGHTFUL LITTLE 
 GIRL AND HER 
 ADORING AND 
 TORMENTED PAR 
 ENTS, RELATIONS, 
 AND FRIENDS ft ft 
 
 Philadelphia 
 
 HENRY ALTEMUS 
 1897
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1,397, BY HKNRY AI.TEMVZ
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 A BABE IN THE HOUSE IS A WELL-SPRING OF 
 PLEASURE. 
 
 TRIXY was not a babe, for she had passed 
 her seventh birthday and was as wise 
 and irrepressible as the only child of a lov 
 ing father and mother usually becomes. Her 
 parents and relations continued to allude to her 
 as " the baby," and they might still be doing so 
 had not certain of her deeds checked them, and 
 compelled them to restrict themselves to her 
 rightful name, which was Beatrice, and to her 
 nickname, which was Trixy. 
 
 Trif was Trixy s mother, and did not entirely 
 approve of the name by which she was oftenest 
 addressed, for " Trif" seemed to imply some 
 thing trifling, while the real Trif was a young 
 matron as handsome and proud as Diana, and 
 as good and earnest as the saintly Roman woman 
 Tryphosa, for whom she was named. (All this 
 must be true, because Trif s husband, Phil 
 Highwood, said so and continues to say it.) 
 
 Whether she laughed or wept, dressed or 
 dusted, joked or prayed, Trif did it with all her 
 might; so it was not strange that her little 
 daughter was a very active and earnest creature 
 from the instant at which she first opened her 
 (3) 
 
 2130226
 
 4 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 baby lips to announce her appearance upon the 
 earthly stage. 
 
 Besides, Trixy s father \vas one of the con 
 scientious and nervous fellows who are always 
 wondering what to do next, always anxious to do 
 exactly what is right, always trying to do friendly 
 services to other people, and frequently blunder 
 ing horribly in the attempt ; so there was double 
 reason for what Trif called " dear Trixy s pecu 
 liarities" and other people alluded to as "that 
 child s awful doings." 
 
 Trif and Trixy lived far up town on the west 
 side of New York. The husband of the one and 
 the father of the other lived there too, although 
 he is of minor consequence in this veracious 
 narrative, for the neighbors and tradesmen knew 
 him best as " that little terror s father," or 
 " Mrs. Highwood s husband," and he was modest 
 enough and proud enough to be satisfied to be 
 known in this way. 
 
 With the family lived Trif s sister, Tryphena 
 Wardlow, known best to her friends as Fenie 
 a charming and exuberant girl who thought her 
 sister Trif the most perfect woman alive, was 
 sure that Trixy was the embodiment of all the 
 baby angels in heaven, and declared that she 
 never, never, never would think of marrying until 
 some man as simply perfect as her brother-in-law, 
 Phil Highwood.. should ask her, and as that 
 seemed impossible she had determined, at the 
 mature age of twenty years, to remain single for 
 ever, yet never become that dreadful creature 
 called " an old maid. 
 
 Fenie had no lack of suitors, old and young,
 
 A BABE IN THE HOUSE. 5 
 
 for all men like handsome girls who are also 
 good, merry and accomplished ; besides common 
 report had it that Fenie and her sister drew 
 between them five thousand dollars a year from 
 the estate of their New England parents. Com 
 mon report had set the figure about ten times 
 too high, but never took the trouble to correct 
 the mistake, so Fenie was the most attractive 
 young woman of the vicinity, and many were 
 the times when a merry evening which had been 
 planned by Phil, Trif, Fenie, and Trixy, was 
 spoiled by the appearance of some male visitor 
 who had to be treated civilly, and who couldn t 
 tear himself away from the witchery of Feme s 
 face and voice. 
 
 There was one young man, Harry Trewman, 
 whom Fenie seemed rather to like, and whom 
 Trif and Phil, with their larger knowledge of 
 human nature, wished their sister could like still 
 more, for he was intelligent, modest, and seemed 
 to have many virtues and no vices. They talked 
 much about him when they were alone alone 
 except for Trixy, who was always so competent 
 to amuse herself and to be absorbed by her 
 books and dolls and her own thoughts that she 
 seemed deaf to anything that was being said, 
 for it generally took half a dozen separate and 
 distinct remarks to make her change her dress, 
 or wash her hands, or go to bed. 
 
 The doorbell rang one evening while the 
 family still lingered at the supper table, and the 
 servant brought a card to Fenie. 
 
 " Oh, dear ! " exclaimed the girl with a pout. 
 " Here comes Harry Trewman, just as we were
 
 6 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 going to have a jolly game of parchesi with the 
 baby. I do think that callers might remain at 
 home on stormy nights, when a girl hasn t taken 
 the pains to dress for company. That young 
 man needs a lesson. He has sisters and they 
 ought to teach him that ladies don t expect calls 
 on stormy nights." 
 
 "It won t take you long to change your dress, 
 dear," suggested Trif. 
 
 "No, but " 
 
 " Be not unmindful to entertain strangers, 
 for thereby some have entertained angels un 
 awares, " quoted Phil, as he quartered a second 
 orange for Trixy. 
 
 "Angels umph ! " exclaimed Fenie. " Harry 
 Trewman doesn t resemble any angel of whom 
 I ever saw a picture. He s no stranger either, 
 goodness knows ; he s been here at least once a 
 week for a long time. You shouldn t ever quote 
 Scripture, Phil, unless the application is entirely 
 correct." 
 
 "Very well, then; Flee from the wrath to 
 come. Nothing makes Trif so provoked as 
 delay in greeting a visitor." 
 
 " Poor little Trixy. Her game will have to be 
 put off," murmured Fenie as she rose from the 
 table and kissed her niece. 
 
 " Never mind me," said Trixy, from behind a 
 kiss and a mouthful of orange. " The game will 
 keep, but Mr. Trewman won t, if you don t be 
 more careful." 
 
 "Won t keep?" exclaimed Fenie, with a 
 frown at the child and a suspicious glance at the 
 remainder of the family.
 
 A BABE IN THE HOUSE. 7 
 
 " Trixy ! " exclaimed Trif in her most severe 
 tone, while Phil put another section of orange 
 into the child s mouth and his hand over her lips, 
 while Trif continued : 
 
 " Go along, Fenie. Change your dress quick 
 ly ; I ll run up stairs and help you." 
 
 " And I," said Trixy, after a struggle with the 
 orange and her father s hand, " I ll entertain Mr. 
 Trewman till you come down." 
 
 Three adult smiles were slyly exchanged as 
 the child assumed an air of importance, tumbled 
 out of her high-chair and started toward the 
 parlor, while her mother and aunt slipped up the 
 back stairway and Phil buried his face in the 
 evening paper. 
 
 " Good evenin , Harry," said the little maid, as 
 she bounced into the parlor. 
 
 " Oh, Trixy ! " exclaimed the young man ris 
 ing in haste. " How do you do, little girl ? I m 
 very much obliged to you for calling me Harry. 
 It sounds as if you rather liked me." 
 
 " So I do," replied Trixy. " I s pose I ought 
 to have said Mr. Trewman, but papa and 
 mamma and Aunt Fee always calls you Harry 
 when they talk about you, so I said it without 
 thinkin ." 
 
 "Oh, they do, eh?" Mr. Trewman s clear 
 complexion flushed pleasurably and his mous 
 tache was twirled thoughtfully. If the family 
 talked of him familiarly, there seemed special 
 reason for him to hope. 
 
 " Yes, they do it lots. I get sick of it some 
 times, cause I want to ask em somethin , and 
 mamma says I mustn t ever interrupt grown
 
 8 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 people when they re talkin , so I can t ask it, and 
 afterward maybe I forget what I was going to 
 ask, and that bothers me like ev rythin ." 
 
 " You poor little sufferer ! " exclaimed the 
 young man. " I ought to do something very 
 nice for you, to make amends for causing you so 
 much trouble. What kind of candy do you most 
 like ? or mayn t I bring you a new doll ? " 
 
 " Papa and mamma don t like me to eat can 
 dy," said Trixy with a sigh. " They say it s bad 
 for my gestion. Have you got a gestion ? " 
 
 The young man admitted that he had, but he 
 hastily reverted to dolls as a more appropriate 
 topic of conversation. Trixy looked troubled 
 and finally said : 
 
 " Oh, dear ! Something always goes wrong. 
 I need a new baby doll awfully, for the kitten 
 bit the head off of my littlest one, but, you see, 
 papa and mamma says it isn t proper for young 
 ladies to accept presents from gentlemen." 
 
 " Oh, I see I beg a thousand pardons," 
 Trewman gravely replied. " But would you 
 object to my asking your parents permission to 
 give you a new doll the finest one that I can 
 find ?" 
 
 "Do it quick!" exclaimed Trixy, her eyes 
 dancing and her hands clapping gleefully. " I 
 don t think, though," she continued, after a 
 moment or two of thought, " that I ought to 
 take somethin for nothin , for papa says that 
 folks who do that are real mean." 
 
 " Something for nothing ? Why, you dear 
 little bundle of conscience, I m to give you the 
 doll in part payment for the trouble I have given 
 you. Don t you remember ? "
 
 A BABE /.V THE HOUSE. g 
 
 " Oh, yes ! To be sure. Well, I forget my 
 troubles as soon as I tell m, so so you don t 
 owe me anything." 
 
 Trixy looked sad as the promised doll began 
 to disappear from her mental vision, so the 
 young man said quickly : 
 
 " You must have the doll, now that we ve 
 talked about it, and so that I mayn t lose the 
 pleasure of giving it to you. You can give me 
 something for it, if you like for instance, give 
 me a penny, to wear on my watch-chain." 
 
 "I ll tell you what," exclaimed Trixy, her 
 face suddenly brightening. "I ll give you a 
 lesson for it. You like lessons, don t you I like 
 em like all I can get, and I ve got one for you 
 that Aunt Fee says you need, so I m sure you ll 
 like it, cause ev rybody likes what they need, 
 don t they ? " 
 
 The young men admitted that they ought, if 
 they didn t, but his face quickly became grave, 
 and he looked furtively toward the door through 
 which Fenie would appear, as he whispered : 
 
 " Tell it to me quickly." 
 
 " Well, it ain t a very big lesson, but you 
 needn t give me a very big doll. Let me see 
 what was that lesson she said you needed ? Oh, 
 I remember : she said that young men ought to 
 know better than to go calling on stormy nights, 
 when ladies don t dress up and be ready to see 
 company. She said you needed a lesson about 
 it, and you had sisters, and they ought to teach 
 it to you. Mebbe, though, your sisters don t 
 like to give lessons ? " 
 
 " They re not as active at it as they might be,"
 
 io TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 replied the man as he arose hastily and took 
 from his coat pocket a small package. " But er 
 perhaps I am not as much to blame as I seem. 
 I dropped in to leave a book which your Aunt 
 Fee wished to read but couldn t find, and I 
 promised to get it for her. 1 might have left it 
 at the door, but I was thinking very hard at the 
 time about about a person in whom I am 
 greatly interested, so I managed to " 
 
 " Oh, do you do that ? " asked Trixy, follow 
 ing the young man, who was moving rapidly 
 toward the front door. 
 
 "Do what?" 
 
 " Why, think of one thing while you ought to 
 be doing some other thing ? Cause if you do, 
 you re just like me." 
 
 " Bless you, my child," said Trewman, as he 
 opened the outer door, " I do it all the while. 
 Indeed, no matter what I am doing nowadays, 
 my mind is full of another subject. 
 
 " Dear me. What a nice subject it must be ! " 
 
 " So it is ; the very nicest subject in the 
 world." 
 
 "Oh! What is it?" 
 
 " I can t tell you now. Good-night ! " 
 
 " Will you tell me some other time ? " 
 
 " Yes, yes that js, I hope I may." 
 
 Five minutes later, when Miss Tryphena 
 Wardlow descended to the parlor she found only 
 Trixy, who was rocking ecstatically in her own 
 little chair and thinking of the doll to come. 
 
 "Where s Mr. Trewman?" asked the young 
 woman. 
 
 " He s gone. He left this book for you, but he 
 took his lesson with him."
 
 A BABE IN THE HOUSE. 11 
 
 "Lesson? What lesson?" 
 
 " Why, the one you said he needed. I gave it 
 to him, and he s goin to give me a doll for it." 
 
 Fenie looked puzzled for a moment; then her 
 face became very red and she exclaimed : 
 
 " You dreadful child ! Do you really mean 
 that you have repeated to Harry Trewman 
 the " 
 
 Fenie stopped abruptly, darted to the foot of 
 the stairs, shouted " Trif ! " dashed through the 
 hall to the dining room, and exclaimed, " Phil, 
 come into the parlor this instant." In a 
 moment a mystified couple was staring at a 
 young woman whose beauty was enhanced by a 
 great flush of indignation ; they also saw a tear 
 ful little girl who seemed to be trying to shrink 
 into nothingness. 
 
 It took an hour of scolding, and petting, and 
 warning, and kissing to prepare Trixy for bed, 
 but when the child was finally disposed of Phil 
 drawled : 
 
 "If you girls don t want things repeated by 
 that child you mustn t say them in her hearing." 
 
 " But she never seems to notice what is said," 
 explained Fenie. 
 
 "Umph! Neither does a phonograph cylin 
 der, but it gets them all the same." 
 
 "All this talk about Trixy doesn t make our 
 position toward Harry Trewman any the less 
 awkward," said Trif gravely. 
 
 " Oh, bother Harry Trewman," exclaimed 
 Fenie ; but there was a look in her face which 
 compelled Phil to glance slyly at his wife, and 
 Trif to respond with a merry twinkle of her 
 eyes.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 A TRANSACTION IN COTTON. 
 
 HP HE week that followed the Trixy-Trewman 
 1 incident was a trying one to Trif. Her 
 sister Fenie, although an intelligent and well- 
 educated young woman who could talk well on 
 many subjects, and whose interests were generally 
 as broad as those of a clever young woman should 
 be, would converse about nothing but the dread 
 ful position in which Trixy had placed her to 
 ward a young man whom she cared no more for 
 than for old Father Adam indeed, not as much, 
 for Adam was regarded by all good people of 
 New England extraction as a member of the 
 family, although somewhat remotely removed. 
 
 As for Trif, she had no patience with a girl 
 who did not know her own mind. When she 
 had first met Phil Highwood, nearly ten years 
 before, she knew at once what to think of him, 
 and she had never changed her mind. Neither 
 had she thought it necessary to talk of him to 
 the exclusion of everything and everybody 
 else not at least until she had been married to 
 him and before Trixy made her appearance as 
 the eighth wonder of the world and the most 
 important creature ever born. 
 
 It would never do, she argued, to betray her 
 
 (12)
 
 A TRANSACTION JN COTTON. 13 
 
 feelings to and about her sister, for she had de 
 termined to have Harry Trewman for a brother- 
 in-law, and her husband loyally supported her in 
 her decision. But what was to be done ? 
 
 Upon one thing she and her sister were 
 resolved, and one morning after breakfast the 
 couple called upon Phil to witness their resolu 
 tion, which was that they would never again say 
 in Trixy s hearing anything which could make 
 mischief by being repeated. Phil listened with 
 a smile so provoking that Fenie called him per 
 fectly horrid, while Trif playfully but vigorously 
 t>oxed his ears. 
 
 " Oh, you ll keep that resolution," Phil ad 
 mitted. " I ve no doubt whatever that both of 
 you will live up to it while the dear child is 
 asleep, but if either of you blessed women think 
 that you re going to leave anything unsaid that 
 you want to say while you re together you re 
 dangerously mistaken. You ve been sisters and 
 chums too long to hold your tongues at home." 
 
 " I flatter myself," said Trif loftily, while 
 Fenie pouted exuberantly, " that we have sense 
 enough to make each other understand what we 
 have to say, and at the same time keep the child 
 from knowing what we are talking about." 
 
 " Women aren t like men," added Fenie. " It 
 isn t always necessary for them to talk to make 
 themselves understood. Trif has told me thou 
 sands of things with her eyes, without saying a 
 word. 
 
 " She certainly has a remarkable faculty at 
 that sort of thing," said Phil, with a gentle pinch 
 at his wife s cheek She often conversed with
 
 14 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 me across the entire width of a crowded room 
 just as you ll probably do, Fenie dear, when the 
 proper man appears. At the present time, how 
 ever, there s no sign that either of you will let 
 your tongues suffer through lack of exercise." 
 
 " Trif," said Fenie, " isn t it about time for 
 your husband to be on his way to his office? I m 
 sure his employers will complain of him for being 
 late." 
 
 When Phil had departed, the two women, to 
 make assurance doubly sure, called Trixy and 
 gave a full hour of cautions against repeating 
 anything whatever that she might chance to 
 overhear in the house. She was reminded that 
 she was mamma s and auntie s little lady, and 
 that ladies never repeat what is said in the home 
 circle, and that nobody liked tale-bearers, and 
 that, although Harry Trewman was not of the 
 slightest consequence Fenie was elaborately 
 explicit on this point some dear friend of the 
 family might be greatly offended by hearing 
 something which was said only in fun. 
 
 Trixy listened attentively and promised pro 
 fusely; then she retired to her doll s nursery to 
 have a long season of thought over all that had 
 been said. Fenie often worried about the habits 
 of the child, for dreaming was more to her own 
 taste, but Trif said that Trixy s way was entirely 
 natural and proper; she had exactly the same 
 manner when she was a little girl ; besides, ac 
 cording to Phil s parents, the child s father had 
 done much retiring for thought in his youthful 
 days. 
 
 But Trixy had much besides thinking to do.
 
 A TRANSACTION IN COTTON. 15 
 
 She felt greatly mortified at having made any 
 trouble, and the less there seemed to be of the 
 trouble, according to her Aunt Fee, the more of 
 it there was according to Trif. She reverted 
 to the subject, again and again, asking number 
 less questions at unexpected times, generally 
 with the result of bringing a blush to Feme s face. 
 When Trif asked her husband what it could be 
 that made the child so curious, despite all that 
 had been done to belittle Harry Trewman in 
 connection with the incident, Phil s only reply 
 was: 
 
 " There s an old saying to the point " You 
 can t fool a child or a dog." 
 
 Meanwhile Trixy went on thinking, and one 
 day she came to her mother with a confession. 
 
 " You see, mamma, I thought about it a lot, 
 and I thought the best way not to repeat things 
 was not to hear em, so I made up my mind that 
 I wouldn t listen any more to anything that 
 wasn t said right straight to me." 
 
 " Sensible little girl," exclaimed Trif, showing 
 her approval further by a shower of caresses and 
 kisses. 
 
 " Oh," said Trixy, trying to escape, " but you 
 don t know how bad I am. Since I made up 
 my mind to stop hearing things I ve heard more 
 of them than ever." 
 
 "You poor little darling," exclaimed Trif, 
 snatching the child into her arms, " you must 
 stop tormenting yourself in that manner. Stop 
 thinking about it, dear. Listen when you like, 
 and when you don t. Perhaps that will cure 
 you."
 
 1 6 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 " Oh, I know a better way than that," said 
 Trixy, perching herself upon her mother s knee, 
 and looking up with the expression of a cherub. 
 "You remember that time when I had the ear 
 ache and you put cotton, with smelly stuff on it, 
 in my ears? Well, I couldn t hear a thing then. 
 Now, I think " 
 
 " Be quiet, dear," exclaimed Trif. " You talk 
 as if you were some dreadful creature from 
 somewhere, instead of mamma s darling, sweet, 
 good little daughter." 
 
 A morning call put an end to the interview, 
 but a few hours later, while Trif was sewing 
 busily and Fenie was talking volubly and aim 
 lessly about Harry Trewman, a light step was 
 heard in the room, and Fenie dropped her sub 
 ject for a moment, and exclaimed: 
 
 " Tryphosa Wardlow Highwood, will you look 
 at your daughter this instant ? " 
 
 Trixy was evidently expecting to be looked 
 at, and was pleased at the effect of her appear 
 ance. Over each ear was a great dark ball or 
 wad of something, her mother could not imagine 
 what, until examination showed that the outside 
 of each was a rubber tobacco pouch, two or three 
 of which Phil had discarded :when he gave up 
 smoking pipes. Inside of each was a mass of 
 raw cotton, and the mouth of each bag was tied 
 tightly around a juvenile ear. 
 
 " I can t hear hardly a thing," shouted Trixy. 
 " A little bit of cotton in each ear didn t make 
 much difference, but a whole lot on the outside 
 made lots, and the bags made more, beside keep 
 ing the cotton on. Now go on talkin all you 
 like; I m goin to read."
 
 A TRANSACTION IN COTTON. 17 
 
 " She shan t wear those dreadful things, ex 
 claimed Fenie, untying the bags, despite Trixy s 
 remonstrances. " She shan t keep cotton in her 
 ears, either. The idea of the darling little thing- 
 being " 
 
 " Let her have her way a little while," said 
 Trif. " It will amuse her, without harming any 
 one else. Besides, you may accidentally men 
 tion Harry Trewman in the course of the after 
 noon, and 
 
 There must have been a note of sarcasm in 
 Trif s voice, for Fenie retorted sharply : 
 
 " Tryphosa, this is your house, and if you dis 
 like that young man so much that you object to 
 the child hearing the sound of his name, why 
 I " 
 
 " Fenie ! Fenie, dear ! interrupted Trif, 
 scarcely able to control her voice and not daring 
 to lift her eyes from the work which she had 
 resumed. " Whatever you like to talk about, 
 you know I like to hear about. Aren t you my 
 only sister, and my " 
 
 " I didn t suppose that I talked much about 
 Harry Trewman," said Fenie, making a pre 
 tense of sewing industriously. 
 
 " You mean nothing but what is entirely right, 
 dear girl." 
 
 " Then why do you object to that innocent child 
 hearing what I say? I m sure that I say noth 
 ing which any one might not listen to do I ? " 
 
 " Certainly not ; still, don t you remember 
 what happened a night or two ago, dear, through 
 a certain child hearing something and repeat 
 ing it?"
 
 i8 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 "Yes, but " here Fenie looked cautiously 
 toward Trixy, who was reading, with an air of 
 utter absorption - " but I m not likely to speak so 
 foolishly again. Trif, do let me take the cotton 
 from that child s ears. It is making her uncom 
 fortable. See. She is rubbing one of her ears 
 now." 
 
 " She is sensible enough to complain when it 
 really hurts. You don t imagine that her mother 
 will let her suffer, do you ?" 
 
 "No, but well as I was saying, I don t really 
 talk much about Harry Trewman, do I ?" 
 
 Trif looked up so intently and roguishly that 
 Fenie blushed deeply, and the blush remained 
 while Trif said softly : 
 
 " Really, dear, you don t talk much about any 
 thing else." 
 
 "I don t see how you can say that," replied 
 Fenie with uncertain voice, " when you know 
 that I don t care anything or not much, for 
 him or about him. I don t suppose I would 
 have spoken his name a single time this week 
 if he hadn t come here last week, and if Trixy 
 hadn t made that dreadful blunder. You cer 
 tainly don t think me in love with him, I hope ? 
 
 " I hope not, dear. There are many grada 
 tions of feeling that a true woman must go 
 through before she can say honestly that she 
 is in love. But you well, you like him a little 
 better than you like any other of your admirers, 
 don t you ?" 
 
 " Ye es, I suppose I do," replied Fenie, her 
 voice not entirely under control. " He is gentle 
 manly, and honest-looking, and never brings the
 
 A TRANSACTION IN COTTON. 19 
 
 odor of liquor or tobacco with him. He doesn t 
 make silly attempts at flattery, and he talks a 
 great deal about his sisters, who are very nice 
 girls, and he knows when to go home, instead of 
 dawdling here until midnight, and we like the 
 same books and pictures, so " 
 
 " And so he is a pleasant acquaintance to 
 have too pleasant to lose entirely ?" 
 
 "Yes, indeed, and if it hadn t been for that 
 dreadful child there, Trif, she s rubbing that 
 ear again. I m sure she s in pain. Do let me 
 remove that ridiculous cotton." 
 
 " Tut, tut. Go on. You were saying " 
 
 " Oh, what was I saying ? What were we 
 talking about? asked Fenie, with charming but 
 entirely transparent hypocrisy. " Oh, I was 
 merely going to say that if Trixy hadn t made 
 that dreadful speech to him the other night, I 
 wouldn t have missed one delightful party 
 perhaps two, to which he and his oldest sister 
 would have taken me." 
 
 " Oh, I see. Tis only the parties that trouble 
 you." 
 
 " Tryphosa," exclaimed Fenie indignantly, as 
 she arose from her chair, " I think you re real 
 unkind real tormenting. First you make fun of 
 me for talking a lot about him, and then you 
 make me talk about him a great deal more. I 
 wasn t going to say a word about him this 
 afternoon, but you ve kept me at it in spite of 
 myself. Perhaps you don t want me to like him. 
 We ll, I shan t oblige you. I do like him. I m 
 not a bit in love with him, but I do like him 
 ever so much, and I m not a bit ashamed to say 
 so. There !"
 
 20 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 " Bravo !" exclaimed Trif, springing from her 
 chair and throwing her arms about her sister. 
 " I m glad that at last you know your own mind. 
 Now stop acting like a child, and be the woman 
 you have the right to be. I m proud of you, my 
 darling sister proud of your honesty and spirit. 
 But why, my dear girl, what is the matter ?" 
 
 " Harry s been driven away from here," sobbed 
 Fenie, " and I m dreadful unhappy about it, and 
 I want him to come back." 
 
 " Hurrah," sounded a high childish treble. 
 The sisters looked in the direction of the sound, 
 and there stood Trixy, with glowing cheeks and 
 dancing eyes as she continued : 
 
 " I want him to come back, too, for he prom 
 ised to bring me a doll." 
 
 " Trixy," exclaimed Fenie severely. Trixy 
 understood at once and looked guilty, but she 
 explained : 
 
 "One of the cottons dropped out, and I didn t 
 know a thing about it till you boo-hoo d."
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 UNAPPRECIATED. 
 
 " F)HIL," said Trif from her pillow one 
 1 morning very early, "are you awake?" 
 Phil half wished he wasn t, for he was just 
 
 sinking into the morning s final doze, but loyalty 
 
 compelled him to admit that he was not asleep. 
 "I m so glad, responded Trif, "for I ve 
 
 thought out a plan for making matters right 
 
 once more between Fenie and Harry. 
 
 " So have I, my dear, so between us we ll be 
 
 sure to succeed. Now let s drop asleep again; 
 
 if we talk much we ll get Trixy awake far too 
 
 long before breakfast, which won t be good for 
 
 her." 
 " There s no danger. The dear little thing 
 
 sleeps soundly nowadays. What is your plan ?" 
 " Tis simply to invite him and his sister 
 
 Kate to dinner." 
 " How stupid ! You don t suppose he ll come 
 
 after what he heard the last time he was here?" 
 " Won t come ? Why not ?" 
 " Because he was rudely driven away. " 
 " Nonsense ! Did you ever drive flies from 
 
 sugar or sweetmeats ? Didn t they return as 
 
 soon as they saw a ghost of a chance ? " 
 
 (21)
 
 22 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 " I don t think the comparison is complimen 
 tary, either to my sister or to Harry. 
 
 " Why not ? Fenie is the sweetest creature 
 that I know of, except you, and if Harry can or 
 will keep away from her he s not half the man I 
 take him to be." 
 
 " But he certainly has some self-respect ? " 
 
 " Yes, far too much to be discouraged by a 
 single rebuff. Do you suppose I d have lost you 
 through any such reason as you think is keeping 
 him away at present? I suppose he may be 
 feeling dismal, poor fellow, but at the same time 
 he s learning how much he cares for Fenie, 
 which isn t a bad sort of knowledge for a young 
 man to have. As to Fenie 
 
 " Sh h ! I didn t mean to tell you about 
 her, for the secret is hers, not mine, and 
 
 " But you couldn t keep anything from your 
 husband, oh ? Well, this heart is a safe place 
 to come to with confidences." 
 
 " Phil, dear. Do be serious a moment ! " 
 
 " I never was more serious in my life, my 
 dear. Havn t I just ruined the last nap to 
 which I was entitled? As to the young people, 
 we ll have Harry and his sister to dinner as soon 
 as you like. The sister will come, because she 
 likes your dinners, your sister and you ; Harry 
 will come rather than explain to his sister. He 
 and Fenie will feel so uncomfortable at first that 
 they will be unusually affable to each other, and 
 within half an hour they will be far better friends 
 than ever before. Don t you see ? " 
 
 " Upon my word," exclaimed Trif, with an 
 impulsive kiss, " you re a born match-maker."
 
 UNAPPRECIA TED, 23 
 
 " Pshaw," exclaimed Phil, pretending not to 
 be delighted with the compliment, " I m merely 
 a common-sense judge of human nature. If 
 you ll only keep your irrepressible baby from 
 hearing things in the meantime, and saying 
 them to the wrong people, everything will go 
 well." 
 
 " I m sure I can t imagine how she can make 
 any trouble. I m sure that Fenie has given her 
 cautions enough during the last week, to make 
 the child afraid to say a word about anything to 
 anyone who shouldn t hear it. At least once an 
 hour, all day long, it has been Trixy, don t 
 and Trixy, don t and " 
 
 "Don t what, mamma?" drawled a gentle 
 K)ice from a crib near the bed. 
 
 " Nothing, dear. Go to sleep again." The 
 remaining conversation between husband and 
 wife was conducted in soft whispers. 
 
 Several hours later Harry Trewman s sister 
 Kate dropped in, "just for a moment." Kate 
 was a wide-awake young woman, several years 
 Fenie s senior. She had seen that something 
 was troubling her brother, and it took very little 
 time for her to determine that Fenie was the 
 something. In Kate s opinion Harry, although 
 little more than a year younger than she, was a 
 mere boy who needed sisterly management, and 
 Kate was not *h<j woman to shirk any family 
 duty. 
 
 Trif and Jfenie chanced to be out shopping, 
 and Kate was departing when Trixy came 
 through the hall with some doll s garments 
 which had just been laundered. Each looked 
 at the other inquiringly, and Trixy said:
 
 24 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 " Did you bring it ? " 
 
 " Bring what, Trixy ? " 
 
 " Why, the doll your brother Harry promised 
 me. I thought maybe he sent it by you, seeing 
 he doesn t come here any more." 
 
 " Doesn t come here any more ? " 
 
 " No. Didn t he tell you ? " 
 
 Kate hesitated a moment before answering. 
 To extract information from a child or a servant 
 seemed to her a very mean act when other 
 women did it. On the other hand, she owed 
 loyal service to her brother, who was utterly in 
 capable of managing his own affairs, so far as 
 young women were concerned. Besides, Kate 
 was sure that she was simply dying of curiosity, 
 so she choked her sense of propriety and replied : 
 
 " I don t know until you make me fully under 
 stand what you are talking about." 
 
 "Why," said Trixy, opening her eyes very 
 wide, " he learned a lesson here, and I taught it 
 to him, though Aunt Fee said his sisters ought 
 to have done it. Twas that young men oughtn t 
 to go calling stormy evenings when young ladies 
 don t expect company and put on their nicest 
 dresses. He was going to give me a doll for 
 teachin him the lesson, but he hasn t sent it yet, 
 and I ve been hopin for it ev ry day, and 
 thinkin he d bring it, but Aunt Fee says he 
 won t come here any more, and she cried a whole 
 
 lot about it the other day, and . Why, don t 
 
 you know it ain t polite to go away while some 
 body s talking to you ? I m stonished." 
 
 Kate had moved abruptly toward the door; 
 she had learned all she wanted to know, and she
 
 UNAPPRECIA TED. 25 
 
 was feeling very uncomfortable with the infor 
 mation which followed, so she said : 
 
 "Excuse me, Trixy, but I m afraid you re tell 
 ing me more than you should. Little girls 
 shouldn t repeat all they hear; haven t your 
 parents ever told you so? " 
 
 " Oh, yes," assented Trixy cheerfully; "they 
 was dreadfully worried for fear I d say some 
 thing to the wrong people. The idea of it ! " 
 Trixy found the idea so funny that she laughed 
 heartily ; Kate at the same time wished she had 
 not entered the house. She thought rapidly and 
 said : 
 
 "Trixy dear, let s have a nice little secret be 
 tween you and me. Don t say anything to any 
 one about our chat this morning, or that I ve 
 been here, until I say you may, and I will give 
 you two dolls half a dozen dolls, if you like, 
 and then we ll both together tell the whole story 
 to your mama and your Aunt Fenie, and have a 
 great joke about it." 
 
 " Oh, good, good, good ! " exclaimed Trixy, 
 trying to climb up to Kate s face to kiss it, for 
 Trixy was a grateful little thing, and dearly 
 loved a joke and a secret, probably because she 
 couldn t possibly keep either of them. She be 
 stowed her kiss, with several others to keep it 
 company, and Miss Trewman left the house just 
 in time to meet Trif and Fenie about a hundred 
 steps away. She passed them briskly, although 
 with a cheery Good morning," but in a mo 
 ment she asked herself : 
 
 I wonder if they ll suspect ? Thank good 
 ness, I didn t leave my card."
 
 26 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 " Oh, Trif ! " said Fenie. " She looked as if 
 she had been at our house. I do hope she didn t 
 meet Trixy." 
 
 " Fenie! exclaimed Tirf indignantly, although 
 she had been impressed by the same hope, or 
 fear, " don t act like an insane person. The 
 entire world doesn t revolve about you and 
 Harry Trewman." 
 
 Fenie was suppressed for the moment, but 
 when she entered the house and saw Trixy 
 capering ecstatically through the parlor, and 
 singing shrilly : 
 
 Half a dozen dolls ; 
 Half a dozen dolls ; 
 
 Half a dozen, 
 
 Half a dozen, 
 Half a dozen dolls. 
 
 she exclaimed : 
 
 " Trixy, has any one been here ? " 
 
 " I can t tell you, cause it s a secret. Say, 
 Aunt Fee, ain t the Trewmans awful rich ? I 
 should think they must be, if one of them can 
 give away six dolls at a time." 
 
 "Oh, Trif!" exclaimed Fenie, posing like a 
 tragedy queen, " twas just as I feared." 
 
 " Trixy," said Trif gently as she seated herself 
 and drew the child to her side, "when Miss 
 Trewman was here, did " 
 
 "Why, has she let out the secret already? 
 Dear me ! Some grown folks are leaky, as well 
 as little girls, aren t they ? 
 
 "She told me nothing," replied Trif, "so I 
 want you to tell me what you said to her "
 
 UNAPPRECIA TED. yj 
 
 "But, mamma dear, I can t, cause it s a secret 
 and both of us are to tell it to you together." 
 
 " When ?" asked Fenie in a tone that made 
 the child tremble as she replied : 
 
 " I don t know, but I hope awful soon, cause 
 then she s goin to give me oh, I almost told." 
 
 " Almost told what ?" Fenie demanded. 
 " Don t you know that little girls have no right 
 to keep things secret from their mothers ?" 
 
 Trixy looked up pitifully. Feme s face, which 
 as long as Trixy could remember, had been full 
 of smiles and dimples, was now stern and com 
 manding. Trixy s eyes filled with tears, but 
 Feme s face remained stern and unrelenting. 
 
 " You don t want me to tell lies, I hope, and 
 be burned a whole lot after I die ?" sobbed the 
 child. 
 
 "I d almost rather you d tell lies than repeat 
 some things which you think are true." 
 
 " Fenie !" exclaimed Trif. Then it was Feme s 
 turn to cry. Trif banished her with a look, and 
 then began to question the child ; but just outside 
 the door stood a young woman with the air of a 
 person determined to hear whatever was said, 
 no matter how true might be the old saying that 
 listeners never hear any good of themselves. 
 
 " You may keep your secret, dear, or what is 
 left of it," said Trif, taking Trixy upon her knee. 
 " Mamma knows that Miss Trewman was here, 
 but you did not tell her, so don t feel bad about 
 it. I hope, though, that you didn t forget all 
 that s been said to you about talking about 
 family affairs to persons whom they don t 
 concern."
 
 2 8 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 " Why, mamma dear, I wouldn t do such a 
 dreadful thing. But Miss Trewman s brother 
 wasn t a thing that didn t concern her, was he ? 
 
 Fenie, outside the door, wiped her eyes and 
 wrung her hands as Trif replied : 
 
 " That depends upon what you said about 
 him/ 
 
 "Why, I only said he didn t come here no 
 more, and I was awful sorry, cause he promised 
 me a doll, and I ve been waitin for it awful 
 hard. And it wasn t wrong, was it, to say that 
 Aunt Fee was awful sorry too, and cried a whole 
 lot about it ? You know the Trewman girls like 
 Aunt Fee, ever so much." 
 
 There was a pronounced rustle in the hall, 
 and Trif and Trixy hurried out just in time to 
 see a sobbing girl hurrying up the stair. They 
 followed her, but Fenie dashed into her own 
 room, slammed the door, and shot the bolt with 
 much unnecessary noise. She paid no attention 
 to many knocks and gentle calls by her sister, 
 so finally Trif sat down upon the top stair, 
 placed her elbows on her knees and her face in 
 her hands, and looked so unhappy that Trixy 
 cuddled to her side and kissed and caressed her. 
 The child got no response, but a sad look which 
 was so reproachful and prolonged that Trixy 
 herself burst into tears and exclaimed : 
 
 " Oh, dear ! I wish I hadn t ever come down 
 from heaven, or done anythin , or anythin , or 
 anythin ."
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 IX CHARGE OF EACH OTHER. 
 
 HARRY TREWMAN and his sister were in 
 vited to dine with the Highwoods, although 
 Fenie declared that after what had been said to 
 them, neither of them would think for an instant 
 of coming. For herself, she was sure that she 
 couldn t and wouldn t face them for all the 
 world, and that she never wanted to see either 
 of them again. Should they accept the invi 
 tation, Fenie declared that she would excuse 
 herself with the sick headache, which she cer 
 tainly would have on the occasion. 
 
 When, however, the Trewmans did decline, 
 on the plea of a previous engagement, Fenie 
 was so inconsistent as to declare that she was 
 the most miserable person alive, and that she 
 wished she was dead. 
 
 Then every one in the house, from the master 
 down to the single servant, became wretched, 
 for Fenie had always been a cheerful creature, 
 romping with Trixy as if she herself was not 
 more than seven years old, singing merrily 
 throughout the day, and working harder than 
 any hireling when there was work to be done. 
 
 Trif talked sensibly to the girl; Phil joked 
 with her, but Trixy remained almost as silent as 
 (29)
 
 30 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 a mute, and looked as if she were laboring under 
 a heavy load of remorse and contrition. Even 
 her father s boisterous play, of which she was as 
 fond as if she were a boy, was treated as if it 
 was far too good for her, and as if she had no 
 right to enjoy it. Then Phil began to worry. 
 
 "Trif," said he, "you must reason that child 
 out of her remorse, or you ll have an invalid on 
 your hands." 
 
 " I hope and pray that I may not, for I already 
 have one invalid. I m seriously frightened about 
 Fenie. The only fault I ve ever had to find with 
 her was that she never would take things seri 
 ously, no matter how important they were, but 
 now oh, it seems as if all the seriousness of 
 the Wardlow blood was concentrated in her, and 
 all on account of the innocent blundering of that 
 darling child. I know the affair is shattering 
 her health, and sometimes I fear it is injuring 
 her reason." 
 
 " Nonsense ! Give her a change of some 
 kind, and shell recover quickly. At present she 
 doesn t love that fellow, although I suppose she 
 thinks she does girls as young as she are very 
 likely to mistake mere interest in a man for some 
 thing more serious. Take her, and Trixy, on a 
 little trip somewhere run down to Florida and 
 back. This is just the season for such a trip. 
 
 " Philip Highwood ! You talk as if we were 
 made of money. We haven t a fortune." 
 
 " But we have, my dear ; we have two for 
 tunes. Fenie is one and Trixy is the other, and 
 I don t intend to lose either, if I can help it." 
 
 " A trip to Florida may cost all we ve saved."
 
 IN CHARGE OF EACH OTHER. 31 
 
 " What does that matter, if it saves Fenie 
 and Trixy for us ? " 
 
 Phil had his way in the end, for the good and 
 sufficient reason that he and Trif loved each 
 other so well that it took but a few moments 
 talk to make the way of one the way of both, no 
 matter who devised it. The Florida trip cost 
 Phil some pangs, for he had intended to start a 
 country home in the spring a modest one, but 
 everything costs money in this practical world 
 of ours. He did not look forward with pleasure, 
 either, to being separated from his wife and 
 child for a fortnight or more, for they had 
 seldom been apart more than a single day ; 
 nevertheless, he kept all these things to himself, 
 although he did much thinking about them. 
 
 As to the travelers, Trif assured Fenie, in 
 entire honesty, that Phil was dreadfully troubled 
 about Trixy s health, upon which Fenie made 
 haste to show that she really could think of more 
 than one thing at a time. 
 
 Trixy was informed, with equal care, but far 
 more detail, that her Aunt Fee was quite ill, 
 but that not a word was to be said about it in 
 any circumstances, even to Aunt Fee herself. 
 
 " I know all about it," said the child, her eyes 
 filling with tears, " and I was the dreadful little 
 girl that made her sick. I thought lots about 
 it, and prayed lots about it, and cried whole 
 pillows-ful about it, but it hasn t done any 
 good." 
 
 " Now is the time to do a lot of good, dear ; 
 you can mend your ways by trying to help mend 
 Annt Fee."
 
 32 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 So it was arranged that Trixy should regard 
 herself as her Aunt Fee s one special nurse during 
 the Southern trip, and that Trif should be phy 
 sician, to be consulted whenever necessary, al 
 though the best medicine, for the invalid, Trif 
 declared, would be some of Trixy s chat and 
 play. 
 
 " The best medicine she could have would be 
 a long look at Harry Trewman s face," added 
 Phil, as the child left the room. " If she " 
 
 " I just came back, mamma, said Trixy, re 
 turning suddenly, " to tell papa that if Miss 
 Trewman brings around them I mean those 
 half a dozen dolls, that he ll express ? em to me, 
 won t he? Cause I ve told all my other dolls 
 about it, and they look disappointeder and dis- 
 appointeder every mornin when they wake up. 
 And papa ll send me any letters that come for 
 me, won t he ? " Then Trixy danced away again, 
 while her father remarked : 
 
 " If that child s imagination keeps in growth 
 with her body, there ll be a woman novelist in 
 the family in the course of time." 
 
 Trif and Trixy and Fenie started for Florida 
 by easy stages, Phil having told his wife that 
 two or three stops could be made at places 
 where a sorrowful girl of temperament naturally 
 lively might have her thoughts diverted in spite 
 of any determination to the contrary. 
 
 The first stop was at Old Point Comfort, 
 which most young women who have been there 
 prefer to call Fortress Monroe, for the largest fort 
 in the United States is there, and within it are 
 always thirty or forty officers, who, whether
 
 IN CHARGE OF EACH OTHER. 33 
 
 young or old, make delightful company of them 
 selves, during their brief moments off duty, for 
 all charming women at the enormous hotel 
 which, with the fort, contains almost the entire 
 population of Old Point Comfort. For the rest, 
 there is little there but water and air but such 
 water and air! At one side of the fort is the 
 James River, several miles wide, at the other 
 side is Chesapeake Bay, so wide that one cannot 
 see the other shore, while in front Hampton 
 Roads extends ten miles away, to the outskirts 
 of the ancient and picturesque city of Norfolk. 
 
 Fenie conscientiously intended to be unhappy, 
 no matter where she might be, no matter how 
 much attention she might give to Trixy. Be 
 sides, the party arrived at the Point about sun 
 rise in early April, when scarcely any one was 
 stirring, and the outside of a great hotel is not 
 an inspiriting object to contemplate when there 
 is no human being visible to relieve it. 
 
 Trixy, however, had not determined to be any 
 thing dreadful, so she was no sooner ashore and 
 feeling the gentle sea breeze upon her cheeks 
 and in her lungs, than she began running to 
 and fro on the beach in front of the hotel, and 
 tossing pebbles at Fenie, and even dropping a 
 small pebble between Feme s collar and neck, 
 and Fenie called her a dreadful little wretch 
 and began to chase her, for there was no one by 
 to see, except Trif, who made no objection. The 
 sea air had been stimulating Fenie, too, and 
 before she had thought it possible to do any 
 thing inconsistent with sentimental dismalness 
 she had acquired rosy cheeks, bright eyes, and 
 3
 
 34 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 an earnest longing- for breakfast. As for Trif, 
 she sought the telegraph office to wire her 
 husband : 
 
 " Both invalids already much better." 
 
 After breakfast Trif chanced to meet an old 
 acquaintance on the piazza. Fenie, by a violent 
 effort, regained her sadness and declined to meet 
 any one. As Phil had said that ladies and chil 
 dren could safely go about unattended at Old 
 Point, Trif begged Trixy to take her Aunt Fee 
 a long walk on the beach, and to play as freely 
 as she liked. Then Trif begged Fenie to keep 
 dear Trixy out of doors, under the mild sun and 
 in the invigorating air, and Fenie was glad of 
 an excuse to get away from other people, so 
 the couple strolled along the beach, in the 
 direction of the lighthouse and the water bat 
 tery, enjoying the strangeness of everything 
 they saw. 
 
 " What s that bird-cage on top of that funny 
 little straight up-and-down house for ?" asked 
 Trixy, pointing to the lighthouse. 
 
 " That s not a bird-cage, dear. That is the 
 light that the Government puts in its window 
 here, to show the sailors the way home. It 
 burns very brightly, and all night long." 
 
 " Dear me ! What a big gas bill the Govern 
 ment must have to pay ! Say, Aunt Fee, what s 
 that big black thing on the grass, on the top of 
 the wall of the fort?" 
 
 " That s a cannon." 
 
 " What is it for ?" 
 
 " Oh, to kill bad people with." 
 
 " Gracious ! Is there such lots of bad people
 
 IN CHARGE OF EA CH O THER. 35 
 
 down here as that ? Papa said the place was so 
 nice and safe." 
 
 " It is safe enough, dear, for us. The bad 
 people that are shot with cannons come here 
 from other countries." 
 
 il When do they come ?" 
 
 "Oh, don t ask me, said Fenie, who was 
 trying to keep from not keeping miserable, but 
 was not succeeding very well. 
 
 "Who shall I ask?" 
 
 " Oh, one of the soldiers, I suppose." 
 
 Fenie sat upon a rock which formed part of a 
 little breakwater, looked out to sea, and took a 
 pensive attitude, while Trixy stood and stared at 
 the cannon, and wondered, and wished she knew 
 more about the killing of bad people by artillery. 
 
 Just then Lieutenant Bruce Jermyn, of the 
 artillery service, came from the flank of the 
 water battery and walked toward the hotel. He 
 was no pink-faced, slender youth, like lieutenants 
 in most military novels, but a handsome, stout, 
 manly- looking fellow of about thirty-five years, 
 like hundreds of other lieutenants of our army 
 in time of peace. Trixy saw him, hurried to 
 him, and said : 
 
 " Mr. Soldier, will you please tell me when 
 you re going to kill some bad people with the 
 cannon ?" 
 
 " Eh ? said Jermyn, taking his cigar from his 
 lips and raising his cap. " Oh, not until they 
 come here and insist upon being killed, I sup 
 pose." 
 
 " Why ? Do they insist upon bein killed, and 
 come here to have you do it for them?"
 
 36 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 " Um er well, we like to be ready, in case 
 they should come, although we hope they ll 
 stay away. I beg your pardon, but will you 
 tell me your name ? You look very like some 
 one whom I used to know." 
 
 " My name s Trixy Highwood, and that s 
 Aunt Fee, sittin on the rocks there, and 
 
 " And her last name is ? " 
 
 " Wardlow." 
 
 " Well, well." The officer did not sigh, but 
 he looked reminiscent ; then he took both of 
 Trixy s hands, looked intently into the child s 
 face, and said : 
 
 " I knew your mother about ten years ago." 
 
 " Oh, Aunt Fee." shouted Trixy. " Come 
 here quick ! Here s one of mamma s friends." 
 
 The awakening was somewhat rude, but when 
 Fenie turned her head and saw an officer ap 
 proaching, with Trixy, she at once became a 
 curious yet dignified young woman. She arose 
 and met the couple, as Jermyn saluted and said: 
 
 " The child is to blame for this interruption, 
 Miss Wardlow. I recognized her by her re 
 semblance to her mother, whom I hope you 
 may have heard speak of me. My name is 
 Jermyn. My battery was stationed in New York 
 Harbor a few years ago." 
 
 "Indeed!" exclaimed Fenie, in pleased sur 
 prise. She had heard frequently of the young 
 officer whom Trif had admired greatly, before 
 Phil Highwood had laid siege to her heart. 
 Phil, too, had heard much about him, and feared 
 him. as any civilian suitor fears a rival who 
 wears a military uniform. Fenia had often
 
 IN CHARGE OF EACH OTHER. 37 
 
 wished she might one day meet the man of 
 whom she had heard so much, and now she was 
 face to face with him, and really, what a fine- 
 looking fellow he was ! 
 
 " What s inside of them the cannons ?" asked 
 Trixy. 
 
 " Nothing more dangerous than air," the officer 
 replied. 
 
 " Children are so idiotically curious," said 
 Fenie. 
 
 Oh, merely naturally so. Mayn t I show your 
 niece one of the guns ? and won t you accom 
 pany us? Tis but a step or two to the water 
 battery. By the way, I hope that Mr. and Mrs. 
 Highwood are here ? " 
 
 " My sister is," Fenie replied. " We came 
 down here hastily indeed, we are on our way to 
 Florida, for their dear child s health." 
 
 " I must do myself the honor of calling at 
 once." 
 
 "Won t you wait," said Trixy appealingly, 
 "until you show me the bad-people-killers? " 
 
 " Surely," replied Jermyn, " if afterward you 
 will guide me to your mother." 
 
 The visit to the guns was prolonged to include 
 a tour of the fort, about which Fenie was wildly 
 curious, for she had never been inside of a fort, as 
 her sister had in the days to which Jermyn had 
 alluded, and she and Trif were such inseparable 
 companions that she wished to know of every 
 thing that Trif knew. Jermyn proved to be 
 capital company ; besides, was he not a one-time 
 admirer of Feme s sister ? Fenie felt entirely at 
 ease with him, and she was delighted with the
 
 38 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 strangeness of everything she saw, so soon she 
 was chatting as freely and cheerily as if she had 
 never known a trouble. 
 
 Later in the morning Trif, seated on the piazza 
 near the beach, was astonished to see her sister 
 approaching with an army officer, with whom 
 she seemed to be well acquainted. Soldiers 
 looked very much alike to Trif; besides, she was 
 so delighted at the sudden improvement in 
 Fenie s appearance that she did not recognize 
 Jermyn until her sister, with a roguish look, said: 
 
 "Trif, I m astonished! Should auld acquaint 
 ance be forgot ? " 
 
 " Mrs. High wood! " 
 
 "Oh, Mr. Jermyn!" 
 
 Neither blushed, although Fenie had hoped 
 they would. As for Trixy, who had not had much 
 opportunity to talk during the walk through the 
 fort, she looked intently at her invalid charge, 
 her dear Aunt Fee. The instant there was a lull 
 in the conversation, Trixy could not help saying : 
 
 " Mamma, seems to me that somethin s made 
 Aunt Fee look awful weller all at once ; don t 
 you think so ? " 
 
 Then the blushes, for which Fenie had looked 
 in her sister s cheeks, hurried into her own, and 
 refused to depart.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 A SURPRISE. 
 
 " T_J ERE S a letter for you, Harry," said Kate 
 
 ll Trewman one morning as her brother 
 came to the breakfast table, " and from the pen 
 manship of the address I should imagine it to be 
 from a washerwoman or a newsboy." 
 
 Harry looked solemnly at the address he had 
 looked solemnly at everything for several days, 
 but when he saw the signature he started, a mo 
 tion which did not escape the observant eye of 
 his sister, who exclaimed : 
 
 " Do tell me what has happened ! You look 
 like an actor in a play with a great letter-scene 
 in it." 
 
 Harry did not reply, for he was trying to read 
 the letter, the writer of which could read, he 
 knew, but seemed not to have learned to write, 
 or even to spell, for the letter ran as follows : 
 
 " Dere Mister Trumen : I wunt to git yure pik- 
 cher an if yu giv it tu me yu needunt giv me that 
 dolle tho I want the dolle lots an them yure sisiur 
 wus goin to gimme. Plese send me the pikcher rite 
 away cause I m goin a travelen. Youres trule 
 
 TRIXY HIGHWOOD." 
 
 " Do tell me what it is ! " exclaimed Kate. 
 " Tis a dead secret or a mystery," Harry 
 
 139)
 
 40 TRIP AXD TYv /AT. 
 
 replied, with an absent-minded manner and a 
 far-away look. Then he re-read the letter and 
 laughed, at which Kate said : 
 
 " Thank goodness ! Evidently it isn t a tra 
 gedy ! " 
 
 " No, although there may be some elements of 
 a drama in it." 
 
 " Do let me see the letter." 
 
 " Not now, dear girl. It is on a matter which 
 I think should be regarded as strictly confiden 
 tial." 
 
 Nevertheless Kate saw the letter before the 
 day was done, and she did a lot of thinking 
 about it. Then she drew her brother into the 
 parlor and said abruptly: 
 
 " I ve thought it all out. Fenie Wardlow 
 hasn t a picture of you, has she ? " 
 
 "Kate!" exclaimed Harry severely. "Do 
 you imagine me to be conceited enough to pre 
 sent my portrait to young women in general ? " 
 
 " Tut, tut ! You know very well that Fenie 
 Wardlow isn t classed in your mind among young 
 women in general. She s the one and particular 
 woman of all the world, to you. Answer my 
 question ; has she your picture ? " 
 
 " No. Now are you satisfied ? " 
 
 " Not entirely. Still, I m sure she wants it 
 That child never wrote you of her own accord, 
 to ask for your picture." 
 
 " Kate ! Will you kindly remember that Miss 
 Wardlow is a lady? I m surprised that you 
 should make such an insinuation." 
 
 " I ve insinuated nothing, but there is some 
 thing behind Trixy s letter. She s a very long-
 
 A SURPRISE. 41 
 
 headed child, and the family adores her, and she 
 is always with Trif and Fenie, and hears every 
 thing they say, so " 
 
 " Do you really think that Miss Wardlow her 
 self wanted a picture of me ?" interrupted Harry. 
 
 " That is exactly what I do think. Oh, 
 Harry! I didn t suppose a man could blush so 
 splendidly ! There, there don t be ashamed of 
 it ; tis wonderfully becoming, and " 
 
 Kate was an affectionate sister, so she stopped 
 long enough to throw her arms about her brother 
 and kiss him soundly. Then she continued: 
 
 " Send a picture to the child at once and do 
 send that doll also. I d send with it the lot that 
 I promised, if I wasn t afraid that the family 
 would ask questions, and I would be dreadfully 
 mortified if they were to learn that I questioned 
 Trixy closely on a certain subject several days 
 ago. I wish I knew what the child means by say 
 ing that she s going travelling. I wonder if oh, 
 well, I ll make some calls elsewhere, and find 
 out all about it." 
 
 Meanwhile Trif, Trixy and Fenie were post 
 poning their further journeying southward. Old 
 Point Comfort is a hard place to leave; one 
 finds old friends, learns that new ones are com 
 ing: so the days slip by delightfully. The air 
 seemed to be doing wonders for both Fenie and 
 Trixy, and Trif was enjoying herself as a clever 
 young woman always can where good company 
 abounds, and she can give her entire time to it. 
 Besides, Lieutenant Jermyn assured her that the 
 season was so far advanced that she would find 
 Florida uncomfortably hot.
 
 42 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 Jermyn had also put Trif entirely at ease by 
 not showing a bit of sentimentality over the 
 woman he had loved and lost. He was so en 
 tirely himself in her presence that she imagined 
 him happily married, although she did not like 
 to question him on the subject. He was quite 
 attentive to Fenie, too, and made haste to intro 
 duce several brother officers, who made them 
 selves interesting, so Fenie seldom was without 
 the attendance of some man in uniform. Her 
 admirers were not all young, either, for admira 
 tion of womanhood appears to be one of the 
 original elements of the military nature, so sev 
 eral elderly officers frequently sought the society 
 of Fenie and her sister, and as Fenie was the 
 younger, and unmarried, she innocently took all 
 the admiration to herself. Finally, when a re 
 tired admiral, himself as young at heart and 
 engaging in conversation as any of his juniors, 
 paid special attention to Fenie, that young woman 
 became so exuberant of cheerfulness that she 
 read herself a severe lecture, almost at midnight, 
 when there was no one else for her to talk to. 
 
 How dreadfully she was neglecting Trixy, too ! 
 She had promised to watch the child carefully, 
 yet Trixy ran at will upon the beach, and buried 
 herself in sand, and several times a day she ven 
 tured close enough to the water to wet her feet, 
 and Fenie was always going to keep her from 
 doing so again, but Trif was the only one who 
 did it. Fenie told herself that she was becoming 
 a dreadfully selfish girl, but really she never 
 seemed to find time to do anything that ought to 
 be done.
 
 A SURPRISE. 43 
 
 Trixy did such dreadful things, too. She 
 had learned the names of all the colored 
 men who brought sail-boats to the hotel pier 
 when the water was smooth and the breeze 
 gentle. She seemed fascinated by the pictur 
 esque raggedness of the few colored people who 
 lounged in the single street of the little village. 
 She had no hesitation about introducing herself 
 to any one who spoke to Trif or Fenie, she 
 talked almost as much as if she were at home; 
 and what mightn t she say if the impulse came 
 to her ? Trif was begged to caution the child, 
 that there was nothing to tell ; then to make 
 assurance doubly sure, Fenie herself cautioned 
 her. 
 
 I don t tell nobody nothin , Aunt Fee," pro 
 tested Trixy. " Really and truly, I don t. I 
 only told Lieutenant Jermyn and a lot of them 
 that you was awful sick, and that was why we 
 came down here." 
 
 "I sick? You dreadful child! Don t you 
 know that it was on account of your own bad 
 health that we came ? " 
 
 " Oh, Aunt Fee ! You re awful mistaken 
 indeed you are. You must have got us mixed 
 up some way, cause papa and mamma said twas 
 you that was sick. I just came along to take 
 care of you, and I ve been doin it with all my 
 might." 
 
 "Indeed! And what was the matter with 
 me, I wonder? " 
 
 " Why y y ! " exclaimed the child, opening 
 her eyes very wide. " Do you forget things as 
 easy as that ? Mamma said you d go crazy if
 
 44 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 you didn t stop thinkin about Harry Trewman, 
 and papa said the best medicine for you would 
 be a trip off to somewhere the best, except 
 one thing." 
 
 " Except what thing ? " 
 
 " Oh, nothin. " 
 
 " Don t say that. Tell me the truth at once." 
 
 " I can t, else I ll spoil a s prise." 
 
 " What surprise ? " 
 
 " I mustn t tell, else there won t be no s prise. 
 
 " Oh, Trixy ! Surprises are such stupid 
 things ! People usually find out all about them 
 before they occur." 
 
 " Nobody ll find out this one, I guess, unless 
 Harry say, Aunt Fee, whereabouts is the post- 
 office here ? " 
 
 " All letters come to the hotel. What were 
 you going to say about Harry? Harry who?" 
 
 " Why, don t you know ? Then I can t tell, 
 cause that s part of the s prise." 
 
 " Trixy, tell me this instant ! " 
 
 Trixy looked troubled for a moment; then 
 she dashed out of the room, and Fenie, who had 
 been dressing while she talked, could not fol 
 low. Trixy found her mother, who handed 
 her a letter of such size that the retired Ad 
 miral, who was chatting with Trif, remarked : 
 
 " How large a letter for so small a lady to re 
 ceive. I hope, Miss Trixy, that you haven t a 
 love affair on your mind ? " 
 
 " No, indeed, sir. Other folk s love affairs are 
 enough for me to attend to." Then the child 
 slipped away, while Trif continued to wonder 
 from whom had come the letter which Phil had
 
 A SURPRISE. 45 
 
 forwarded, and which appeared to contain a 
 large photograph. 
 
 Trixy retired to the hotel, opened her letter, 
 and found, as she had expected, a picture of 
 Harry Trewman. There was some writing on 
 the back of the card, and Trixy wished she 
 knew what it was, but all chirography was as 
 undecipherable to her as Hebrew ; her own let 
 ters were written in imitation of print. She 
 roamed about the corridors in search of some 
 acquaintance whose education was broader than 
 her own, and finally she chanced upon Lieuten 
 ant Jermyn, who had been visiting an invalid 
 friend. 
 
 " Say, Mr. Jermyn, you can read writin , can t 
 you ? " 
 
 " Sometimes, Trixy, sometimes." 
 
 "Then won t you tell me what s on the back 
 of this picture ? " 
 
 Jermyn read aloud : " My dear little girl, I am 
 very fond of you, and I shall be glad to have 
 you carry my picture on your journey with you, 
 so that I may be brought to your mind once in 
 a while. Yours sincerely, HARRY TREWMAN." 
 
 "Oh, I m so glad he sent it!" exclaimed 
 Trixy. Jermyn smiled and replied : 
 
 " Upon my word, Miss Trixy, you re begin 
 ning quite early to be interested in young men." 
 
 You re the second person who s made that 
 mistake," Trixy replied. " The picture isn t for 
 me ; it s for Aunt Fee." 
 
 " Indeed ! " Jermyn looked grave a mo 
 ment or two before he continued, " Wouldn t it 
 be better, then, for you not to show it to people 
 in general? "
 
 46 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 "Oh, I m not going to. I only wanted to 
 know what the writin was about." 
 
 " Suppose you put it into the envelope," sug 
 gested Jermyn, " and take it to your aunt s 
 room." 
 
 "Just what I was goin to do," said Trixy. 
 " Isn t it funny that both of us thought of the 
 same thing? " 
 
 Jermyn admitted that it was, although he was 
 oppressively silent as he walked through the 
 hall he who had always told Trixy some funny 
 story when he met her. 
 
 Fenie had learned to like Jermyn greatly dur 
 ing their short acquaintance, but on the evening 
 that followed the picture incident he surpassed 
 himself in deference, humor and brilliancy. Fe 
 nie did not wonder that Trif had always remem 
 bered him pleasantly. She did wish he was not 
 quite so old ; a man of thirty -five seems dread 
 fully ancient to a girl of twenty. Still, soldiers 
 were splendid anyway. Of course, he did not 
 care particularly for her, for he had never seen 
 her until that week, but there was something in 
 his voice and manner on this particular evening 
 that affected her strangely. Could it be that he 
 was falling in love with her ? If so, she she 
 really ought to feel sorry. 
 
 But was she ? She could scarcely believe so; 
 she would examine her mind seriously when the 
 evening ended; perhaps she would speak to 
 Trif about it. There was nothing between her 
 and Harry Trewman she could honestly say 
 that, and perhaps perhaps she had acted very 
 foolishly about that young man. Harry was a
 
 A SURPRISE. 47 
 
 fine fellow, as young men go, but how plain he 
 appeared, to her mind s eye, beside the hand 
 some soldier who scarcely left her side that 
 evening ! 
 
 By the time the evening ended the young 
 woman had a head full of pleasing fancies 
 marred only by a weak compunction of con 
 science. She sat in Trif s room a few minutes, 
 chatting with her sister about people whom 
 they had met during the day, and admiring 
 Trixy, who was always a charming picture when 
 asleep. Then she passed into her own room; 
 in a moment Trif heard a sharp exclamation, 
 and Fenie stood in the doorway between the 
 rooms, gasping : 
 
 " What is the meaning of this ?" 
 
 " Of what ? Oh, my sister, you re looking 
 like a ghost !" 
 
 " I feel as if I had seen one. Why did you 
 do it ? What have I done to " 
 
 "Tryphena Wardlow, what are you talking 
 about?" asked Trif, approaching the girl. " Do 
 say something intelligible, if you can, and stop 
 acting." 
 
 For answer, Fenie took her sister s hand and 
 led the way to the mirror, between the glass and 
 frame of which was a photograph of Harry 
 Trewman. 
 
 " In the name of all that s mysterious," ex 
 claimed Trif, " where did it come from ?" 
 
 "Where, indeed! Didn t you place it there, 
 to to " 
 
 " I give you my word that I never saw it, or 
 knew of its existence, until this instant."
 
 48 TRIP AND TRTXY. 
 
 " Oh, this is dreadful," exclaimed Fenie, sink 
 ing into a chair. " There s some mystery about 
 it. Who can be here who knows anything 
 about about what had happened ? Who has 
 been able to get into our room without our 
 knowledge ? I shan t dare to fall asleep. I 
 shan t " 
 
 " Do stop being dramatic, Fee, and try to be 
 sensible. The picture didn t sneak in through 
 the keyhole, nor did invisible hands bring it, 
 although I confess that for the moment I m 
 mystified. Oh, I have it ! Mark my words, 
 Trixy knows something about that picture." 
 
 In an instant Fenie was in the adjoining 
 room and shaking Trixy. The child was sleep 
 ing as soundly as ocean air and the lullaby of 
 gentle surf can make children sleep, but Fenie 
 persevered. 
 
 "Picture? in your lookin glass?" the child 
 drawled. " Oh, yes ; I put it there. That was 
 the s prise that I wouldn t tell you all about. 
 Did it s prise you lots?" 
 
 " Yes yes. But how did you get it ?" 
 
 Trixy was falling asleep again, and her mother 
 insisted that further explanation should be de 
 ferred until morning. As Fenie took the picture 
 from the mirror she saw the inscription and 
 read it. Then Bruce Jermyn went out of her 
 mind and a joyous feeling took his place.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ALL BY CHANCE. 
 
 "I VE found out all about them, said Kate 
 1 Trewman to her brother, a day or two after 
 Trif, Trixy and Fenie had gone South. " They ve 
 gone to Florida, for Trixy s health. 
 
 " Who have gone to Florida?" asked Harry, 
 trying to appear indifferent. 
 
 " Whom do you suppose I mean ? Mrs. High- 
 wood, and Trixy, and Fenie. That child is the 
 apple of their eye. Still, I m inclined to think 
 that Fenie herself wanted to get away for a 
 while. I m sure if I d been in her place I d 
 have wanted to, had I known that certain other 
 people knew certain things." 
 
 " What people ? What things ? 
 
 " Oh, don t be silly." 
 
 "Well, my dear, I ve been thinking of going 
 South myself oh, no; not to Florida. Our firm 
 have a little business at Norfolk that requires 
 personal attention, and they want me to attend 
 to it. Don t you want to go with me ? Old 
 Point Comfort is within an hour s sail of Nor 
 folk, and our friends, the Braymans, went down 
 there yesterday, to remain a week, and there s a 
 big fort there, full of officers, who are said to 
 4 (49)
 
 50 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 work harder and enjoy their leisure better than 
 any other men in the United States." 
 
 " We go," said Kate, and go they did, the very 
 next day. 
 
 Meanwhile, in entire ignorance of what some 
 of their acquaintances were doing, Trif and 
 Fenie found some small shopping necessary : the 
 nearest shopping centre to Old Point was Nor 
 folk. So one morning to Norfolk they went, 
 taking Trixy with them. 
 
 Grown people s shopping is very tiresome 
 business to little people, so Trixy became so 
 uncomfortable that she begged to be allowed to 
 rest by standing upon the sidewalk and looking 
 at the passers-by, and Trif permitted it, stipu 
 lating that the child should not go further from 
 the store than the street at either side. 
 
 The child soon found herself having a delight 
 ful time, and storing her mental picture book 
 with unfamiliar scenes, when suddenly she 
 shouted, " Hooray ! " 
 
 Then she dashed across the street, and with 
 one hand pulled the frock of Kate Trewman, 
 while with the other she grasped Harry s sleeve. 
 
 "Trixy Highwood ! Did you drop down 
 from the sky ? " 
 
 " I s poae I did," said Trixy, after a moment 
 of thought, " but that was seven years ago. 
 To-day, though, I dropped over here from Old 
 Point Comfort." 
 
 " But how do you come to be roaming the 
 streets of Norfolk ? " asked Kate. 
 
 " I ain t roamin . I can t go off of this block, 
 cause mamma and Aunt Fee are in the store 
 there, buyin things."
 
 ALL BY CHA NCE. 5 1 
 
 " But we thought you d gone to Florida ? " 
 
 " Oh, we re goin there one of these days, I 
 s pose, cause that s where we started for ; but 
 mamma says it s hard to get away from Old 
 Point, because she keeps findin old friends 
 there." 
 
 " Does Fenie find any ? " discreetly asked 
 Kate. 
 
 " She doesn t need to," was the reply, " for she 
 keeps findin new ones all the time. Say, army 
 officers is real nice ; don t you think so ? " 
 
 "So I ve always heard, said Kate, while 
 Harry looked so unhappy that his sister pinched 
 him until he complained. Just then Trif came 
 out of the shop, wondering whether Trixy did 
 not need looking after ; but she lost none of her 
 self-possession when she found herself face to 
 face with the Trewmans. Within five minutes 
 Trif had made the Trewmans promise to run 
 over to Old Point before they returned to New 
 Ycrk. She begged them, also, to return with 
 her to the shop, and surprise Fenie, but Harry 
 pleaded extreme haste a matter of business, 
 he said. 
 
 "Still," said Kate, "we may yet surprise her 
 if you won t allude to us until you meet us at 
 Old Point." 
 
 " That will be splendid," exclaimed Trif, with 
 glowing cheeks ; for she was thinking over the 
 scene with Harry s picture. 
 
 " Harry," said Kate, as soon as the party 
 separated, " you ve no reason to worry." 
 
 " No reason ! " echoed the young man. " I 
 think I ve a lot of them. Don t you remember 
 what Trixy said about army officers ? "
 
 52 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 " Oh, to be sure ! " Then Kate lapsed into 
 silence. 
 
 " Trixy, dear," said Trif, before re-entering 
 the shop, " I want you now to be very, very 
 womanly. You mustn t say a word to Aunt Fee 
 about the people we ve just met." 
 
 " I understand, mamma dear. Say, when s 
 Mr. Trewman and Aunt Fee goin to be mar 
 ried ? " 
 
 " Sh h h ! Perhaps never. Who put such 
 an idea into your mind ? " 
 
 "Why, Bridget did our servant, at home; 
 but I thought of it before, cause they act just 
 like the folks in the stories that you and Aunt 
 Fee read out loud to each other sometimes." 
 
 Trif looked despairing almost desperate. 
 Her cautions must be intensified, so she con 
 tinued. 
 
 " Remember, dear ! Don t say a word about 
 the Trewmans to Aunt Fee when we return to 
 the shop. Don t mention them on the boat on 
 the way back. Don t mention them in the 
 hotel. Don t " 
 
 "Oh, mamma!" interrupted Trixy. "What 
 an awful lot of dont s ! I wish I didn t ever see 
 anythin , or hear anythin , or know anythin ." 
 
 " Poor, dear little girl," said Trif caressingly. 
 "Grown people sometimes have dont s, and 
 have a lot of trouble with them, too." 
 
 "Is that so?" the child asked. "Do you 
 eTer have to put cotton in your ears, or bite 
 your tongue ? " 
 
 " You afflicted darling," exclaimed Trif, her 
 maternal instinct fully aroused. Was her
 
 ALL BY CHANCE. 53 
 
 precious darling to be physically afflicted 
 through affairs in which she had no part ? 
 surfer for other people s affairs, for which she 
 was not in any way responsible ? No, indeed. 
 She would give Fenie a lecture, and at once, 
 which would do that young woman much good 
 and save an innocent little girl from further 
 torment. Fenie should learn to hold her own 
 tongue ; it was she who did most of the talking 
 which poor little Trixy was obliged to hear 
 how could the child help hearing it ? Sisterly 
 affection was quite right ; Trif had long tried to 
 be sister and mother too to her pretty, darling 
 sister, but should a child suffer for an adult, 
 the weak for the strong ? Not while the weak, 
 the child, was Trif s own, only daughter. Trixy 
 should have no more trouble about the affairs 
 of other people. 
 
 Full of this determination, Trif returned to 
 the shop with an air so resolute and aggressive 
 that the clerks shrank in terror and wondered 
 what complaint was about to be made. She 
 strode like a pictured goddess to where Fenie 
 was idly wondering which of two patterns of 
 insertion to buy ; she turned her sister toward 
 her and exclaimed, softly yet tragically : 
 
 " Tryphena, I must ask you to keep your 
 affairs to yourself hereafter, except at such times 
 as you and I are alone together. This poor 
 child mustn t be tormented with them any 
 longer. She " 
 
 " Yes," said Trixy, " I ve got to bite my 
 tongue a lot more now, cause I just saw oh, 
 mamma, please don t pinch me so hard !"
 
 54 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 " What did you see, Trixy ?" asked Fenie. 
 
 " That piece of insertion you have in your 
 hand " said Trif quickly. " Trixy, dear, go 
 back to the door, if you like that piece of inser 
 tion, as I was saying, is just what I would 
 get if I were you, for " and the remaining 
 conversation was closely restricted to garments, 
 although Fenie looked somewhat indignant and 
 curious. 
 
 The evening chanced to be one of the most 
 delightful that had ever blessed Old Point. The 
 sky was clear, the air warm yet invigorating; 
 the music was of the best, the guests were in 
 the best of humor with one another, and every 
 thing went as merrily as the traditional mar 
 riage bell. 
 
 Best of all, to one small person. Trixy had 
 received permission to remain with the older 
 people until nine o clock, for she had complained 
 that the nine o clock gun at the fort always woke 
 her, and Trif thought it a shame that the dear 
 child had to be roused from sleep in a strange 
 place, where she was alone, and Fenie said she 
 was quite willing to sit beside Trixy s bed until 
 the dear child fell asleep, and Trif did not dare 
 to admit that her one consuming desire was 
 that Fenie and Trixy should not be alone 
 together a single instant until 
 
 So Trixy remained up and awake, and Trif 
 had no more thought of it than if she had been 
 an inhabitant of another planet and without any 
 right or title to a little girl who sat or stood near 
 her all the while, as mute as a mouse, and also 
 as observant. Bless congenial company ! What
 
 ALL BY CHANCE. 55 
 
 wonders has it not wrought for tired men and 
 women ? Trif had not imagined herself tired 
 when she started for the South, but woman s 
 work is never done while woman is at home. 
 So when she finds herself so far from it that 
 she cannot by any possibility attend to it, yet 
 can drop it from her mind, how she does 
 enjoy the chat of other good women similarly 
 situated ! 
 
 As to Fenie, she was the centre of a little group 
 cf officers from the fort. Her sister was with 
 her, and, although to some of the party the older 
 sister was the more interesting of the two, she 
 who was the younger and unmarried, assumed 
 all the admiration was as entirely for her as if 
 there were no other women at Old Point. Those 
 officers did say such clever and delightful things! 
 As to that, so did two or three civilians who joined 
 the party, but there was something about a uni 
 form that oh, Fenie couldn t explain it, but 
 she was sure that any other girl in similar cir 
 cumstances would understand exactly what she 
 meant. 
 
 Besides, was there not in the edge of the mir 
 ror the photograph of a man to whom her heart 
 was entirely loyal, although no allegiance had 
 ever been demanded ? Others might be men, 
 but he he was Marry Trewman, the only man 
 she had ever no, not the only man she had 
 ever loved, for she could not truly say, as yet, 
 that she really loved Harry. 
 
 Just as some one had told a very amusing 
 story, and Fenie had laughed heartily at it, and 
 begun to tell a story of which the first had re 
 minded her, she stopped and turned pale. Her
 
 56 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 sister wondered what was the matter, and soon 
 learned, for, through the parlor, on the way to 
 one of the corridors, and preceded by a porter 
 with bags and wraps, came Harry Trewman and 
 Kate. Fenie moved from the circle moved as 
 if she were in a dream. She extended her hand 
 to Harry, who took it gravely, respectfully, for a 
 fraction of a second, and then hurried after his 
 sable guide. Fenie dropped back to her chair, 
 resumed the story she had been telling, and com 
 pleted it with such a mass of detail that, when 
 finally the party broke up, one of the junior offi 
 cers told a comrade that Miss Wardlow had 
 evidently met her fate, and met him that very 
 evening, too. 
 
 It was Fenie who broke up the party, for she 
 was sure Trixy ought to be in bed was it not 
 after ten o clock ? No, indeed ; Trif should not 
 take the child to the room; hadn t she herself 
 promised to look carefully after the dear little 
 invalid ? 
 
 Nevertheless, Trif herself was in the room 
 within a few minutes. She found Trixy in bed, 
 and Fenie kneeling beside her, and Trixy was 
 talking, and Trif did not like to interrupt, because 
 sometimes Trixy said things so odd that her 
 mother liked to hear without seeming to notice. 
 
 " Trixy, Trixy," Fenie had just said. " It is 
 very late, and you must be very sleepy. Don t 
 you think you can drop off now ? " 
 
 "I s pose so," the child drawled, " but there 
 was somethin I wanted to ask you. Let me 
 see ; what was it ? Oh ! " and Trixy sprang up 
 and suddenly became very wide awake. " Say, 
 Aunt Fee, did lookin at him make you well ? "
 
 ALL BY CHANCE. 57 
 
 " Looking at whom, Trixy ? I m not ill, child ?" 
 
 " Why, papa said a look at Harry Trevvman s 
 face was the best medicine you could have." 
 
 Fenie burst into tears, upon which Trif hur 
 ried to her, but Fenie continued to weep, and 
 for so long that Trif wept too, after which Trixy 
 sobbed pitifully. 
 
 " Papa said it, and she s had the look, and it 
 ain t done her no good, for she s cryin like ev ry- 
 thin , and I worked so hard to give it to her, and 
 gave up a dolly to get it, and then he came him 
 self, and that made her cry more than ever." 
 
 " Oh, Trif," exclaimed Fenie. " He met me 
 so coldly and after what he wrote on his pic 
 ture, too ! Do you suppose he was jealous of the 
 company he saw me in ? " 
 
 " Did Harry write you somethin on a picture, 
 Aunt Fee ? " asked Trixy. 
 
 " Yes, he ; but you mustn t ask questions 
 about things that don t concern you, Trixy." 
 
 " Oh, I won t, but I just wanted to know " 
 
 " But you mustn t want to know what " 
 
 " But " 
 
 " Sh h ! " Don t ever mention the subject 
 to me again. Promise me, this instant ! " 
 
 " Sister," protested Trif, " you don t yet know 
 how that picture came to you." 
 
 I don t want to know anything about the pic 
 ture, or him, or about " 
 
 " Then I shan t tell you, or ask you, or any- 
 thin ," said Trixy, with a sob that would have 
 softened any heart but that of a young woman 
 who thought she had been treated coldly by the 
 man whom she thought she might learn to love.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 MORE REVELATION S. 
 
 WHEN Harry Trewman reached his room 
 he dropped into a chair and a very dis 
 mal frame of mind, which his face reflected, for 
 when his sister looked in upon him a few min 
 utes later she said : 
 
 " Why, brother ! What is the matter with 
 you ? From your melancholy appearance one 
 would suppose you hadn t just reached Old 
 Point and its chief attraction." 
 
 "Attraction, indeed," moaned Harry. " I sus 
 pect I am a fool, for it never before occurred to 
 me that a young woman whom I think the sum 
 total of everything good and charming, might 
 appear equally attractive to other men. Did 
 you see the crowd about her? -the uniforms and 
 buttons? and how she seemed to be enjoying 
 herself? Still, she has the right to do entirely 
 as she likes ; I ve no claim upon her." 
 
 " My dear Harry," said Kate tenderly, as she 
 seated herself on the arm of Harry s easy chair, 
 "don t be foolish. Do you suppose that a girl 
 is going to lose interest in everything and every 
 body in the world because she likes a certain 
 young man, or because a certain young man 
 likes her ? " 
 
 (53)
 
 MORE REVELATIONS. 59 
 
 " No. But she seemed to be enjoying herself 
 so hugely. I never saw her so radiant." 
 
 " But why shouldn t she have enjoyed herself? 
 I m sure that I d have done the same had I been 
 in her place. I envy her the chance of talking 
 with a lot of clever men. Do you think I would 
 refuse it even if I were deeply in love with some 
 
 one 
 
 " No, I suppose not ; but that would be dif 
 ferent." 
 
 " How ? " 
 
 " Oh, you re a very decided young woman, 
 with opinions of your own, while " 
 
 " Every woman should be as you say I am 
 if she would have men respect her. But, Harry, 
 what fine fellows those soldiers are ! They look 
 as if they had minds of their own, and if there s 
 anything that a woman specially likes in a man, 
 it is that." 
 
 " Umph ! I suppose you mean that young 
 men who aren t soldiers haven t minds of their 
 own eh ? " 
 
 " Harry, I think your own mind needs addi 
 tional strength at once, which it may get from 
 sleep. Go to bed. Good night. Sleep well." 
 
 Kate herself remained awake a long time, 
 thinking about her brother s prospects, for she 
 had been half in love several times, and been 
 rescued by the discovery that some other man 
 who seemed to admire her was more interesting 
 than the man she thought herself specially fond 
 of. She loved her brother dearly, but Harry 
 was still young and boyish none too much so, 
 to be sure, for Fenie Wardlow, but how much
 
 60 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 more interesting those officers were ! Her knowl 
 edge of them had been obtained during the 
 several minutes in which she had sat at one end 
 of the great parlor while Harry had been regis 
 tering their names at the office and arranging 
 for rooms, but she was a young woman who 
 reached conclusions rapidly. 
 
 Like most other people who lie awake late to 
 think, Kate awoke early. She peeped through 
 the window blinds, inhaled the fresh air, and 
 wished herself out of doors. Dressing quickly 
 she went upon the verandah. The sky was clear, 
 the air balmy, and the surf rippling brilliantly 
 and murmurously on the beach. Kate noted all 
 this and keenly enjoyed it. Then she chanced 
 to see, on the higher and drier sands, almost at 
 her feet, a large straw hat under which was a 
 small frock, two little hands and a shovel. The 
 little figure s back was toward her, but the figure s 
 voice was high in air, and it was singing : 
 
 Half a dozen dolls ; 
 Half a dozen dolls ; 
 
 Half a dozen, 
 
 Half a dozen, 
 Half a dozen dolls. 
 
 " Tis Trixy Highwood! " exclaimed Kate to 
 herself, and she hastily descended to the beach 
 and Trixy. 
 
 " Oh, Miss Trewman," shouted Trixy when 
 she saw Kate, " don t you like to dig wells ? It s 
 awful fun. I ve got this one nearly deep enough 
 for the water to come in ; as soon as it s done 
 I ll lend you my shovel and you can dig one.
 
 MORE REVELATIONS. 61 
 
 Whoever digs the best one any day gets a five- 
 cent piece from the Admiral -he comes around 
 and looks at em ev ry day. I won t mind if 
 yours is better than mine and gets the prize." 
 
 Kate had no intention to take part in com 
 petitive well-digging, but she was glad to do any 
 thing that would give her sufficient excuse to be 
 with Trixy a little while ; so as there was not 
 another person in sight except one of the hotel 
 watchmen, she stretched herself upon the warm, 
 dry sand, took Trixy s shovel, and began to dig. 
 
 " Tm so glad you came down," said Trixy. 
 " Everybody here sleeps so late, that it s lonesome 
 on the beach in the mornin . The sunrise gun 
 always wakes me, and when I dress, mamma lets 
 me out of the room if I promise to go back and 
 wake her at 8 o clock. It s fun to run up and 
 down on the beach, and dig wells, and find pretty 
 stones." 
 
 " Is it always so quiet as this in the morning?" 
 Kate asked. 
 
 "Yes, indeed; there s scarcely anybody here, 
 even as late as mamma comes down. Lots of 
 folks don t eat breakfast until noon-time ; how 
 do you s pose they manage to wait ? Say ; why 
 didn t you make your brother come down and 
 dig a well ? Mamma says he looks as if he 
 needed exercise." 
 
 " H m ! Really I hadn t thought of it." 
 
 "He does need exercise, though, don t he? 
 But of course he does, if mamma says so. Be 
 sides, he looks real white. All the men here look 
 kinder red and brown, specially the officers." 
 
 " You seem very observant of men, little girl 
 and of officers."
 
 62 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 " Of course I am, cause I like em. Mamma 
 likes em, too, and so does Aunt Fee, I guess, 
 cause they re all the time talkin to her, and 
 walkin on the piazza and the beach with her." 
 
 " They ? Then there are more than one ? 
 
 " Gracious, yes ! There s about forty here, 
 Lieutenant Jermyn says." 
 
 " Lieutenant Jermyn ? Who is he ?" 
 
 " He s the first one I met, and he used to know 
 mamma very well, and he s ever so nice to me, 
 and he don t seem to know how to keep away 
 from Aunt Fee so I heard a lady say." 
 
 " Indeed." Kate continued digging a moment 
 or two longer, for she wanted to think. Besides, 
 the warm sea air was working its witchery with 
 her, and disinclining her to effort. The sand 
 was clean, she and Trixy were still the only 
 occupants of the beach, so Kate soon sank 
 entirely upon the warm white couch which old 
 Ocean had provided for those who chose to 
 recline upon it. 
 
 The sun was bright and she was without veil 
 or parasol, but she could trust her complexion to 
 itself for a few moments. There were so few 
 times and places for a young woman out of 
 doors ! How delightful it would be, she thought, 
 if somewhere near New York there was a great, 
 clean, safe beach to lounge upon ! The mere act 
 of breathing seemed a positive pleasure. The 
 sunlight, through her closed eyelids, became a 
 delightful immensity of rosy pink, the ripple of 
 the wavelets upon the beach was ideal music, 
 the 
 
 " Hello ! "
 
 MORE REVELATIONS. 63 
 
 It was Trixy who spoke, from not three feet 
 away, but Kate pretended not to hear; she pre 
 ferred the companionship of her own thoughts, 
 although everything definite had escaped from 
 them. The next sound she heard caused her to 
 rise hastily on one elbow, for it seemed that there 
 was a noise in the sand unlike that made by 
 Trixy s shovel. 
 
 " Hello, Mr. Jermyn. Don t you know Miss 
 Trewman ? She s one of mamma s and Aunt 
 Fee s friends." 
 
 " Don t arise, please," said Jermyn with a bow 
 while Kate looked uncomfortable. " I m glad 
 to see that Trixy isn t the only visitor who has 
 learned which is the most delightful hour of 
 the day down here." 
 
 Kate persisted in arising, and Jermyn made 
 haste to bring her a chair; then he talked 
 well-digging in a matter-of-fact way with Trixy, 
 and smiled, with Kate, at some of the child s 
 replies, and so succeeded quickly in dispelling 
 Kate s sense of embarrassment. Still more, 
 wasn t he the very officer Kate had most no 
 ticed during her several minutes survey the 
 night before ? 
 
 " You ought to like him lots, Miss Trewman," 
 said Trixy suddenly, with the air of having 
 recalled something from the limbo of forget- 
 fulness, " cause he likes Aunt Fee lots." 
 
 " And Aunt Fee s sister, too," added Jermyn, 
 without change of countenance. " I had the 
 pleasure of meeting Mrs. Highwood frequently, 
 some years ago, when my battery was stationed 
 at New York."
 
 64 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 " How pleasant. said Kate, although she did 
 not mean it. Again she wondered whether 
 there might not have been deep purpose in 
 that Florida trip which seemed to have ended 
 at Fort Monroe. Something ought to be done, 
 and at once, if it were not already too late. 
 What should it be ? Thinking was not easy, 
 under the circumstances, for Jermyn was talking 
 to her not persistently, or as a man who was 
 trying to flirt ; and she liked his looks so much 
 that she did not want to appear inattentive, 
 although, really, didn t it seem utterly dreadful 
 to be chatting before seven in the morning with 
 a man who had been introduced only by a little 
 girl? 
 
 As they talked, Kate resolved upon a plan of 
 action. Fenie should become her sister-in-law 
 if she, Kate, could manage it. Dear Harry 
 should not be disappointed; Fenie was too 
 young to marry a man like Lieutenant Jermyn. 
 If Jermyn s attention could by any possibility 
 be diverted from Fenie, she, Kate, would divert 
 it ; the result might be a heartache for herself, 
 for she did most heartily admire such men. 
 Still, she would endure such a pain, for her dear 
 brother s sake, and if, after all, the affair 
 didn t end in a heartache, why 
 
 Just here she blushed, although Jermyn 
 couldn t imagine why, for at that very instant 
 he was explaining, at Kate s request, why the 
 fort on the Rip- Raps, a couple of miles away, 
 had not been completed, and he could not 
 imagine what there was in the subject, or in 
 his description, to bring a blush to any cheek,
 
 MORE REVELATIONS. 65 
 
 yet he said to himself that the blush was very 
 becoming, and that Miss Trewman was quite 
 an interesting young woman, 
 
 The chat continued until Trixy, who had 
 once in ten minutes asked Jermyn the time, 
 announced that she must go to wake her 
 mother for breakfast. This reminded Kate 
 that she had a brother to rouse, so she and the 
 child went into the house. 
 
 Half an hour later, while Trif and Fenie and 
 Trixy with Jermyn, whom they had invited to 
 breakfast with them, were chatting over their 
 morning meal the head waiter brought Harry 
 and Kate to the same table. There was no 
 help for it, although Harry looked as if he 
 wished there were ; a head waiter is autocrat of 
 his domain. As to the others, Trif exclaimed : 
 
 " How delightful !" Fenie smiled pleasantly, 
 although with some embarrassment, while Trixy 
 shouted : 
 
 " Hooray !" 
 
 Kate bravely began operations at once. For 
 tune, in the guise of the waiter, had placed her 
 beside Jermyn and Harry beside Fenie, so, Kate 
 argued, if she were to monopolize the officer, 
 Harry and Fenie would be obliged to talk to 
 each other, and she was old enough to know 
 that compulsory conversation has frequently 
 broken the thickest of social ice. 
 
 The plan worked finely. Harry and Fenie were 
 obliged to talk to each other, for no one else spoke 
 to either, and as each was determined that the 
 other shouldn t think anything unusual the 
 matter, each quickly became voluble and merry. 
 5
 
 66 TRIP AND TRIXV. 
 
 Bless the transparency of youthful hypocrisy. 
 Neither of those two young people imagined 
 that any one was noticing them, yet Kate s 
 heart was dancing with joy as she saw them 
 frankly exchange tender looks, and Trif s mind 
 lost a great weight so rapidly that she felt 
 several years younger within half an hour, and 
 she was made still happier when, as the entire 
 party strolled toward the fort to see " guard 
 mount," Jermyn had occasion to whisper to her: 
 
 " Mr. Trewman is a remarkably fortunate 
 young man bless him." 
 
 Guard mounting in the army is quite as cere 
 monious a matter as parade, and Jermyn had to 
 answer many questions which Kate put in rapid 
 succession, while Fenie, who had seen guard 
 mount several times, explained everything to 
 Harry. Trixy seemed interested only in the 
 movements of a dog, which persisted in follow 
 ing every movement of the post band. Her 
 mother gazed at her in adoration. How entirely 
 the dear child seemed absorbed in whatever 
 interested her how oblivious to everything else ! 
 
 When the ceremony ended, and the little 
 crowd under the live-oak trees broke up, Fenie 
 and Harry, Kate and Jermyn, began to move 
 slowly toward the hotel, while Trif and Trixy 
 walked behind them. Suddenly, while no one 
 else was talking, Trixy remarked : 
 
 " Mamma, dear ; wouldn t it be nice if they 
 all got married, and " 
 
 " Sh h ! " 
 
 Kate suddenly asked Jermyn why it was that 
 so large a fort had only a single flag-staff, and
 
 MORE REVELATIONS. 67 
 
 Harry hastened to give Fenie the details of a 
 lumber contract concerning which he had come 
 South, and Fenie listened as intently as if she 
 knew lumber from timber, or any other com 
 modity.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 A SNATCH AT TIME S FORELOCK. 
 
 QETWEEN the exhilarating effects of the 
 D breakfast-table chat with Fenie, and the 
 furtive, embarrassed, yet roguish look which 
 Fenie had worn for a fraction of a second, when 
 Trixy had made her unexpected remark in the 
 fort about marriage, Harry Trewman was the 
 happiest youth in the State of Virginia. 
 
 Nevertheless, he did not forget his business 
 duties or his business training. The lumber 
 case at Norfolk had disturbed his dreams at 
 night, and was now troubling his day-dreams; 
 the best way to avoid any more annoyance was 
 to hurry over to Norfolk and settle the business 
 at once. 
 
 Besides, now seemed the proper time to come 
 to a definite understanding with Fenie an 
 understanding of the kind frequently completed 
 by the presentation of a ring containing a stone, 
 preferably a diamond. Harry had seen in a 
 Norfolk shop a ring, which he thought would 
 entirely answer the purpose, and he would buy 
 it that very morning. Before he started, how 
 ever, he took the precaution to beg his sister, 
 half shamefacedly, to keep all designing bache 
 lors from Fenie for a few hours. 
 (68)
 
 A SXA TCH A T TAKE S FORELOCK. 69 
 
 " Trust me for that," said Kate, in her most 
 earnest manner. " I shall keep Fenie under my 
 own wing to-day ; I shall make sure, at least, that 
 Lieutenant Jermyn doesn t injure any of your 
 chances." 
 
 Kate was as good as her word, and as she and 
 Fenie were really very fond of each other, they 
 were together all morning. Trixy was with 
 them ; her honest little heart was still full of the 
 injunction to take the best of care of her Aunt 
 Fee, but the child found little to do but sit still 
 and listen. The two young women talked as 
 freely and incessantly as any other couple of old 
 acquaintances, amid scenes entirely new, and 
 with plenty of time at their disposal, and Trixy 
 heard much that set her to thinking; but she 
 had so often been cautioned against asking 
 questions, since she had been at Old Point, 
 that she found it necessary to think out her 
 puzzles for herself. 
 
 Kate s principal cause of fear, also her prin 
 cipal object of admiration, Lieutenant J ermy n, did 
 not reappear during the morning, and Kate was 
 mystified, as well as somewhat troubled. Was it 
 possible that he preferred to chat with Fenie only 
 while her sister was present or when he could 
 find her alone ? If so, matters were more serious 
 than Kate had thought. Perhaps but, pshaw! 
 Kate rebuked herself with an indignant blush, 
 for the thought that perhaps Jermyn might 
 desire to chat with Kate herself, and preferred 
 not to talk to two young women at once. 
 
 Yet she continued to wonder. Like most 
 other young women, and, indeed, like all Ameri-
 
 70 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 cans not well acquainted with the army, she was 
 of the impression that officers had nothing to 
 do, while not on parade, but make themselves 
 pleasing to the general eye, and to young women 
 in particular. She did not know that most of 
 the officers at Fort Monroe were either instructors 
 or students at a most exacting post-graduate 
 school of artillery, where each was expected to 
 impart or receive such advanced knowledge as 
 would suffice the commandant of a great fort or 
 the chief of artillery of an army. 
 
 As Kate wondered, and feared, and imagined 
 it occurred to her that the most sensible course 
 would be to "draw out" Fenie. She felt to 
 ward the girl as any young person feels toward 
 one several years younger ; she had a sense of 
 condescension and tolerance which was not al 
 ways under good control. Fenie was young, so 
 she was artless, unsuspecting, and transparent. 
 What would be easier than to learn from her, 
 not for curiosity s sake, but for Harry s and 
 Fenie s own, all that there might be between her 
 and Lieutenant Jermyn ? 
 
 So, as the two girls finally seated themselves 
 on the piazza to look at the noonday prome- 
 naders, Kate asked suddenly : 
 
 " What becomes of all the men here in the 
 middle of the day ? " 
 
 " Oh, they are somewhere with one another, I 
 suppose," replied Fenie. " Men are very inter 
 esting to one another, don t you think so? 
 There s a club in the fort to which many of them 
 go, I believe." 
 
 " Probably those who aren t soldiers go there
 
 A SNA TCH A T TIME S FORELOCK. 71 
 
 to meet those who are," said Kate. " What fine 
 men those army officers seem to be ! IVe seen 
 them only at long range I believe that s a mili 
 tary expression, isn t it ? but they seem so manly 
 and self-possessed ; so unlike the little fellows 
 who pass for men in New York." 
 
 " Trif," said Fenie, " has often insisted that 
 soldiers have learned the secret of never grow 
 ing old, and she seems to be right. From the 
 youngest to the oldest, I ve found them courteous, 
 agreeable and and " 
 
 " Deferential?" 
 
 " Yes ; that is just the word. There s nothing 
 consequential or silly about them, as there is 
 about so many young men and old beaux at 
 home." 
 
 " You lucky girl ! " exclaimed Kate. " I won 
 der that your good fortune in meeting such 
 clever fellows hasn t turned your head." 
 
 Fenie indulged in a smile that Kate thought 
 quite unusual in a girl so young, a smile which 
 was almost grim, as she replied : 
 
 " There s a saying in the family that the Ward- 
 low head never gets entirely off the Wardlow 
 shoulders, and I m trying to live up to it. Still, 
 I ve enjoyed myself greatly in the general com 
 pany here." 
 
 "General company? No man in particular? 
 What a lot of girls whom we both know, would 
 give their heads for your chance. Do you know, 
 Fenie dear, I wouldn t have wondered if by this 
 time you had lost your heart to some one quite 
 competent to care for it." 
 
 Fenie looked so astonished, and also so hurt,
 
 72 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 that Kate called herself a brute. Evidently 
 Harry was safe; the assurance was so exhilar 
 ating that Kate lost her own head for a moment 
 or two and began to talk at random. 
 
 " What a capital fellow Lieutenant Jermyn is !" 
 she said. "Do you know, it was merely Trixy 
 who introduced him to me, yet he at once made 
 me feel entirely at ease with him." 
 
 " Oh, he s charming," replied Fenie. " He s 
 been very kind to Trif and me. He seems to 
 know every one, and he s made us acquainted 
 with many pleasant people. Indeed, I suppose 
 that is the reason Trif is not with us now ; she 
 probably is chatting with people whom Jermyn 
 has introduced." 
 
 " What a social paragon he must be ! I wish 
 he were here now, for I want to ask questions 
 about scores of people whom I am meeting." 
 
 " The Admiral could answer them, and quite 
 as well, if he were here," said Fenie innocently. 
 
 " The Admiral ? " 
 
 "Yes." Then Fenie began to tell what a de 
 lightful gentleman the old Admiral was. In the 
 meantime Trixy was looking about for the Ad 
 miral himself, for it was about the time for the 
 daily inspection of sand-wells and the award of 
 the prize. But Trixy could not see the genial 
 old man anywhere, although she strolled the en 
 tire length of the piazza, and then went into the 
 office to ask questions. The Admiral had gone 
 to the club, in the fort, some one said. Well, 
 the fort was but two or three hundred steps 
 away, Trixy knew, for she had been there sev 
 eral times already. She knew, too, where the
 
 A SNA TCH A T TIME S FORELOCK. 73 
 
 club was, for Lieutenant Jermyn had taken 
 her there to show her the picture of a distant re 
 lation of her mother who had been a soldier. 
 
 To the club Trixy went, but an elderly officer 
 whom she met said that the Admiral was not 
 there. 
 
 " That s too bad," said Trixy, " cause some 
 ladies wants him." 
 
 Another elderly officer, who was present, ad 
 mitted that it certainly was too bad, and said 
 that the Admiral would be greatly disappointed. 
 
 " Mebbe," said Trixy, a happy thought coming 
 to her mind, "mebbe Lieutenant Jermyn is 
 here." 
 
 " He is in one of the section rooms," replied 
 one of the officers. 
 
 " He s saying his lessons," added the other 
 " Do you ever have lessons, little girl ? " 
 
 " Yes, indeed," sighed Trixy. " Some of em s 
 awful hard, too, though mamma helps me all 
 she can. But do you mean that a great big man 
 like Lieutenant Jermyn goes to school ? " 
 
 " Indeed, I do." 
 
 " Dear me ! " exclaimed the child. Then she 
 thought a moment, and continued : 
 
 " Do you suppose his teacher would let him 
 out for a while ? Other scholars get let out of 
 school sometimes, when somebody needs to see 
 them very much." 
 
 " I think it doubtful," said one of the officers, 
 but the other, with a wink at his companion, said: 
 
 " One never knows what can be done until one 
 has tried. Just go over to that door where you 
 see a cat sitting,ask for the teacher, and tell him 
 what you want."
 
 74 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 " Thank you," said Trixy, trotting briskly in 
 the direction indicated, while one officer said to 
 the other : 
 
 " Colonel, when will you outgrow your fond 
 ness for practical jokes ? " 
 
 "Not while I live, I hope. Besides, where s 
 the harm ? Amperthwaite, the instructor of that 
 section, will be cleverer for the remainder of the 
 day, after such an interruption, and the boys will 
 be glad of a moment s truce. I wish I could be 
 there to see and listen." 
 
 The door was open, and Jermyn was standing 
 in front of a large blackboard covered with 
 marks which reminded Trixy of the geometrical 
 puzzles which her father sometimes cut from 
 cardboard for her. The instructors and the other 
 officers were looking at the board, and Jermyn 
 was talking, so no one noticed the little girl in 
 the doorway, and Trixy was beginning to feel 
 embarrassed. Suddenly an officer, who had chil 
 dren of his own, attracted attention by coughing 
 violently. Every one looked at him, and he, in 
 turn, looked toward the door. 
 
 " Are you the teacher of this school ? " asked 
 Trixy of the one officer who sat apart from the 
 others. 
 
 " Eh ? Oh yes, what is it ? " 
 
 " Lieutenant Jermyn, one of your scholars ? " 
 
 " Er Mr. Jermyn, do you resent the implica 
 tion?" 
 
 " Not for an instant, Captain." 
 
 " Well, little girl, what is it ? " 
 
 " Oh, only if you d let him out, there s a couple 
 of ladies who d like to see him very much ; I 
 know they would, because one of them said so."
 
 A SNA TCH A T TIME S FORELOCK. 75 
 
 The only really young lieutenant in the room 
 giggled; the others smiled, and the instructor, 
 after regarding the blackboard intently a mo 
 ment, said : 
 
 " Mr. Jermyn, you may consider yourself ex 
 cused, if you so desire." 
 
 Jermyn emerged with his cap in his hand and 
 more than his customary color in his face. 
 Trixy took his hand, and led him toward the 
 exit nearest the hotel. Looking towards the 
 club, she saw the two officers whom she had met, 
 they having moved their chairs nearer the door 
 that they might observe the proceedings, so she 
 shouted : 
 
 " I got him ! " 
 
 Then each warrior chuckled, although Trixy 
 did not know it, for she was busily explaining to 
 Jermyn why she had come for him, and how hard 
 she had first tried to find the Admiral, and Jer 
 myn told her not to feel the least concern about 
 the interruption, although at the same time he 
 told himself in entire earnest that he wished 
 that Tryphosa Wardlow had never married and 
 become the mother of a child like Trixy, for 
 when would he ever hear the end of the section- 
 room episode ? 
 
 But Trixy knew nothing of the trouble which 
 she had caused. She prattled without ceasing 
 until she had conducted the officer to her aunt 
 and Miss Trewman, to whom she said : 
 
 " Here he is. Now, ask him your questions." 
 
 Jermyn soon ceased to feel provoked. One of 
 the duties of a soldier is to endure anything that 
 may lead to desirable ends. It, therefore, came
 
 76 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 to pass within an hour that Jermyn assured him 
 self that to make himself interesting and useful 
 to two young women like Kate and Feme was 
 sufficient compensation for any teasing which 
 his comrades might impose in the future. His 
 feelings must have expressed themselves in his 
 face, for a lull in the conversation was improved 
 by Trixy, who said : 
 
 " Say, Mr. Jermyn, ain t you glad that I asked 
 your teacher to let you out of school ? " 
 
 Then Jermyn had to explain; so did Trixy, 
 and the ladies had to feel very uncomfortable.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 MISPLACED CONFIDENCE. 
 
 KATE came within a. day or two to enjoy the 
 society of Lieutenant Jermyn so much 
 that she did not hesitate to say so plainly to 
 Fenie. True, she said it half as a test, to be 
 applied to Fenie s own feelings, but as the girl 
 listened without a sign of jealousy, and even 
 looked pleased, Kate was so well satisfied with 
 the situation that she wanted to talk farther on 
 the subject, and with some one more competent 
 to estimate a mature man and gentleman at his 
 true value. 
 
 She therefore began to discuss Jermyn with 
 Trif , who was so happy over the change in Fenie s 
 manner that she was quite willing to rejoice and 
 sympathize with any one about anything. Like 
 any other good woman who had been compelled 
 to disappoint a good man, she wished she might 
 see the man made happy by some other good 
 woman, so she wondered whether a match be 
 tween Jermyn and Kate might not be possible. 
 Her own married life was so happy that she pro 
 foundly pitied any other woman who was unmar 
 ried yet old enough to know her own mind. 
 
 How Trif did long for Phil ! If she could see 
 him, only for an hour, to consult with him 
 177J
 
 78 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 about this new and delightful idea that had taken 
 possession of her. 
 
 Undoubtedly he would agree with her, for he 
 always came to her way of thinking, or she to his, 
 she was not sure which. She had half a mind to 
 telegraph him to run down to the fort for a day or 
 two ; she was sure his horrid old firm would not 
 miss him greatly during so short an absence. 
 Then she thought it would be better to write 
 him and ask his advice. 
 
 Half wondering which course would be the 
 better, she began a letter, but was interrupted 
 again and again, so at night she was but little 
 further advanced than in the morning. Besides, 
 a series of showers had descended upon Old 
 Point, and Trixy was obliged to remain indoors, 
 and a little girl away from home on a showery 
 day is as restless as a guilty conscience, so Trif 
 finally called herself a heartless mother, and 
 tried to devote herself entirely to her child. Trixy 
 asked only that mamma would write a good 
 long letter for her to papa, and Trif began it, 
 and got well under way, when a waiter came to 
 the room with a message from Fenie, begging 
 Trif to come down at once to see some old 
 friends who had unexpectedly arrived, so poor 
 little Trixy was hurried to bed, where she 
 thought dismally of life s disappointments until 
 she fell asleep. 
 
 A little matter like a night s sleep could not 
 make Trixy forget anything upon which she had 
 set her heart. Early the next morning the child 
 begged her mamma to finish that letter to papa, 
 and she reverted to the subject several times
 
 MISPLACED CONFIDENCE. 79 
 
 during the day. Finally she searched her 
 mother s portfolio for the unfinished letter, and 
 endeavored to complete it herself, in imitation 
 of print, which was the only sort of writing she 
 knew well. She had not learned to use a pen, 
 and the only pencil she could find had a very 
 bad point, so she put both letter and pencil 
 into her pocket, and resolved to bide her time 
 until she could find her mother disengaged. 
 
 Once upon the beach, and at her favorite 
 occupation of well-digging, she forgot the letter 
 for two or three hours, but the subject was 
 brought back to her mind by overhearing one of 
 the male guests tell another that he had just 
 received a letter from his little daughter, and 
 that a man never knew how dear his children 
 were until he was separated from them for a few 
 days. 
 
 Suddenly the inspector of sand-wells, the 
 cheery old Admiral, hove in view, and Trixy 
 hurried to him and asked : 
 
 "You can sharpen lead-pencils, can t you?" 
 
 " I could when I was at the Naval Academy," 
 was the modest reply. In a moment Trixy s 
 hand and eyes and head and tongue were work 
 ing in unison, after the manner of beginners at 
 letter-writing, while the Admiral, standing a little 
 apart, pretended to write something in a memo 
 randum book, but really made a sketch, to be 
 presented to Trif, of the little correspondent as 
 she knelt upon the piazza floor and used a chair 
 as a desk. 
 
 " Writin s dreadful hard work," said Trixy, 
 after several moments of effort. " I do wish
 
 8o TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 that mamma oh, say, Admiral, you can write, 
 can t you ? Of course you can I see you doin 
 it now. Won t you please finish this letter for 
 me if I tell you what to say ? That s the way 
 mamma writes em for me she begun this one. 
 If you do it you needn t pay me five cents the 
 next time my well s the best of the lot, and I 
 guess it s goin to be the best to-day. Is it a 
 bargain?" 
 
 " But, Trixy," replied the Admiral, " I question 
 the propriety of hearing other peoples family 
 affairs. 
 
 " Oh, I don t write no family affairs. This is 
 only a letter to papa." 
 
 " Your logic, my dear, is as faultless as your 
 grammar. Still, I ll be your clerk for a few 
 moments." 
 
 "All right; I m very much obliged. First, 
 though, you d better begin and read what s 
 already wrote, cause it s so long since mamma 
 began this letter for me that I can t remember 
 what I told her to say." 
 
 " H m let me see," said the Admiral, adjust 
 ing his glasses. " Dear Old Papa " 
 
 " Go on." 
 
 The Admiral, who, like most men of affairs, 
 had acquired a way of reading a page at a glance, 
 suddenly looked at Trixy in astonishment. Then 
 he re-read the letter, and said, with a twinkle of 
 his eyes : 
 
 "Aren t you rather young to take so much 
 interest in match-making ? " 
 
 "What s match-makin* ? " asked the child, 
 with wondering eyes.
 
 MISPLACED CONFIDENCE. 81 
 
 " Oh, you seem to understand the subject 
 very well. The idea of a child planning a mar 
 riage between a man and a woman quite suited 
 to each other though they certainly are who 
 never met until this week ! " 
 
 " Who do you mean ? Aunt Fee and Harry ? 
 Why, they ve " 
 
 " No, no I don t mean them. This is another 
 couple a lady and an army officer." 
 
 " Oh, you mean Mr. Jermyn and Miss Trew- 
 man ? Why, I don remember tellin mamma to 
 write anythin about them. Come to think of 
 it, though, I said to her, over at guard mount 
 the other day, that twould be nice if they got 
 married ; but she said Sh h , and that means 
 the same thing as don t when mamma says it." 
 
 "Yes to be sure; it used to be so in our 
 family, when I was a boy. But how did this 
 subject get into the letter, if you didn t tell your 
 mother to write it ? " 
 
 "I m sure I don t know, unless mamma put it 
 in just for fun. Sometimes she helps me with 
 things to say, when I want to write a real long 
 letter." 
 
 " H m ! " The Admiral looked very alert as 
 he recalled customs of his own family when he 
 was a young father. " Trixy, would you mind 
 telling me your father s name his first name ? " 
 
 " It s Philip." 
 
 " Ah, yes. And is that what your mother 
 usually calls him ? " 
 
 " Goodness, no ! When she says Philip, 
 papa pretends to be awfully scared. Sometimes 
 she calls him Phil, but usually she says papa. " 
 6
 
 82 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 " Just as I supposed." The Admiral was 
 silent and grave so long that the child timidly 
 asked : 
 
 " You don t think it s improper for her to do 
 it, do you ? 
 
 "Improper? No, indeed ! I d give half my 
 pay yes, all of it to hear my wife call me 
 papa again." Tears came into the veteran s 
 eyes, and Trixy, following home custom regard 
 ing such matters, kissed them away, which 
 operation made the Admiral s face as cheery as 
 a sunburst. Nevertheless, the old man did some 
 more thinking, and finally he said : 
 
 " I m such a stupid old fellow that I can t easily 
 finish what some other person has begun. Sup 
 pose we destroy this letter, and I begin a new 
 one for you. I ll write one as long as you like, 
 if you ll come into the office, where I can find a 
 desk." 
 
 " Oh, good ! " 
 
 " But about this one which your mother began 
 suppose we have a secret about it ? " 
 
 Trixy hesitated ; she dearly loved a secret, 
 but of late her secrets had not been as well 
 kept as she would like. Still, she promised, and 
 the new letter was soon under way, and at the 
 top was written, " Dictated to Rear Admiral 
 Allison, retired, by Her Serene Highness the 
 Infanta Trixy." The Admiral put the original 
 and uncompleted letter into his pocket, intending 
 to burn it and destroy the ashes, although what 
 might happen, should there be any enquiries for 
 it, he was sure he did not know ; perhaps it 
 might be well for him to hurry off to Wash 
 ington, or somewhere.
 
 MISPLACED CONFIDENCE. 83 
 
 When the new letter was completed Trixy 
 and the Admiral took it to the post-office, and 
 the old man, in endeavoring to impress upon 
 Trixy the advisability of keeping the matter a 
 secret while both of them remained at Old 
 Point, exerted his diplomatic faculties to an 
 extent unparalleled during his entire term of 
 service as an officer. He loathed the idea of 
 teaching duplicity to a child, but in the circum 
 stances it seemed entirely justifiable. 
 
 As the day waned, most of the ladies retired to 
 dress for dinner, and Trif, whose conscience had 
 been reproaching her all day for neglect of her 
 husband, to whom she knew her letters were 
 unspeakably welcome, and to whom she dearly 
 loved to write when she chanced to be away 
 from him, determined to finish the letter begun 
 the day before. 
 
 " Fenie," she soon said through the door be 
 tween the rooms, " have you been to my port 
 folio ? " 
 
 " No, dear. I ve done no writing." 
 
 " How strange. I d begun a letter to Phil, 
 and now I can t find it." 
 
 Fenie said something playful about mislaid 
 affection, but Trif did not laugh, for she remem 
 bered what she had written. Still, why should 
 she worry ? No one but the chambermaid could 
 have been in the room, and she doubted whether 
 colored chambermaids at the South could read. 
 The letter would turn up in the course of time; 
 meanwhile she would write a hasty note to Phil 
 and enclose Trixy s, just as it was, in time for 
 the mail by the evening boat, which would close
 
 84 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 in a few minutes, and Trixy, who never was spe 
 cially dressed for dinner, could take the letter 
 down to the office. 
 
 The Admiral strolled over to the fort and the 
 club, where he met a semi public man who was 
 talking to the Commandant about a promising 
 gold "placer "on the Pacific coast which had 
 proved so alluring that he had lost a lot of 
 money in trying to develop it. The Command 
 ant had known of this same placer, for he had 
 been stationed near it at one time ; the Admiral 
 also had seen it, for he had been taken to it one 
 day by some men who had hoped to extract 
 some of his savings from him. Lack of water 
 was the trouble, and the Admiral, who had 
 looked carefully over the ground, had devised a 
 plan whereby water might be brought by a tor 
 tuous route from a stream several miles distant. 
 When he said this to the semi-public man that 
 person replied : 
 
 "Give me your plan, and if it is practicable 
 you shall have a large block of stock, for nothing, 
 in the company I ll organize to work it." 
 
 The Admiral quickly took a letter from his 
 pocket and drew on the back of it a plan of the 
 country as he remembered it. Then he con 
 sulted Jermyn, who had dropped into the club. 
 
 "Very good," said Jermyn, looking at the 
 sketch, "although it might be improved a little, 
 I think. I ve done some shooting on that very 
 ground, so I remember it pretty well. 1 
 
 " How fortunate, said the Admiral. " Mr. 
 Blogsham, my friend Jermyn is a good engi 
 neer, so he may be of more service than I."
 
 MISPLACED CONFIDENCE. 85 
 
 " Good ! " said Blogsham. " The better the 
 plan, the more it will be worth to us. There s a 
 block of stock for you too, Mr. Jermyn, if you 
 can make the water within reach." 
 
 Jermyn opened the sheet of paper and made 
 another sketch ; then he turned the paper over, 
 supposing it might contain some memoranda on 
 the subject, but he saw something that so upset 
 his mind that in the next ten minutes he talked 
 so vaguely about the ground and the water that 
 his own chance of getting any stock in the pro 
 posed mine seemed to him very small.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 A SCRAP OF PAPER. 
 
 BRUCE JERMYN was as honorable a gen 
 tleman as could be found anywhere, but 
 for two or three days and nights he wished he 
 had read farther in that letter upon which he 
 and the Admiral had made their sketches of the 
 surroundings of the placer mine. No one knew 
 better than he the rights and sanctity of private 
 correspondence, but could any man be blamed 
 for wanting to know who it was who was plan 
 ning to marry him to Kate Trewman ? 
 
 He could not say that he objected to the lady 
 named in the letter, but who could it be who 
 was charging herself with the conduct of the 
 affair ? " Dear old Papa," the letter had begun, 
 and the Admiral being old, and also the pos 
 sessor of the letter, was undoubtedly the person 
 to whom it was addressed, but who could the 
 writer be ? Jermyn knew that the Admiral had 
 at least one daughter, who was a clever woman 
 with some reputation in the service as a match 
 maker, but she was married and living several 
 hundreds of miles from Old Point. 
 
 Perhaps she had arrived, an invalid, and 
 remained in her room ; but it was strange that 
 no one mentioned her. Evidently the writer, 
 (86)
 
 A SCRAP OF PAPER. 87 
 
 whoeTer she might be for the penmanship was 
 that of a woman was acquainted with Kate 
 Trewman : in that case her identity might be 
 discovered through Kate, but Jermyn, manly 
 and honest though he was, half felt that he 
 would not again be able to look Kate fully in 
 the face, much less to interrogate her skilfully 
 on so delicate a subject, in which there seemed 
 so much at stake. 
 
 All his fears and doubts, however, disappeared 
 like mists before the sun when next he met Kate 
 herself. That estimable young woman was not 
 in the least forward, but she knew how to put 
 at their ease such men as she liked, and she 
 quickly made herself so companionable that 
 Jermyn began to wish that the writer of the 
 letter would go on match-making, and in the 
 greatest of earnest. Still, who on earth, or at 
 Old Point, could she be ? The Admiral himself 
 seemed to enter entirely into the spirit of the 
 affair, for he made two or three occasions to 
 speak to Kate and Jermyn together, and to 
 bring out some of the young man s best points ; 
 he was as hearty as if he and Jermyn had been 
 boys together, and that sort of thing, from an 
 officer of very high rank to a subaltern, has 
 its effect upon women. Indeed, the old sea- 
 dog was so very familiar that Jermyn almost 
 determined to boldly ask him for another 
 glance at the letter at least, for a look at the 
 sketches. 
 
 But the Admiral s affability and high spirits 
 were partly assumed, for he had a great load of 
 trouble upon his mind. When he reached his
 
 88 TRIP AND TRTXY. 
 
 room and prepared to burn the tell-tale letter, he 
 could not find the letter itself. What could he 
 have done with it? At times he was very 
 absent-minded; he had been known to go out 
 without his hat, and to search with his right hand 
 for the eye-glasses that were in his left, but he 
 certainly had carried that letter too close to his 
 mind to mislay it. Had he taken any papers 
 from his pocket anywhere ? Ha ! That sketch 
 of the placer mine. 
 
 He hurried back to the fort, but it was not 
 there, nor could he find anyone who had seen it. 
 Probably, the semi-public man, Blogsham, had 
 pocketed the paper, which would have been en 
 tirely natural under the circumstances, but Blogs 
 ham had already started for Washington. 
 
 The Admiral groaned. He remembered that 
 the letter had no signature, so it could not be 
 traced to its writer ; but the writer was a woman, 
 and the subject was a woman and an officer, and 
 Blogsham was rather a coarse fellow, and very 
 fond of a practical joke, and if he should chance 
 to know Jermyn 
 
 Know Jermyn ? Why, to be sure he knew 
 him ! Had not the Admiral himself introduced 
 the Lieutenant, and consulted him about the 
 sketch? Possibly Jermyn himself had the let 
 ter; he would ask him. Hence, the Admiral s 
 frequent excuses to speak to Jermyn in Kate s 
 presence, and to finally ask bluntly : 
 
 " By the way, Jermyn, do you remember those 
 sketches we made at the club yesterday? " 
 
 The young officer suddenly reddened, and the 
 older officer lost heart, although he regained it 
 when Jermyn replied :
 
 A SCRAP OF PAPER. 89 
 
 "Yes, and I was going to ask you to let me 
 see them once more. Have you them with you ? " 
 
 The Admiral looked the Lieutenant full in the 
 eye, at which the disappearing flush returned. 
 The Admiral continued : 
 
 " I supposed you had it already." 
 
 " Not I, I assure you. I left it upon the club 
 table, right at your elbow." 
 
 The Admiral suddenly looked so uncomforta 
 ble that Jermyn said : 
 
 " I sincerely hope you haven t lost it ! " 
 
 "So do I. I could make the sketch again 
 from memory, but there were some er some 
 memoranda on the other side of the sheet which 
 I had intended to preserve; that is, they were 
 not my property, and -" 
 
 "Not your property?" Jermyn thought he 
 saw the opportunity for which he was longing. 
 
 " No. The letter itself belonged to another 
 person. Do you suppose that Blogsham him 
 self may have kept the sketches for future refer 
 ence." 
 
 " Quite possibly. But Blogsham has returned 
 to Washington." 
 
 " So I have heard. I suppose there is nothing 
 left but to write him." 
 
 "What a lot of trouble a bit of paper may 
 cause," said Kate, becoming restive during a 
 conversation in which she had no part. 
 
 " Yes yes, indeed," replied the Admiral in a 
 manner so unlike any which Kate had previously 
 seen him display that the young woman began 
 to wonder whether there could be some historic 
 ot romantic interest about the bit of paper in
 
 90 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 which the two men seemed so deeply interested. 
 Everthing she had known about gentlemen of 
 the army and navy, until the last two or three 
 days, had been learned from novels and stories, 
 in many of which a bit of paper played an im 
 portant part. Perhaps there was some romance 
 even about this, and any romance of army and 
 navy would be very interesting to her could 
 she know it. 
 
 An hour later Kate joined Trif and Fenie, with 
 whom sat Harry. Both ladies rallied her about 
 her apparent conquests in both warlike branches 
 of the public service, and Kate finally said that 
 she wished she often could make conquests of 
 such men as Admiral Allison and Lieutenant 
 Jermyn. 
 
 "And only think," she added ; " I do believe 
 there s some great mystery between the two 
 men. Tis none of my affair, of course, but I 
 can t help being curious about it. Tis all about 
 some sketches and memoranda of some kind. 
 They talked it over before me without any 
 hesitation, but it was plain to see that there was 
 much more to it than appeared in the conversa 
 tion." 
 
 " Oh," said Fenie, " there seems to be an 
 epidemic of mislaying bits of paper. Trif, here, 
 has been worrying all day about a letter to Phil 
 which she began but didn t finish. I told her it 
 was the easiest thing in the world to write a 
 letter to one s own husband or ought to be, but 
 she has upset her entire room while searching 
 for that wretched note." 
 
 Trif tried to laugh, but she felt very uncom-
 
 A SCRAP OF PAPER. 91 
 
 fortable. To change the subject of conversation 
 she called Trixy and examined the child s shoes 
 to see that they were tied, and she set Trixy s 
 hat properly upon her head. Meanwhile Kate 
 continued to talk about the Admiral and the 
 Lieutenant, and their lost sketches and memo 
 randa, and Trixy took part in the conversation 
 by saying that the Admiral was nicer than ever, 
 because he wrote a long letter for her, the day 
 before, to send to her dear papa. 
 
 " Trixy !" exclaimed Fenie. " How could you 
 trouble some one not of the family to write a 
 letter for you ?" 
 
 " Why, him and me is good friends, and 
 mamma began a letter for me, but she put off 
 finishing it, and " 
 
 Trif arose with a start, took the child s hand, 
 and walked away so rapidly that a family woman 
 sitting near by remarked to another family 
 woman that it looked very much as if a certain 
 child was being led to punishment. 
 
 " Trixy, dear," asked Trif, as soon as she was 
 well away from the throng, " how did the Ad 
 miral come to write that letter for you ?" 
 
 " Why," explained Trixy, " I wanted that 
 letter finished, you know, cause I promised papa 
 when we started down here that I wouldn t 
 neglect him, so I tried to finish it myself, but 
 twas dreadful hard work for me, cause the 
 bottom of a chair isn t a very good table, so I 
 asked the Admiral to finish it for me." 
 
 "But the letter itself where did you get it? 
 Where is it now ?" 
 
 " Got it out of your portfolio, where you put it 
 when you stopped writin it."
 
 92 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 " You dreadful child ! The letter I began for 
 you I sent to your father, just as it was, and the 
 one you took from my portfolio was my own/ 
 
 Trixy had often been called dreadful ; the word 
 was in common use in the family, although it was 
 generally accompanied by a smile and a kiss. 
 Now, however, there was no such demonstration. 
 Trif looked so stern that Trixy began to cry, 
 and, as the mother s expression did not relax, the 
 child was soon crying industriously, while Fenie, 
 who had been looking on from a distance won 
 dering what was going on, and indignant that 
 any one except, perhaps, herself should do 
 anything to make the dear child uncomforta 
 ble, hurried to the rescue. 
 
 " I think you re making a great fuss about a 
 very small matter," said Fenic, with the firm con 
 viction and superior sense peculiar to very young 
 women. " I don t see anything to it that you can 
 complain of, except that Trixy got the wrong 
 letter finished. I m sure you can have written 
 nothing which was unfit for your husband to re 
 ceive." 
 
 " But suppose the Admiral has chanced to read 
 what was already written ? 
 
 " Suppose he did ? What then ? " 
 
 " He knows Jermyn, and oh, oh, oh ! " 
 
 Trif s manner was so tragical that Fenie was 
 mystified! What could it all mean ? It couldn t 
 be that her sister had become too fond of Jer 
 myn, and had any foolishness to confess to her 
 husband ; but, if not, what was there dreadful 
 about the fact that the Admiral knew Jermyn ? 
 
 In the meantime, Trixy had followed the cizs-
 
 A SCRAP OF PAPER. 93 
 
 torn of children in general in such cases, which 
 is to get away from the scene of trouble as soon 
 as possible. Chancing to meet the Admiral him 
 self, she abruptly said to him : 
 
 " Say, mamma knows all about that letter. I 
 didn t tell her nothin she just guessed it." 
 
 " Whew ! " exclaimed the old man. Then he 
 looked as thoughtful and anxious for a moment 
 as if he were taking a fleet into action, and he 
 said, half to himself,"! must take the night- 
 boat for Washington. I hope Blogsham may 
 still be there. I must beg you to excuse me, 
 Trixy." 
 
 The Admiral hurried into the hotel, Trixy fol 
 lowing him as far as she could. At the other 
 front of the house she met Jermyn, followed by 
 a servant with a portmanteau. 
 
 " Good bye, little girl," said the officer. " I 
 shall be back in a couple of days. A friend of 
 mine is about to run up to Washington with one 
 of the government boats, and I m going with 
 him. Please remember me to your mother and 
 aunt, and to Miss Trewman." 
 
 "What! you goin to Washin ton too. So s 
 the Admiral." 
 
 Jermyn stared wonderingly, and the last of him 
 that Trixy saw to remember was a face which 
 seemed one great frown.
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 OFF THE SCENT. 
 
 T^HE Admiral and the Lieutenant met face to 
 1 face in the Army and Navy Club at Wash 
 ington, and each looked as if he were a rogue 
 about to tumble into the clutches of the law. 
 After a moment of mute inquiry of each other s 
 faces the Admiral asked : 
 
 " Jermyn, how on earth did you reach here ? 
 I thought I left you at Fort Monroe ? " 
 
 "And I," said Jermyn, "supposed I had left 
 you at Old Point, when I suddenly ran up here 
 on a matter of personal business." 
 
 "Ah ! Trying to be transferred to some other 
 branch of the service, where there s more chance 
 of promotion ? Well, I can t blame you. In 
 time of peace a man must wait a long while for 
 his just deserts, and in time of war he may be 
 killed before they can reach him. Tis a queer 
 world." 
 
 "It certainly is, or some things in it are very 
 queer." 
 
 " Excuse a plain question, please. That letter 
 upon which you and I sketched a day or two 
 ago at the club was it " 
 
 " Bless my soul, Jermyn, is that letter on your 
 mind too ? My dear boy, my sole purpose in 
 (94)
 
 OFF THE SCENT. 95 
 
 hurrying off to Washington last night was to 
 recover that letter. I can t imagine where it is 
 unless our enterprising friend Blogsham took it 
 with him." 
 
 " You knew its contents ? " 
 
 " Yes unfortunately for my peace of mind 
 since I was asked to read it. But you " 
 
 "I," said Jermyn, "glanced at it, supposing 
 it to be memoranda about the property you were 
 discussing ; I had no idea that it could be a pri 
 vate letter. You will understand why I would 
 like to know something further about it, princi 
 pally to save one woman, possibly two women, 
 from great mortification should the letter itself 
 fall into the wrong hands." 
 
 " Possibly two women ? " repeated the Ad 
 miral. " Do you mean to say that you don t 
 know who the writer was ? " 
 
 " I ve not the slightest idea." 
 
 The Admiral knocked the ashes from his cigar, 
 and took several puffs, regarding Jermyn quizzi 
 cally in the meantime, before he replied : 
 
 " Dear boy, you ve a powerful friend at court, 
 if your interests are what they might be. The 
 writer of the letter, who I assure you is not a 
 member of my own family, was writing to some 
 one to whom she has an entire right to open 
 her mind freely. If that little scamp Trixy 
 hadn t" 
 
 "Aha! Mrs. Highwood was the writer, eh ?" 
 
 Jermyn seemed greatly relieved by his dis 
 covery, but the Admiral said indignantly : 
 
 "Jermyn, you ought to be ashamed of your 
 self for entrapping an old friend in that way
 
 96 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 you really ought. Beside, you ought to be 
 grateful that so good a woman is taking so great 
 interest in you. As to the lady whom she named, 
 any man alive ought to be glad of an opportunity 
 to make love to her, and marry her, but if you 
 don t think so " 
 
 " I fully agree with you, Admiral, but if the 
 lady herself chances to hear of it if our mining 
 acquaintance chances to be one of the fellows 
 who sees a joke in everything, and doesn t care 
 to whom he tells it, and if he has the letter, and 
 shows it to mutual acquaintances well, you 
 know how a story gains by being passed from 
 man to man." 
 
 " Quite true, quite true," assented the Admiral 
 with a groan. " We must look the fellow up, 
 and at once. Bless me ! To think that all this 
 trouble came about through a child asking me 
 to finish a letter to her father. If I could lay 
 my hands upon that youngster at this moment 
 I dI d " 
 
 "You d probably romp with her as pleasantly 
 as if nothing had occurred." 
 
 " Yes, probably." 
 
 Trixy would have been glad of some one to 
 romp with at that moment, for she was very 
 unhappy. Her mother seemed utterly wretched; 
 at other times when Trif was troubled in mind, 
 Trixy had been quick to note it and to be very 
 affectionate, and had been so successful as to 
 be called her mamma s greatest comfort. Fenie, 
 too, was miserable, for Trif had told her what 
 was in the missing letter, and Fenie Avas sure 
 that if the letter itself fell into improper hands,
 
 OFF THE SCENT. 97 
 
 and Kate should hear about it, and learn who 
 was the writer, there would be another danger 
 of coolness between the two families, for Kate 
 was too proud to endure any interference with 
 her own affairs. Fenie had her own reasons 
 for objecting to any such trouble, for she was 
 very happy with Harry ; there had been no talk 
 of love, but none was necessary. Young people 
 have ways of understanding each other quite 
 independently of words ; do not even deaf 
 mutes fall in love ? 
 
 Now, however, even Fenie s pleasant chats 
 with Harry might have to be suspended, for 
 Trif was in such abject fear and mortification 
 that she would scarcely leave her room, and 
 Fenie did not like to appear entirely unattended 
 and unwatched by her sister. No one would 
 talk if she were seen with Kate and Harry 
 together, but Fenie herself, like Trif, had imag 
 ined all sorts of possible and impossible ways 
 by which that dreadful letter, or some garbled 
 report of it, might reach Kate. 
 
 So, the sisters sat in their room, and feared, 
 and felt like a couple of criminals to whom the 
 worst might happen. They exchanged fore 
 bodings, all of which were overheard by Trixy, 
 who received a reproachful look with each, and 
 did quite a lot of silent weeping on her own 
 account, and neither her mother nor her aunt 
 dried her eyes with kisses, as they usually did at 
 home after she had done something wrong, and 
 repented. 
 
 But the kind power that looks after children 
 and fools came finally to Trixy s relief, for Trif 
 suddenly said : 
 7
 
 98 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 " Surely the mail is distributed by this time, 
 and I can have at least the consolation of a 
 letter from dear Phil. Trixy, go down to the 
 office and ask for letters for our room." 
 
 Trixy flew away like a bird from an opened 
 cage, and no sooner did she reach the lower 
 floor than she dashed through one of the exits 
 to the beach. How delicious the sunlight was, 
 after part of a morning in a half-darkened room ! 
 the child felt as if she were bathing in it. 
 And the beach, too, with its long edging of 
 smooth, hard sand, she must have just one run 
 on it, from pier to pier, and back again. 
 
 It was a merry run, but it put her out of 
 breath, so she threw herself down upon the sand 
 to rest for a moment, and the warm-hearted sand 
 welcomed her so pleasantly that she waited a 
 moment longer, and then another, and soon she 
 began to doze, for contemplation of other peo 
 ple s troubles had wearied her early in the day. 
 
 Suddenly she was roused by the touch of a 
 parasol-tip. Looking up, she saw Kate Trew- 
 man, who said : 
 
 "Trixy, is your family ill, or merely sleepy? 
 They usually are down early to breakfast." 
 
 "Oh, they re bothered. My what a fuss! 
 Say, you won t get angry at em, will you ? " 
 
 " Not I ! Why should I ? I shall be very 
 sorry, though, if they remain in their rooms all 
 morning, for I miss them greatly. I don t find 
 any of my acquaintances this morning." 
 
 " Don t you ? Well, I know where one of 
 em is. He s gone to Washin ton, Lieutenant 
 Jermyn has."
 
 OFF THE SCENT. 99 
 
 Kate said nothing in reply, but Trixy ex 
 claimed, " Goodness gracious ! How bad you 
 do feel about it ! So do I. But he s comin 
 back comin to-morrow, cause he said he d be 
 gone only a couple of days. Oh, how quick you 
 do get glad again ! 
 
 Kate abruptly turned her face aside, hid it in 
 her parasol, and thanked herself that she had 
 no little sister or niece, to be always observing 
 her and so exasperatingly correctly, too ! At 
 that moment her brother joined her, and asked 
 Trixy if she would give his card, on which he 
 had pencilled a line or two, to her Aunt Fee. 
 This reminded Trixy that she had been sent for 
 the mail, so she danced off in the direction of 
 the office, while Harry and Kate walked to and 
 fro, and talked of everything but what was 
 uppermost in their minds. 
 
 Trixy found additional causes of detention. 
 The mail was late, and a throng of people were 
 at the desk awaiting the distribution, so Trixy 
 went to the front door to look at the flowers 
 which colored people brought every morning to 
 sell to the guests. Then she strolled toward the 
 fort, to look at an old colored beggar, whose 
 raggedness was so picturesque that it fascinated 
 her. As she stood staring at him, a servant 
 from the fort accosted her with, 
 
 "Little girl, you know Adm ral AlPson, don t 
 you ? the old gen leman that bosses all you 
 young ones when you digs sand-wells ? " 
 
 " Of course I do ; he s one of my best friends." 
 
 "Well, I ve got lots to do this mornin , an I 
 don t see how I m goin to git through. Don t 
 you want to give this letter to him for me ? "
 
 ioo TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 " Certainly." 
 
 " You won t forgit it, will you ? " 
 
 "Oh, no; I m not of the forgettin kind." 
 And Trixy took the letter, forgetting for the 
 moment that the Admiral had gone to Washing 
 ton. Then she hurried back to the hotel, got 
 the mail, and went into her mother s room, 
 saying : 
 
 " Let me open the letters for you, won t you, 
 like papa does ? 
 
 " Yes, but do it quickly," said Trif, first select 
 ing one from her husband, which she quickly 
 read and re-read. Then she took the others, 
 after Trixy had cut the ends of the envelopes, 
 and glanced over them, commenting as she 
 read: 
 
 "H m nothing unusual. Mrs. Poynce s 
 cards, the Misses Brimling s tea, on Thursday 
 next I shall be sorry to miss it ; invitation to 
 a spring opening, and oh ! " 
 
 Trif fell back in her chair, as if in a faint. 
 Fenie hurried to her, exclaiming : 
 
 " Trif, dear ! What is the matter ? Speak to 
 me, quick ! " 
 
 " That letter ! That awful letter that I began 
 for Trixy ! Here it is ! " 
 
 " Dear me ! Where could it have come 
 from?" 
 
 " I can t imagine. Why the envelope is 
 addressed to Admiral Allison ! How could it 
 have got among our letters ? " 
 
 "Oh," said Trixy, as excited as anyone, "a 
 man gave me the letter, a few minutes ago, to 
 give to the Admiral, and I forgot all about it,
 
 OFF THE SCENT. 101 
 
 and I ve gone and cut the end of it, with the 
 others ! " 
 
 " But who can it have come from ? persisted 
 Trif, looking into the envelope. " There is 
 nothing else with it, and some one had drawn 
 pictures on blank parts of the sheets." 
 
 " He must have lent it to someone, who is 
 returning it to him," suggested Fenie. 
 
 I ve always supposed naval officers the soul 
 of honor ? sighed Trif. 
 
 " Won t you give me the drawing on the back 
 of it for my scrapbook, mamma ? asked Trixy. 
 No objection being made, Trixy tore the Ad 
 miral s sketch of the gold placer and vicinity 
 from the sheet, and pasted it into a fearfully 
 and wonderfully made book of pictures, which 
 she had brought from home. She looked at 
 Jermyn s sketch a moment, thought it very like 
 the other, and cast it aside. Her mother picked 
 it up, read the page which she had written, and 
 then she and Fenie devised wildly improbable 
 theories of the history of the letter. The con 
 clusion finally reached, greatly though they 
 regretted it, was that the letter had been lent 
 by the Admiral to someone in the fort, with the 
 impression that there was some fun in it. If 
 army and navy officers saw jokes in such things, 
 of course Jermyn would soon hear of the letter 
 itself, to his great discomfort ; for the sisters 
 agreed that he was too much of a gentleman to 
 laugh over such a matter. Suddenly Fenie 
 exclaimed : 
 
 " There s something more dreadful still. You ll 
 have to return the letter to the Admiral."
 
 102 TRIP AND TRFXY. 
 
 " Never," Trif replied. " I shall mail it to 
 Phil this very afternoon. Suiting the action to 
 the word she enclosed it in an envelope, ad 
 dressed it, and affixed a stamp to it. 
 
 "But," remonstrated Fenie, " when the Admi 
 ral returns he will want to know where the letter 
 is, and he will speak to the man to whom he 
 lent it, and the man will say that he sent it back, 
 and the servant will be questioned and say he 
 gave it to Trixy, and then " 
 
 " Probably the messenger doesn t know Trixy 
 by sight or name," said Trif. 
 
 " Oh, he knows me well enough," said Trixy. 
 " He s servant to somebody in the fort, and the 
 somebody s little girls play with me on the 
 beach sometimes, and he comes for em at 
 dinnertime and lunch time." 
 
 " I see nothing to be done, then," said Trif, 
 "but for me to return to New York at once. 
 We certainly owe neither courtesy nor explana 
 tion to the Admiral, whom we \von t have the 
 embarrassment of meeting if we are not here. 
 Why, Fenie, you re crying. What is the matter, 
 dear?" 
 
 " I should think you might know, without 
 asking," sobbed the girl, " you, who have been 
 in love, and 
 
 " You poor, dear child. Your sister is a 
 thoughtless, heartless brute. Still, the Trew- 
 mans themselves will not remain here long; 
 Kate said they had dropped over here only 
 for a day or two, to see what the place " 
 
 " Oh, that reminds me," said Trixy. " Harry 
 gave me a card for Aunt Fee a few minutes 
 ago. Here it is."
 
 OFF THE SCEs\ T. 103 
 
 Fenie read the message on the card, and 
 looked pleased, although she said : 
 
 " Oh, Harry thinks they too will have to go to 
 New York, this very evening. He that is, 
 Kate, is waiting for me down stairs. You won t 
 mind my joining her, will you ? She does so 
 dislike to be kept waiting."
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE SEARCH PARTY. 
 
 THE Admiral and the Lieutenant searched 
 Washington quickly yet thoroughly, for the 
 man who was supposed to have the fateful letter 
 in his possession was prominent enough to have 
 his every movement observed and recorded by 
 the newspapers and discussed by the clubs. No 
 one at Washington had seen him or heard of 
 him since his departure for Old Point. 
 
 " Let us hope, dear boy," said the Admiral, as 
 the disappointed and weary men lunched to 
 gether, " that he has gone to the Pacific Coast to 
 develop that placer, for no one out there will 
 take any interest in that unfortunate note." 
 
 " I should be glad to hope so," Jermyn re 
 plied, but suppose that he has gone to New 
 York? That is his usual base of operations, 
 and should he have the letter, and meet in New 
 York some one who knows me, it would be just 
 like him to show the letter and talk about it." 
 
 " I shall at once go to New York, find him, if 
 he is there, and stop him," said the Admiral. 
 
 " But, Admiral " 
 
 " But me no buts, my dear boy. I assure you 
 that if it weren t for my humiliation at having 
 been a thoughtless old donkey I d enjoy the 
 (104)
 
 THE SEARCH PARTY. 105 
 
 job almost as well as if I were in active service 
 and in chase of an enemy. A chase will do me 
 good keep me from rusting, you know." 
 
 " But, Admiral, you were having a delightful 
 time at the Point ; there was a host of your 
 friends and old comrades there, and they will 
 soon be going away. I ve three days leave of 
 absence, and no farther use to make of it here. 
 Still more, I m the party most at interest, you 
 know." 
 
 " But I m the one moat at fault," persisted the 
 Admiral. It was finally agreed that there should 
 be a division of labor, the Admiral returning to 
 Old Point, where he might learn from some one 
 the destination of the supposed custodian of the 
 letter, while Jermyn should hurry to New York, 
 where it would not be very hard to find the 
 wanted man if he were there. 
 
 The Lieutenant had not been long in the 
 metropolis before he learned that even a man 
 known throughout the nation could not easily be 
 found in a city as large as New York. He first 
 went to a club where some old acquaintances 
 were so glad to see him that he had hard work 
 in getting away from them. They all knew by 
 name and reputation the man he was looking for 
 and congratulated Jermyn on having any excuse 
 for seeing a man who had made the fortunes of 
 a dozen other men while making his own, but 
 of the man s whereabouts they were as ignorant 
 as Jermyn himself. Then Jermyn made the 
 rounds of the principal hotels, but he found that 
 their number had trebled since his own period of 
 duty near New York, ten years earlier, and he
 
 106 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 began to think seriously of applying for an addi 
 tional leave of absence for three days, on the 
 ground of urgent and unexpected personal 
 business. 
 
 He was so weary at the end of a single day s 
 search, that he had not the heart to go to club 
 or theatre, so he dined dismally and alone at 
 Delmonico s, and then sauntered over to Madison 
 Square, dropped upon a bench, and blamed the 
 trees for not being as fully in leaf as those he 
 had left in the South, three hundred miles away. 
 
 Suddenly a gentleman arose from a bench 
 near by, walked to and fro two or three times, 
 stopped in front of the lonely officer, and said : 
 
 " I beg your pardon, sir, but aren t you Lieu 
 tenant Jermyn, of the artillery service ? " 
 
 " Mr. Highwood ! " exclaimed Jermyn, spring 
 ing to his feet, and extending his hand, " this is 
 rare good fortune for me." 
 
 " And for me," replied Phil ; " for you are the 
 only person I know who has seen my family 
 within a week, and I m as lonesome without 
 that family as you can ever have been at the 
 smallest post you ever served at. Take pity on 
 a poor fellow, and tell me all you can." 
 
 "Your loss is their gain," said Jermyn, when 
 both had seated themselves. " I never saw 
 Mrs. Highwood looking better. As for your 
 daughter, she is one of the most engaging young 
 women I ever met, except her mother, whom she 
 greatly resembles. Miss Wardlow, whom Mrs. 
 Highwood told me was in poor health when 
 she left New York, is simply radiant ; she is the 
 beauty of the Point, although she doesn t seem
 
 THE SEARCH PARTY. 107 
 
 to know it. They all talk of you a great deal; 
 to hear Miss Trixy is to believe you the only 
 man on the face of the earth " 
 
 " Bless her ! " said Phil. " By the way, there 
 are some neighbors of ours there, I believe the 
 Trewmans. Have you chanced to meet them ? " 
 
 As he asked this question, Phil looked side- 
 wise at his companion, and was sure, despite 
 the uncertain light of an electric lamp, that the 
 officer s face colored a little. But Jermyn re 
 plied, in his ordinary tone : 
 
 " Delightful people delightful ! By the way, 
 I ve a suspicion that you re in danger of losing 
 your sister-in-law ; at least as a member of 
 your immediate family. Mr. Trewman is devo 
 tion itself, and although the young lady has 
 many admirers, Mr. Trewman seems to be the 
 favored one." 
 
 " Ah ! Well, I don t know that either of them 
 could do better. They are already very well 
 acquainted, and Fenie is quite fond of Harry s 
 sister, whom I imagine does not disapprove of 
 the match." 
 
 Jermyn did not reply, so Highwood continued 
 to talk about the Trewmans, and particularly 
 about Kate; and Jermyn replied briefly, from 
 time to time, speaking of Kate so admiringly, 
 yet guardedly, that Phil began to wonder 
 whether the officer had not been making love 
 with traditional military haste, and had his suit 
 discouraged. Being too good a man to persist 
 in talking of a subject regarding which his 
 companion felt any reason for restraint, he 
 hastened to change the subject, and the two men
 
 io8 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 were soon engaged in general chat. Phil soon 
 asked : 
 
 " How long shall you remain in the city, Mr. 
 Jermyn? Or perhaps you are to be on duty 
 here ? " 
 
 " Only on personal business, which may take 
 three or four days." 
 
 "Good! I ll try to see that your spare time 
 passes pleasantly. Several new military pictures 
 are to be exhibited at my club, and I ll be glad 
 to have you see them, if you find the time. I 
 received several invitations in blank to-day ; let 
 me give you one." 
 
 Phil drew some papers from his pocket, and 
 began to search for the invitations, holding his 
 letters and other papers so that the light might 
 strike them fairly. Suddenly he was conscious 
 of a start. He looked up inquiringly, and saw 
 Jermyn gazing intently at a letter which Phil 
 held in his hand. 
 
 " Ah ? " said Phil, quickly, " apparently you 
 recognize this picture. Perhaps you can tell me 
 what it is. It has puzzled me not a little, for it 
 is on the back of a letter from my wife, who 
 sketches a little, but this sketch is not in her 
 style." 
 
 " It reminds me," replied Jermyn deliberately, 
 and with a visible affectation of carelessness, 
 " of a bit of far Western scenery, which I used 
 to know quite well, having been there on duty." 
 
 Jermyn wished he could be alone a moment 
 wished he were a boy again, and in the centre 
 of a great field or forest, where he could give a 
 great, joyous shout. That missing letter ! It
 
 THE SEARCH PARTY. 109 
 
 had reached rightful hands at last but how? 
 He must telegraph the Admiral at once; how 
 delighted the dear old fellow would be ! Still, 
 how in the name of all that was mysterious, had 
 the tormenting screed found its way to the man 
 to whom it was written ? There was no address, 
 nor even name, on the paper when he glanced 
 at it in the fort, so the man for whom the 
 sketches were made could not have known to 
 whom it belonged. 
 
 " When did you receive the sketch, Mr. High- 
 wood?" Jermyn asked. "Perhaps there is an 
 artist at the Point, of whom I have not heard." 
 
 " It came this morning," Phil replied, hoping 
 at the same time that his face was not telling of 
 what was running in his mind. What would 
 the man beside him think if he could know the 
 contents of the letter? " It was evidently begun 
 on one day and finished on another, for there 
 are hints in it of a story which Mrs. Highwood 
 will tell me when she reaches home. She is a 
 dear, good wife, but she does hate to write a 
 longer letter than is absolutely necessary." 
 
 " I wonder that she gets time to write at all," 
 said Jermyn, "for she is in great demand. 
 She has probably written you that she has met 
 several old acquaintances ; nice people from 
 everywhere seem to gravitate toward Old Point." 
 
 Then Jermyn lapsed into such deep thought 
 about that letter, and the ways in which it might 
 have got back to its owner, that he almost forgot 
 that he was not alone. 
 
 "What can be the matter with the fellow?" 
 wondered Highwood. " If Trif were almost any
 
 I io TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 other woman in the world, I would think that 
 there was some mystery in which she and he 
 were mutually interested. I shall write her be 
 fore I sleep, and ask her all about it; I don t 
 know when in my life I ve been so curious about 
 anything." 
 
 " By the way, Mr. Highwood," said Jermyn, 
 with the idea that he might get some clue to the 
 course of the letter, " I ought to tell you that 
 your daughter is flirting most outrageously with 
 one of the finest gentlemen at the Point. He is 
 a retired admiral Allison perhaps you may 
 have heard his name? " 
 
 " Heard of him ? " echoed Phil ; " all Ameri 
 cans are proud of him. That isn t all; he acted 
 as Trixy s amanuensis a day or two ago, and I 
 suspect that some of the funny things in the let 
 ter which I received were devised by him; I ve 
 played that trick myself with Trixy s missives at 
 times." 
 
 " Possibly you are right," was the reply, " for 
 he is as full of fun as any one I know." 
 
 " Perhaps the Admiral was the artist who drew 
 that sketch?" Phil suggested. 
 
 " H m ! No, I think not. I know his style." 
 
 " Would you mind asking him on your re 
 turn?" persisted Phil. 
 
 " Not in the least. I probably shall see him 
 to-morrow night, and 
 
 " What ! Is he, too, coming to New York ? 
 
 "Oh, no. He had intended to come, but I 
 came instead." 
 
 " But how can you see him to-morrow night ?" 
 
 " Easily. I shall take the morning train, which
 
 THE SEARCH PARTY. HI 
 
 will get me to the fort by nine o clock, at the 
 latest." 
 
 " Excuse me, but didn t I understand you to 
 say that you would be here several days ? " 
 
 " Er I had intended to remain several days, 
 but I ve had the bad manners to think occasion 
 ally about business while we ve been talking, and 
 something has come to mind which will compel 
 my return at once. Tis a mean thing to admit, 
 but greatly though I ve enjoyed meeting you 
 here and I assure you that I never in my life 
 met any one more gladly my personal business, 
 which brought me here, has persisted in popping 
 into my head. I left the fort in great haste 
 so great that I left some of the threads of my 
 business behind me." 
 
 Phil Highwood was a gentleman, so he de 
 tested any one who pried into the private affairs 
 of others, but for a moment he wished himself a 
 mind-reader, or hypnotist, or something of the 
 sort. Meanwhile, Jermyn, who felt that he must 
 be alone, said : 
 
 " Won t you honor me with some message to 
 your family ? " 
 
 " Tell my wife to write me who drew that 
 sketch, please ?" 
 
 The two men separated, and Jermyn hurried 
 up Broadway, feeling younger than he had at 
 any time in the last ten years.
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 A PLAN OF CAMPAIGN. 
 
 DURING his trip from Washington back to 
 Old Point, the Admiral promised himself 
 several times that he never again would endeavor 
 to complete a letter begun by any other person. 
 He also resolved that, on reaching the hotel, he 
 would make a full and frank explanation to Mrs. 
 Highwood, and would offer to make reparation, 
 so far as was in his power, by acting as an ally 
 in the lady s campaign to effect the capture of 
 Kate and Jermyn by each other. He had done 
 some discreet match-making in his time, so he 
 felt justified in assuring Trif that there were ways 
 in which he might be useful. 
 
 The matter was arranged to his entire satis 
 faction, in his own mind, before he fell asleep, 
 but somehow plans made at night, even by per 
 sons of much experience and shrewdness, do not 
 always stand the test of daylight. He had been 
 at the hotel two or three hours when he came 
 face to face with Trif ; the lady passed him with 
 half-averted face and the slightest possible incli 
 nation of the head. The Admiral felt indignant, 
 and not a little angry. Could it be possible that 
 matters had gone from bad to worse during his 
 absence? There was no pluckier man in the 
 (112)
 
 A PLAN OF CAMPAIGN. 113 
 
 service than Rear-Admiral Allison, retired, but 
 for a moment or two the old gentleman was 
 tempted to leave Old Point at once. 
 
 Soon, however, he regained his courage and 
 did some cautious reconnoitering. He made the 
 tour of the office, parlors, piazzas, and beach, and 
 his search was finally rewarded by a glimpse of 
 Kate and her brother, strolling to and fro on the 
 pier. Had any harm, any publicity, come of 
 that enraging letter, Kate would probably be 
 more angry than any one else, and the first per 
 son to whom he should explain, so with a sink 
 ing feeling, such as he had not experienced 
 since the time he first went into action, he strode 
 down the pier. Miss Trewman was not above 
 the average height of women, but she looked 
 very tall and imperious as the Admiral marched 
 forward to his fate, whatever it might be. Sud 
 denly Kate saw him and seemed surprised ; then 
 she stepped quickly toward him. The old gen 
 tleman felt himself turning pale, but Kate gave 
 him a smile which made him as happy, he after 
 ward told her, as if he were again a young man, 
 and she his sweetheart. 
 
 " Oh, Admiral !" exclaimed Kate, "how glad 
 I am to see you back ! Everything here has 
 been stupid since you went away. Has any 
 thing gone wrong with with any one ? " 
 
 " Not with you, I m sure, if looks are any in 
 dication. How is Mrs. Highwood and her sister, 
 and Trixy ? " 
 
 " Trif appears to be ill, although she says 
 nothing is the matter with her. Fenie is worry 
 ing about T.rif, and poor little Trixy seems in 
 trouble about something." 
 8
 
 ii4 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 " H m, " said the Admiral, looking grave. 
 
 " Something is the matter," exclaimed Kate. 
 " I see it in your face. Do tell me what it is. 
 The Highwoods are old friends of ours, and if I 
 could know of anything that should be done for 
 any of them I would be very grateful." 
 
 " Really, I know of nothing. Lieutenant 
 Jermyn 
 
 Kate s face colored, and the Admiral s keen 
 eyes twinkled as their owner continued : 
 
 " Jermyn and I ran up to Washington a night 
 or two ago on business, so I ve heard of nothing 
 that has occurred here since then. Jermyn 
 wasn t able to return with me, but he won t 
 remain long away ; indeed, I know he has the 
 best of reasons for wishing himself back again." 
 
 Again Kate blushed, which was exactly what 
 the Admiral hoped would be the result of his 
 speech. Still, the girl seemed suspicious about 
 something, so the old gentleman began to talk 
 of something else with his customary ability. 
 While he was talking, a waiter from the hotel 
 approached and handed him a telegram. 
 
 "Kindly excuse me a moment?" said the 
 Admiral, adjusting his glasses and opening the 
 envelope. Then he glanced at the dispatch and 
 exclaimed : 
 
 " Good ! " 
 
 " May we congratulate you upon something ? 
 the thanks of Congress, or a new war ?" 
 
 " Better still. The business upon which Jer 
 myn and I went North has been satisfactorily 
 concluded. Will you kindly excuse me a few 
 moments, until I can write a letter? I will do 
 myself the honor of rejoining you."
 
 A PLAN OF CAMPAIGN. 115 
 
 " There is probably some secret government 
 business in the hands of the Admiral and the 
 Lieutenant," suggested Harry. 
 
 " Secret nonsense !" It is something which 
 is mixed up in some way with the strange 
 manner of Trif and Fenie, and the Admiral 
 must simply tell what it is." 
 
 Meanwhile the old gentleman was re-reading 
 the dispatch, which was as follows : 
 
 " That letter is in proper hands. Jermyn." 
 
 "Proper hands! Proper hands!" repeated 
 the Admiral to himself. <: Evidently that means 
 his own hands. Fine fellow ! He deserves the 
 girl, if only for the pains he has taken to keep 
 her name from being used publicly. How I wish 
 I might tell her the whole story ! Still, if they 
 continue to like each other, my time will come. 
 I think that I ought now to be able to make 
 my peace with Mrs. Highwood. I need merely 
 to repeat to her Jermyn s own words, and crave 
 the privilege of age to laugh with her over a 
 matter entirely to her credit." 
 
 Within five minutes the Admiral had dis 
 patched a note to Trif, who languidly opened 
 it and then suddenly dropped her languor and 
 called Fenie, to whom she said: 
 
 "What can the man mean? There can be 
 but one letter that the man refers to the one 
 which Trixy gave him, and which she got back 
 so strangely, and I sent on to Phil, promising 
 that I would tell him something about it when 
 I reached home. Phil don t know the Admiral, 
 so I can t make sense out of the matter. It 
 isn t possible that Trixy is making any more 
 trouble with letters ?"
 
 n6 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 " Don t be silly ! " replied Fenie. " What did 
 the poor child know about the matter? " 
 
 "Oh, I m afraid she overheard us wondering 
 whether the letter ought not go back to the Ad 
 miral, because whoever sent it back to him 
 would be sure to ask whether he received it, and 
 Trixy, where are you? Have you opened any 
 of my letters ? " 
 
 "No, mamma; really and truly I haven t," 
 was the indignant reply. 
 
 " Oh," said Trif, " I do wish I could find out 
 what it means. If I don t know pretty soon I m 
 sure I shall go insane." 
 
 Fenie made haste to be sisterly and soothing, 
 and Trixy improved the opportunity to escape 
 from the room. She hurried down to the piazza, 
 asked every one she knew whether they had 
 seen the Admiral, and finally she found him talk 
 ing with Kate and Harry. She did not wait for 
 a lull in the conversation ; she stopped before 
 him and interrupted with 
 
 " Say, you don t want my dear mamma to go 
 insane, do you?" 
 
 " Bless me, no ! What do you mean, child?" 
 
 " Why, she says she s goin to go insane if she 
 doesn t find out all about that letter." 
 
 The Admiral looked embarrassed ; then he 
 said : " You will kindly excuse me a few mo 
 ments, Miss Trewman," and quickly led Trixy 
 aside, while Kate told her brother that she, too, 
 would go insane, she thought, unless she could 
 know what dreadful mystery was in the air. 
 
 The Admiral made haste to send the child to 
 her mother with the request that Mrs. High-
 
 A PLAN OF CAMPAIGN. 117 
 
 wood would kindly grant an interview in one of 
 the less frequented parlors, which he designated. 
 Within a few moments he was talking earnestly 
 with Trif and trying to convince her that the 
 troublesome letter was in Jermyn s possession. 
 
 Then he lost his mental balance for a moment 
 or two, for Trif assured him that beyond doubt 
 he was mistaken, for she had mailed the letter 
 to her husband, who by no possibility could have 
 given it to any one. 
 
 The Admiral made haste to put Jermyn s dis 
 patch in evidence, and again Trif was mysti 
 fied, for although she knew that her husband 
 and Jermyn were acquainted it seemed scarcely 
 possible that Jermyn had called on Phil while 
 on the errand which the old gentleman had care 
 fully explained, with the effect of making her 
 appear his admirer once more. The Admiral 
 tried to reason it out, and offered the suggestion 
 that perhaps her husband had done, in a blunt, 
 straightforward way, as most honest men are 
 likely to do, exactly what she would have wished 
 him to do. 
 
 " You may depend upon it, my dear madam, 
 that what I have suggested is exactly what has 
 happened. They have met, probably by acci 
 dent; your husband has quizzed Jermyn about 
 Miss Trewman, Jermyn has admitted his inter 
 est in the lady; your husband has expressed 
 his interest and volunteered his assistance, and 
 to show that you also were interested he has 
 given Jermyn not the letter, but some word 
 which has satisfied the young man that the let 
 ter reached its proper destination."
 
 Ii8 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 " I hope you are right," said Trif, " and for 
 the rest " 
 
 " For the rest," continued the Admiral, " can t 
 you and I afford to laugh the matter away? 
 I ve honestly explained how innocently I was 
 led to read what Trixy brought me. The letter 
 itself did great credit to your head and heart; 
 the young people are singularly suited to each 
 other, and there is no probability that Miss 
 Trewman will ever hear anything about it, for 
 the manner in which the letter was returned to 
 you shows that it was forwarded to me by some 
 one who was present when I thoughtlessly 
 sketched upon it. As no one but army officers, 
 and one other person, was there, it is probable 
 that some officer returned it, and army officers 
 are gentlemen ; none of them would repeat what 
 he chanced to see in a private letter, particularly 
 as his most natural conclusion would be that the 
 letter, having been seen in my possession, had 
 been written to me by some member of my own 
 family." 
 
 Trif felt much better, and finally pleased the 
 old gentleman by laughing and accepting him 
 as an ally, and also by accepting his invitation 
 to walk upon the beach and take some delicious 
 air, of which, through his own carelessness, she 
 had recently been deprived. 
 
 Trif was as happy as an innocent soul released 
 suddenly from prison, and the Admiral, his own 
 honest heart relieved of its burden, was chatting 
 cheerily and delightfully, when both met Trixy, 
 who looked as if something dreadful had be 
 fallen her.
 
 A PLAN OF CAMPAIGN. 119 
 
 " My dear little darling, what is the matter? " 
 asked Trif. 
 
 " She said she wondered if you d been doin 
 anythin dreadful, cause I said you might get 
 insane." 
 
 " She ? Whom do you mean ? 
 
 " Why, Miss Trewman. And I just told her, 
 no, indeed, and she said it was too bad that a 
 letter should make anybody such a lot of trouble, 
 and I told her that the letter wasn t about you 
 at all, but was all about her, cause I heard you 
 and Aunt Fee talkin about it. Then she looked 
 awful cross, and I told her she needn t, cause 
 twas about somethin nice for her. 
 
 " Trixy, dear, how much more did you tell 
 her?" 
 
 "Nothin , mamma. You don t think I m 
 goin to tell things to people, after all you ve 
 said to me about not doin it, do you ? I only 
 told her that you and papa was arrangin a real 
 nice s prise for her, and she asked if the Admiral 
 was helpin do it, cause he seemed to be. 
 But I didn t tell her nothin about it really I 
 didn t."
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE COURSE OF TRUE LOVE. 
 
 TERMYN hurried back to his post of duty 
 ^J with such mental rapidity that neither train 
 nor steamer could keep pace with him. He told 
 himself that he was a fool; that he had not 
 known Kate Trewman a week, and that in the 
 first half of that same week he had imagined 
 himself in love with Trif s sister, yet, after every 
 thing that he could say against himself, the fact 
 remained that he was so interested in Miss Trew 
 man that he had all sorts of fears as to what 
 might happen to his prospects during his ab 
 sence. 
 
 He told himself that probably she was already 
 engaged to some other man, for such women 
 were so scarce that he could not understand 
 how one of them had thus far escaped matri 
 mony. He also reminded himself that he had 
 been admiring fine women all his life, and that 
 quite a number of them had married other men, 
 generally before he had been able to interest 
 them in himself. Still, what did that prove? 
 Merely, that good men, like great men, thought 
 alike. He would not make a fool of himself; he 
 really wasn t in love, but he certainly would en 
 deavor to become better acquainted with Miss
 
 THE COURSE OF TRUE LOVE. 121 
 
 Trewman, and if she were not already promised 
 to another, he would make her his own, unless 
 she objected. 
 
 The first thing necessary, however,upon reach 
 ing Old Point, was to report to his superior offi 
 cer. He, therefore, hurried to the fort ; then, on 
 his way back to the hotel, he dropped into the 
 club, merely to see who was there, or had been 
 there, and in an instant he was buttonholed by 
 the Admiral, who drew him aside, and said : 
 
 ; Tell me all about it ! Facts first and expla 
 nations afterward." 
 
 " There s nothing to tell," Jermyn replied, 
 " except that Mr. Highwood has that exasperat 
 ing letter. Is there anything new at the hotel ?" 
 
 " Nothing except that Miss Trixy what a 
 genius for mischief that child has ! Trixy has 
 made a coolness in some way between the High- 
 woods and Trewmans. Miss Trewman acts all 
 the while as if there was something on her mind 
 that was worth being indignant about, and I 
 assure you that the entire situation is extremely 
 uncomfortable for a certain old gentleman who 
 wishes nothing but the best to all parties." 
 
 Jermyn frowned and said : 
 
 " I suppose the sooner I try to find out what it 
 all is about, the better it will be for my peace of 
 mind." 
 
 " Be very careful, I beg of you, my dear boy," 
 exclaimed the Admiral, as Jermyn started away. 
 " Miss Trewman is a most estimable young wo 
 man, but she has a mind of her own." 
 
 " So much the better. It probably will teach 
 her to have proper respect for other peoples 
 minds."
 
 Z22 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 " But mayn t I suggest 
 
 " Perhaps when I return." 
 
 With that reply, the Admiral looked miserable 
 and undecided, and he finally persuaded some 
 one to join him at a game of checkers, which to 
 that day he had thought the last refuge of an 
 adult mind which also was diseased. 
 
 Jermyn hurried toward the hotel, determined 
 to take whatever misfortune might come to him, 
 rather than be annoyed by more accidents. As 
 to Trixy Jermyn had always liked children, and 
 years before, he had made a reputation on a west 
 ern bound train, and afterward in the service, by 
 caring all night for a fretful child so that the in 
 fant s mother might get some needed rest. He 
 wished he might have charge of Trixy for a few 
 days ; she was Trif s child, and Trif was to him 
 the ideal woman, and it was impossible that the 
 child should not have inherited some of her 
 mother s estimable qualities; but if Trixy had 
 been making new and unexpected trouble for 
 him, he wished there might be excuse for putting 
 her into the most remote casemate of the fort, 
 locking the door, and losing the key. 
 
 As he thought and fretted, he entered the 
 hotel and made his way through office and par 
 lor toward the ball-room, where every one who 
 did not dance congregated to look at every one 
 who did. He nodded to several acquaintances, 
 but his thoughts were entirely about Trixy until 
 he was recalled to better command of himself by 
 the sound of a well-remembered voice : 
 
 " Oh, Mr. Jermyn ! What an unexpected pleas 
 ure ! We were told that you would be away 
 several days."
 
 THE COURSE OF TRUE LOVE. 123 
 
 " I am glad to say that I am not so unfortu 
 nate, Jermyn replied. 
 
 "Hello, Mr. Jermyn," piped a small voice 
 from somewhere behind Miss Trewman, and 
 then the young man saw Trixy, looking as inno 
 cent and confiding as if nothing whatever had 
 happened which could trouble her mind or her 
 conscience. 
 
 " Trixy ! " exclaimed Jermyn, advancing men 
 acingly upon the child. " I met your father 
 yesterday, and he told me to give you a thor 
 ough shaking for him " here he picked up the 
 child and acted according to Phil s orders 
 "and," he continued, " I suppose he would have 
 sent you a kiss also if I hadn t left him in haste, 
 so I ll give you one on suspicion." 
 
 " That is a very interesting child," said Kate, 
 as Trixy hurried away to find her mother and 
 aunt and report Jermyn s return, "but I do think 
 she can make more trouble than any other child 
 I ever heard of." 
 
 "Such offences must be condoned, I suppose," 
 replied Jermyn, too happily surprised by his re 
 ception to harbor ill-will against any one. 
 
 "What a forgiving mood for a soldier!" 
 said Kate, who imagined Jermyn knew some 
 thing of the mystery she was trying to fathom. 
 
 "Soldiers are often compelled to learn that 
 those who do most harm mean least," Jermyn 
 replied. " But what has the child been doing 
 since I went away ? " 
 
 " I ve not the slightest idea. Perhaps she has 
 done nothing, but she has excited my curiosity 
 greatly, through some references to myself."
 
 124 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 Then Kate looked enquiringly into Jermyn s 
 eyes, and the young man was so delighted to be 
 looked at by her in any way that he met her 
 gaze unflinchingly, although respectfully, and 
 finally overcame it, and Kate, wishing to change 
 the subject of conversation, murmured some 
 thing about the heat of the room. 
 
 "Let us escape from it," suggested Jermyn, 
 " and join Mrs. Highwood and her sister. Prob 
 ably they are on the piazza, for I saw Trixy 
 disappear in that direction." 
 
 No one who hasn t tried it knows how hard it 
 is to find any one on a crowded piazza a quarter 
 of a mile long, and after sunset too. Success is 
 still more difficult when the searchers have some 
 thing else to concern their minds and eyes. 
 Jermyn and Kate were clever talkers, and neither 
 of them had often found company so agreeable, 
 so they passed and repassed Trif and Fenie 
 several times without seeing them, and Trif 
 smiled archly, and Fenie gave her a warning 
 pinch, for Harry was with them. 
 
 Harry himself was no fool, and as the ladies 
 themselves suddenly lapsed into comparative 
 silence he remembered that his sister frequently 
 reminded him that ladies had affairs of their own 
 to talk about, so he insisted upon getting lemon 
 ade for them, and the journey from the piazza to 
 the cafe was quite long, so there was much time 
 for chat before his return, and every moment of it 
 was improved, while Trixy, seated on a low stool, 
 with her head in her mothers lap, seemed slum 
 bering as peacefully as if in her bed, and the 
 physician at the hotel had assured Trif that the
 
 THE COURSE OF TRUE LOVE. 125 
 
 salt air at night was not in the laast unwhole 
 some, but quite the reverse. 
 
 When Harry returned, followed by a waiter 
 with a tray, and it was learned that he had not 
 forgotten the smallest member of the party, 
 Trixy awoke opportunely, and felt so refreshed 
 that she had to relieve herself of superabundant 
 vitality by tripping to and fro on the broad walk 
 at the edge of the beach, with several children 
 with whom she had become acquainted. They 
 \vere having a glorious time when Trixy sud 
 denly espied Kate and Jermyn; then she lost 
 interest in her companions and began to stare. 
 
 The objects of her attention did not notice 
 her; they would not have been conscious of the 
 presence of the President of the United States, 
 had that distinguished person passed them in 
 the full glare of the occasional lamps. They 
 were not talking love, nor anything remotely re 
 sembling it, but they were entirely absorbed in 
 each other, which answered the same purpose. 
 Jermyn had promised a brother subaltern, only 
 two or three days before, some coaching in the 
 mysteries of ballistics, and for this very evening, 
 but he forgot all about it, and the subaltern, who 
 looked anxiously about for Jermyn and finally 
 found him, saw for himself that his chances 
 were very slight, so he sat down at the edge of 
 the promenade and engaged Trixy in conversa 
 tion. The child soon remarked : 
 
 You don t think they re a couple of fools, do 
 you ? 
 
 " They ? Who ? " asked the officer. 
 
 " Why, Lieutenant Jermyn and Miss Trew- 
 man."
 
 126 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 " Certainly not ! What an odd question ! If 
 you were a few years older, young lady, you 
 yourself would think them eminently sensible." 
 
 " Oh, is that true? Well, I m glad of it, cause 
 a while ago Aunt Fee said if they wasn t fools 
 they d make a match of it. How do people 
 make matches, anyhow ? What do they make 
 em of ? " 
 
 " Upon my word, young woman," replied the 
 youth, after a quiet laugh, " you re of a very in 
 quiring turn of mind. Perhaps you had better 
 put that question to your mother no, not now." 
 
 " But they know, don t they ? Cause if they 
 don t, how are they to make one ? " 
 
 " That s for themselves to find out," answered 
 the young man, recalling an experience or two of 
 his own which had not been successful. " By 
 the way, how many wells have you dug to-day?" 
 
 " I don t remember," said Trixy, going into a 
 brown study. The young officer strolled off to 
 struggle by himself with his problem, leaving 
 Trixy with her own. A possible aid to solution 
 came to the child s mind. Exclaiming to her 
 self, "Why, of course!" she began to walk, 
 looking carefully at every person she met. Soon 
 she saw Jermyn and Kate and attached herself 
 to them. 
 
 " What is it, dear ? " asked Kate in a tone so 
 tender that any hesitation the child may have 
 had vanished at once. 
 
 " Have you made it?" 
 
 "Made what?" 
 
 " Oh, if you don t know, it don t mind, I 
 s pose. Lieutenant Prewser thought you did 
 know, or I wouldn t have asked you."
 
 THE COURSE OF TRUE LOVE. 127 
 
 " What on earth is the child talking about ? " 
 asked Kate. 
 
 " Explain yourself, Trixy," said Jermyn. 
 " What did Prewser say we knew how to do?" 
 
 " Well, come to think of it, he didn t say you 
 knew, but he said it was for you to find out." 
 
 " But what was it ? ;1 persisted Kate. 
 
 " Why, twas how to make a match." 
 
 Kate suddenly averted her head, and acted as 
 if she wanted to run away. Jermyn took her 
 hand gently, very gently, yet with sufficient 
 force to detain her. Then he said : 
 
 " Trixy, your mother wants you, this very in 
 stant."
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE UNEXPECTED. 
 
 WHAT Jermyn and Kate said to each other 
 in the two or three minutes immediately 
 following Trixy s departure was entirely their 
 own affair, and need not be repeated here; 
 beside, they never afterward agreed exactly as 
 to what it was. Suffice it to say that they 
 walked somewhat rapidly in .the direction of 
 the disappearing child, and parted pleasantly. 
 Kate joined her brother and Trif, and asked 
 how they had secreted themselves so success 
 fully, when she and Jermyn had been seeking 
 them everywhere for the last half-hour. She 
 asked also if the night was not simply 
 superb heavenly ! and whether they weren t 
 the stupidest people in the world to sit there 
 quietly while the air was simply entrancing. 
 For herself, she thought it an absolute sin to sit 
 still in such weather, so she begged Trixy to 
 take a little walk with her. 
 
 The child was quite willing, so the couple 
 strolled a few moments. Soon Trixy asked : 
 
 " Does lovely nights always make you so 
 dreadful quiet ? " 
 
 "Am I quiet? I was thinking about some 
 thing. There ! I shall stop thinking about it. 
 (128)
 
 THE UNEXPECTED. 129 
 
 But, Trixy dear, how did you and Lieutenant 
 Prewser come to talk about about such things?" 
 
 " What things ?" 
 
 " Don t you remember what you said to 
 Lieutenant Jermyn and me ? " 
 
 " No o o," drawled Trixy, whose mind had 
 roamed over several other subjects in the past 
 quarter hour. " What was it ? " 
 
 "Oh, never mind it," said Kate hastily, "if 
 you don t recall it." 
 
 " Oh, yes ; it was about match-makin , wasn t 
 it?" 
 
 " Yes," Kate answered, so savagely that the 
 child started. " Did you ask your mother about 
 it?" 
 
 " No. I was goin to, but they all was talkin 
 about somethin else, so I didn t get a chance." 
 
 " Then don t. There are some things about 
 which little girls shouldn t talk, and about which 
 their mammas don t like them to talk, and this 
 is one of them ; so don t mention it to your 
 mother at all. Do you understand me ? " 
 
 "Ye es," replied Trixy, with a drawl which 
 indicated doubt. " But mamma says, whenever 
 I want to know anythin about anythin I must 
 come and ask her right away." 
 
 " Very well, let me ask her for you, about 
 this, won t you ? You know that I love you 
 very dearly, and wouldn t like your mamma to 
 think badly of you in any way, so " 
 
 "Then if you love me so much," interrupted 
 Trixy, " why don t you give me all the dolls you 
 said you would?" 
 
 " How shamefully forgetful I am ! My dear 
 9
 
 I 3 o TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 child, you shall have those dolls to-morrow, if I 
 have to go all the way to Norfolk for them." 
 
 " Good ! good ! good !" 
 
 " But," continued Kate, with an uplifted finger, 
 which looked very impressive in the semi-dark 
 ness, " not one single doll, if you say a word 
 about this matter to your mother." 
 
 " All right !" 
 
 " You are sure you will not forget ?" 
 
 " Ever so sure. If I find myself thinkin 
 about it at all I ll just say Dolls, dolls, dolls 
 to myself as hard as I can, and then all the think 
 will go out of my mind." 
 
 " That s a good girl." 
 
 Then Kate lifted Trixy, embraced her, kissed 
 her, and called her the dearest little girl on the 
 face of the earth, after which, greatly to the 
 child s astonishment, she hurried Trixy to her 
 mother and excused herself, saying that she had 
 suddenly found the night air much damper than 
 she had supposed. 
 
 No sooner did Jermyn leave Kate s side than 
 he went to the ball-room, the office, and about 
 the piazzas, asking every acquaintance whether 
 Prewser had been seen in the course of the 
 evening. Finally he found his comrade and a 
 reproachful face in Prewser s own quarters, and 
 after some sharp questioning he promised to 
 help the young man at ballistics and anything 
 else so long as he lived. Prewser asked if con 
 gratulations were in order, and Jermyn frowned 
 and said " Nonsense," but he afterwards whistled 
 merrily and Prewser began to nurse some sus 
 picions.
 
 THE UNEXPECTED, 131 
 
 " Trixy, dear," said Feme the next morning, 
 while preparing for breakfast, " if I were you I 
 wouldn t follow a lady and gentleman while 
 they are promenading in the evening. It isn t 
 ladylike. I am sure that your mamma will tell 
 you that I am right." 
 
 Trif looked amusedly at her sister and said, 
 " One word for others and two for yourself," but 
 she added her own cautions to Fenie s, and said 
 she ought to have called Trixy away from Kate 
 and Jermyn the evening before. 
 
 " Why, I only" began Trixy. Then she 
 stopped and exclaimed " Dolls." 
 
 " What have dolls to do with it ? " asked Fenie. 
 
 " Lots just lots. I m going to have em if I 
 don t oh, I nearly told." 
 
 "Told what?" 
 
 " Why, that oh,Dolls ! Dolls ! Dolls ! There." 
 
 " Trif, exclaimed Fenie, " I do believe the 
 child has lost her senses." 
 
 " Oh, no I haven t, but Dolls ! Dolls! Dolls!" 
 
 " Trixy, 
 
 " Fenie, do be quiet," exclaimed Trif. 
 "Trixy, run down to the table and tell our 
 waiter we will be there very soon, so he may 
 have the oysters ready for us. Hurry, dear." 
 
 No sooner was Trixy out of the room than 
 Trif said : 
 
 " Fenie, you silly girl, can t you ever see any 
 thing ? I suspected it last night, but now I am 
 sure of it." 
 
 " Sure of what ? " 
 
 "Why, that Kate and Jermyn are at an 
 understanding or sure to be. I saw when Kate
 
 132 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 rejoined us last night that something unusual 
 had happened, and that it was not unpleasant. 
 She acted just as I as I felt when Phil " 
 
 " Oh, oh, oh ! " exclaimed Fenie, going quickly 
 into some day-dreams of her own, for she and 
 Harry were getting along capitally together. 
 They were not engaged, but there could be no 
 mistake as to what the dear fellow meant, and 
 what she wanted him to mean. She did not 
 speak another word while preparing for break 
 fast, for she wouldn t for worlds have told what 
 was in her mind not even to her sister yet she 
 feared she would tell it if she spoke at all. But 
 wasn t it delightful ? She would marry Harry, 
 in the course of time, and Kate would marry 
 Jermyn. She wondered which couple would be 
 first at the altar. What a delightful party of 
 friends they would be, the two couples, with 
 Trif and Phil ! 
 
 The girl s reverie was so delightful that even 
 breakfast did not destroy it, although she had 
 the healthy appetite to which young women have 
 an inherent right. She took the customary 
 morning walk along the beach with Trif and 
 Trixy, but there was an expectant look in her 
 eye which Trif told herself would delight Harry 
 when he saw it. Trixy tried to talk with her, 
 but got such vague replies that she gave up in 
 despair and began to throw pebbles. Finally 
 the sisters seated themselves on the piazza, and 
 Trif began to wish she knew all that she sus 
 pected, for she longed to write her husband all 
 about it. There was no sentimental nonsense 
 in her mind about the handsome soldier who
 
 THE UNEXPECTED. 133 
 
 had once hoped for her heart and hand; but 
 what good woman does not rejoice to see an 
 honest admirer happily married after she her 
 self had married happily? 
 
 The longer she thought of it the surer she was 
 that her intuitions were correct, so she said she 
 must go and write a line to dear Phil. Fenie 
 accompanied her, but when Trif reached her 
 room Fenie was invisible, for the girl had caught 
 a glimpse of Kate in one of the halls, and had 
 hurried toward her. Fenie was thinking about 
 Kate and Jermyn, so she put her arm about 
 Kate, drew her into a parlor in which there 
 chanced to be no one else, kissed her, and ex 
 claimed : 
 
 " You darling girl, I m so happy about it!" 
 
 " So am I, dear," Kate replied, returning 
 Feme s endearments in kind; "but I do think 
 Harry might have said something to me, after 
 all that I have done for him." 
 
 " Harry? " said Fenie, with a wondering look. 
 " Doesn t he approve of the match? " 
 
 " Approve ? My dear girl, how could he have 
 made it if he hadn t thought well of it ? How 
 strangely you talk ! " 
 
 "He made it? The sly rogue! He and I 
 have chatted together for hours every day, but I 
 didn t imagine that anything of the sort was on 
 his mind." 
 
 " Tryphena Wardlow ! " exclaimed Kate. 
 " Will you tell me what you are talking about ? " 
 
 " About you and Lieutenant Jermyn, to be 
 sure." 
 
 " Oh, Fenie ! " Kate flushed deeply before
 
 134 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 she continued: " He and I have become pleas 
 antly acquainted, and I esteem him very highly, 
 but can you imagine for a moment that I am 
 anything more than the acquaintance of a gen 
 tleman whom I never saw until this week ? How 
 did you get so crazy a fancy ? " 
 
 Fenie went down into the valley of humilia 
 tion, and said she was sure she didn t know, un 
 less something that Trixy had said no, some 
 thing that Trixy hadn t said that is, Trixy had 
 behaved so strangely 
 
 " I don t believe," said Kate frigidly, " that if 
 the cases were reversed I would attach any 
 importance to the babble of a child. In the cir 
 cumstances, I think I ought to be told what 
 Trixy did say, for she talks with every one, and 
 I should like to know whether it is safe for me 
 to remain here any longer. I supposed it was 
 safe for me to be here with your sister as chap- 
 erone, but so long as she has her dreadful child 
 with her no one s reputation is safe. I shall re 
 turn home at once. Fortunately Harry s busi 
 ness which brought him to Norfolk is finished, 
 so there is no reason for our remaining here any 
 longer." 
 
 Fenie burst into tears, but Kate had her own 
 trouble to think of, so she remained indignant. 
 She recalled what Trixy had repeated the night 
 before, as having been said by some officer; she 
 herself had been too well, too surprised and 
 embarrassed at the moment, and too exhilarated 
 a moment or two later, to think about the first 
 cause of what passed between her and Jermyn, 
 but she certainly was not going to remain where 
 her name could give occupation to idle tongues.
 
 THE UNEXPECTED. 135 
 
 " Aunt Fee," exclaimed Trixy, appearing sud 
 denly at the door of the parlor, " I ve been look- 
 in everywhere for you. Mamma asked me to 
 find you for her." 
 
 " Trixy," asked Kate, " what silly things have 
 you been saying about me ? " 
 
 " Not any. Every time I was goin to say 
 anythin I just said Dolls instead. Didn t I, 
 Aunt Fee ? " 
 
 " Then how did your aunt know " 
 
 " Oh, are you all here?" exclaimed Trif, en 
 tering the parlor. " I only sent for you, Fenie, 
 to let you know that I am going to write my let 
 ter on the piazza instead of in my room ; tis so 
 much pleasantcr out of doors. Don t you 
 why, my dear sister, what is the matter? " 
 
 The girl, who was thinking only of the im 
 pending departure of the young man who was 
 all the world to her, hurried from the room, fol 
 lowed by Trixy. Kate began at once to com 
 plain to Trif of the child s telling she knew 
 not what, and that was the dreadful thing 
 about it. When Trif learned what Kate s fears 
 and suspicions were she said : 
 
 " Trixy has told nothing ; she has had nothing 
 to tell. If any one is to blame, it is I, who 
 could not help imagining, and hoping too, and 
 talking to my sister about it. If there s nothing 
 to it I shall be dreadfully unhappy, for Jermyn 
 is much the finest unmarried man of my 
 acquaintance, and you are the only woman I 
 know who is entirely worthy of him." 
 
 " Aunt Fee s cryin awful, mamma," said 
 Trixy, returning to the parlor.
 
 136 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 Trif looked reproachfully at Kate, who showed 
 signs of relenting, although she was having a 
 severe struggle with her pride. 
 
 " When are you goin to Norfolk to get my 
 dolls ? " asked Trixy. 
 
 Kate laughed, despite herself ; Trif embraced 
 her and whispered something which made Kate 
 blush, look toward Trixy, and say : 
 
 " Run quickly, dear, and tell Aunt Fee that 
 I ve been real unkind, and that for her sake, 
 I won t return to New York until oh, I don t 
 know when."
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 COWARDS BOTH. 
 
 IF human nature could be as thoroughly 
 ashamed of its misdeeds as it sometimes is 
 of doings entirely to its credit, the world would 
 be much the better for it. 
 
 Kate Trewman was very sure, after her inter 
 view with Trif, Fenie and Trixy, that she had 
 never done or said anything the night before 
 that was not entirely womanly and honest, but 
 the mere thought of meeting Jermyn face to face 
 in broad daylight made her tremble as abjectly 
 as if she were a criminal and Jermyn an officer 
 of the law. She determined to keep her room 
 all day; when dusk came she would go down 
 to the piazza with Trif and Fenie, and then if 
 Jermyn joined them, as she ardently hoped he 
 would, he could not see in her face all that she 
 felt her heart was putting there. 
 
 By a coincidence, not entirely odd, Jermyn 
 was feeling very like Kate. He felt that he had 
 acted hastily, although he could not see what 
 else there was for a gentleman to do in the cir 
 cumstances into which that dreadful Trixy had 
 forced him. Fortunately the duties of the sec 
 tion-room would absorb him for some hours, but 
 afterwards what? It had been his custom for
 
 138 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 two years to spend an hour or two each day at 
 the hotel, chatting with old acquaintances and 
 forming new ones, but he could not trust him 
 self to-day. 
 
 He recalled some romantic affairs of his 
 earlier days, and the embarrassment of some 
 meetings, and he persuaded himself that it was 
 entirely for Kate s sake that he did not wish to 
 encounter her suddenly that morning. But what 
 could he do? Ha! He had it. He would run 
 up to Norfolk and be measured for the new uni 
 form which he had long been promising himself. 
 The general commanding the department was 
 soon to make his annual official visit to the 
 fort ; there would be an inspection and parade 
 which should, if possible, exceed any of the 
 weekly affairs, and if the Trewmans remained 
 until that time, as he hoped they might, he 
 would like to appear to the best possible advan 
 tage before the one woman in the world. 
 
 The Norfolk boat chanced to be very slow 
 that morning, and as the weather was quite 
 warm Jermyn made his way as far forward as 
 possible to get the air. Most of the other pas 
 sengers had done likewise, but Jermyn found a 
 vacant chair near some brother officers and 
 made haste to take it. Two or three min 
 utes later he saw, seated very near him, and 
 reading as industriously as if her book were the 
 most interesting in the world, Kate Trewman. 
 Kate well knew who was seated near her, but 
 she could not help looking shyly toward him. 
 
 " What a delightful surprise ! " said Jermyn, 
 bravely, as he moved his chair toward Kate s.
 
 COWARDS BOTH. 139 
 
 " Very kind of you," Kate murmured. " I had 
 some shopping to do, and as my brother has 
 already made me acquainted with some of the 
 business streets, and as I could not persuade 
 him to accompany me, I ventured alone. The 
 truth is, I promised Trixy Highwood some dolls 
 before I left New York, and she reminded me of 
 them yesterday, and I think tis dreadfully cruel 
 to disappoint a child don t you ? " 
 
 " Indeed I do, when the child chances to be 
 so interesting as Trixy." Jermyn cudgelled his 
 wits a moment before continuing : " May I ask 
 whether you know the ways of Norfolk shops ? 
 Some of the dealers regard Northern people as 
 specially desirable prey, but there are others who 
 make special concessions to us people of the 
 fort. Won t you let me make you acquainted 
 with some of them ? After that, you may banish 
 me when you will." 
 
 " You are very kind. Oh, Mr. Jermyn, weren t 
 these waters the scene of that wonderful fight 
 between the Merrimac and the Monitor?" 
 
 Jermyn immediately began the story of the his 
 toric naval engagement, and that Kate might see 
 the localities more clearly he borrowed a glass 
 from the pilot, and he begged permission to 
 steady Kate s arm while she used the glass the 
 old boat trembled so provokingly, he said, and 
 Kate herself admitted that she never had been 
 on a boat whose deck was more unsteady, so Jer 
 myn continued to assist her until nothing re 
 mained to be seen but the docks of Norfolk. 
 Then he escorted her to two or three shops, mak 
 ing every possible excuse to remain with her. 
 Finally, he said :
 
 140 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 " Would you mind my remaining with you 
 while you select those dolls ? I used to have to 
 buy such things, when my sisters were younger, 
 and it would give me great pleasure to recall the 
 sensation." 
 
 Kate could not refuse a request made in such 
 terms, so the couple were soon having much 
 amusement in discussing the utterly inhuman 
 features which manufacturers succeed in impos 
 ing upon dolls. The selection consumed much 
 time ; meanwhile there came into the shop an offi 
 cer s wife, newly arrived at the fort, who asked 
 Jermyn if he might be going to the navy-yard, 
 across the river, for she had come from an inte 
 rior town where naval vessels never had been 
 seen, and she did long to look at some, if only 
 for a moment or two, and Jermyn said he would 
 be delighted to escort her to and through the 
 yard, where he knew every one, and he asked 
 Kate whether she would not accompany them ? 
 
 Kate did not say " No;" she was by that time 
 in a frame of mind which would have made her 
 equal to tramping through mud for the sake of 
 having Jermyn beside her. While at the yard, 
 she noted with delight the heartiness with which 
 all the naval officers greeted Jermyn. Trif had 
 whispered to her, only a few hours before, that 
 she herself had once been almost in love with 
 Jermyn, and that she still believed no other 
 bachelor alive was his equal, but Kate had been 
 a woman long enough to attach more importance 
 to men s opinions of men than to women s. 
 Luncheon was served for the party on one of 
 the war vessels, and each lady was toasted, and
 
 CO WARDS BOTH. 141 
 
 Kate noted that when her own name was given, 
 Jermyn drained his glass with a look at her 
 which made her feel uncomfortable yet happy. 
 
 The party returned to Old Point by a boat 
 which did not reach the pier until after dark, 
 and as the officer s wife had never before been 
 in Norfolk alone her husband was at the pier, 
 in much anxiety, to look for her, and escort her 
 home, and the pier was so covered with freight 
 that Jermyn thought it his duty to insist that 
 Kate should take his arm, which he held very 
 closely to his side without any remonstrance 
 from the owner, and then he insisted upon find 
 ing her brother or Trif before he left her. 
 
 " Tis all right," whispered Trif to Fenie, as 
 she saw them approaching. 
 
 "About the dolls?" asked Trixy, anxiously. 
 " Do you think them s in the bundle that he s 
 carryin ?" 
 
 " No, you silly child !" said Fenie. " Your 
 mother means 
 
 Fenie received a warning pinch, but it was too 
 late, for the child exclaimed: "Oh, I know!" 
 and made a sudden dash in the direction of the 
 approaching couple. Trif snatched at Trixy s 
 dress ; there was a ripping, tearing sound, and 
 away went the child, while behind her floated 
 something like a train. 
 
 " Oh, I m so glad !" she exclaimed, stopping 
 before Jermyn and Kate so suddenly as to sepa 
 rate them. 
 
 " Yes," said Kate. " Here are the dolls, 
 dear." 
 
 " I m awful glad to get em; my, what a big 
 bundle ! But that wasn t what I meant."
 
 142 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 " What else ?" asked Kate, in entire innocence. 
 
 " Why, that you re bein nice to Mr. Jermyn. 
 Mamma and Aunt Fee have been talkin about 
 you all day, and hopin you wouldn t be a 
 fool that s what they said ; I never say such 
 things about a lady no indeed ! Say, you re 
 engaged, aren t you ? Cause " 
 
 " Take the package to your mother, Trixy, 
 and let her open it for you," said Jermyn 
 quickly. " Miss Trewman, please don t hurry 
 away ; do take my arm again, just for a moment; 
 thank you. I merely wished to say shall we 
 walk a moment ? to say that our friends seem 
 to take unusual interest in us ; interest of a kind 
 which I m sure neither of us has said a word to 
 justify." 
 
 " Not a word, I m sure," assented Kate. 
 
 " But I can t endure," continued Jermyn rap 
 idly, " to risk, merely through the prattle of a 
 child, the most delightful friendship I ever 
 made. Last night I said to you but why 
 repeat it ? I ve no right to expect you to endure 
 any annoyance, for my sake, but if you chance 
 to like me as much as last night you let me 
 think you do, can t we afford to make light of 
 such chatter as that provoking child may inflict 
 upon us ? Good men are plentiful better men 
 than I ; but to me there is only one woman in all 
 the world, and I can t bear the thought of giving 
 up hope of her until she herself commands me. 
 I assure you that I am entirely in earnest." 
 
 " I couldn t suspect you of flirting," said Kate, 
 softly. 
 
 " Thank you," said Jermyn, pressing closely to
 
 CO WA RDS BO TH. 143 
 
 his side the little hand which was trembling on 
 his arm. " I won t ask you for any promises, 
 except that you will allow yourself to become well 
 acquainted with me. You are with friends who 
 love you dearly, and one of them knows me of 
 old. There can be nothing to cause embarrass 
 ment between us, except 
 
 " Except Trixy ? " interrupted Kate, with a 
 silvery laugh. 
 
 " Bless you for laughing about it ! " said Jer- 
 myn, earnestly. " If you can continue to do so, 
 then " 
 
 ; One can get accustomed to almost any 
 thing," said Kate, with another laugh, although 
 why she laughed she was sure she did not 
 know. 
 
 " If can could mean will, and if I could be 
 anything - " said Jermyn. He did not com 
 plete the sentence, so Kate looked shyly up at 
 him. They had walked so far that they were 
 beyond the lights of the hotel, but the girl could 
 see that her companion s face, always strong and 
 earnest, seemed intently fixed upon something 
 far ahead. They had walked all the way to the 
 little lighthouse, and just beyond it, and there 
 are few darker places than the base of a light 
 house. The darkness gave Kate courage, so 
 she whispered : 
 
 " It shall mean will, if you wish it so." 
 
 " Heaven bless you ! " Then what strange 
 influences there are in darkness ! Jermyn threw 
 his arms about Kate and kissed her. 
 
 Some student of love has said that kisses gain 
 force by delay. Jermyn s was the first kiss Kate
 
 144 TRIP AND TRIXY, 
 
 Trewman had ever received from a man who 
 professed to love her, so between astonishment 
 and many other things which she did not under 
 stand and could not have called up and thought 
 about at the time had her life depended upon it, 
 she did not resist the kiss nor the several that 
 followed it. 
 
 " My angel ! " said Jermyn. " You will be my 
 wife?" 
 
 " How can I help it ? " asked Kate, softly, 
 " after after what has happened ? " 
 
 " Hurrah ! " sounded a child s voice behind 
 them. 
 
 "Trixy!" 
 
 " I didn t mean to do nothin , " the child ex 
 plained. " I was just walkin along behind you. 
 cause you both looked so splendid, and walked 
 so nice together, but when you kissed eacn 
 other " 
 
 " Trixy ! " exclaimed Kate, " I did nothing of 
 the sort ! " 
 
 " Didn t you ? Then I don t think you was 
 very polite."
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 THE COURAGE OF JOY. 
 
 SOME of the least explicable changes of 
 manner are the most genuine, so it is not 
 necessary to assign any reason for the fact that 
 on the way back to the hotel Jermyn and Kate, 
 who had both been under considerable restraint 
 a few moments before, talked as freely and rap 
 idly as if they had been acquainted for years. 
 The only indication that there was more than 
 one thought between them was the care with 
 which they kept Trixy in sight and reach, so 
 that her little tongue could not wag until it had 
 been put under proper curb by Trixy s mother. 
 On the other hand, they kept her far enough 
 from them for her not to overhear anything that 
 they were saying to each other, and their fre 
 quent recalls, whenever the child attempted to 
 skip or run, had the effect of soon making Trixy 
 appear as if she were a prisoner under close 
 guard. 
 
 Even when the hotel was reached the child 
 was kept within view yet out of hearing, while 
 Jermyn and Kate sat down with Trif. Fortu 
 nately for them, Harry and Fenie just then 
 thought of some one whom they wanted to find 
 in the ball-room, and they were glad of some 
 one who would keep Trif from being alone.
 
 146 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 Jermyn began with military directness by say 
 ing: 
 
 " Miss Trewman, may I ask one of my oldest 
 friends to congratulate me? " 
 
 " Yes," Kate replied, "if you will let her in 
 clude me in the congratulations." 
 
 " Oh, you dear people ! " exclaimed Trif. 
 " There s nothing that I would rather have 
 heard." 
 
 " You don t think it shockingly sudden ? " 
 asked Kate. 
 
 " Not I considering what either of you might 
 have missed by delay." 
 
 " I assure you," said Kate, " that not a word 
 would have been said about it for months it all 
 came so suddenly if it hadn t been for Trixy." 
 
 " Where is that child? " asked Jermyn, rising 
 in alarm and looking in every direction 
 
 " She s looking at her dolls," Trif replied. 
 " No, she isn t. Dear me ! I arranged those 
 dolls for her on a chair not ten minutes ago." 
 
 " Not ten minutes ago ? " asked Jermyn 
 dreamily. 
 
 " It seems ten hours ago ten days," whis 
 pered Kate dreamily. 
 
 " My dear children," said Trif, although Kate 
 was only three years younger than she and Jer 
 myn was older by several years, "you ought to 
 be the happiest people alive, except Phil and I ; 
 but to keep the matter to ourselves for a while, 
 if only to divert attention and prevent imperti 
 nent curiosity while Kate is down here you 
 know how some of the best of people will talk 
 don t tell any one although I m sure that I
 
 THE COURAGE OF JOY. 147 
 
 must tell Fenie, who can t help telling Harry, 
 but no one else need know." 
 
 " But, my dear madam," said Jermyn, once 
 more rising and peering earnestly in every direc 
 tion, " your interesting daughter already knows. 
 I do wish I knew where to look for her." 
 
 " Trixy knows ? How on earth did she 
 learn ?" 
 
 " Tell her if you can," said Kate to Jermyn. 
 
 " I am sure that you would do it more grace 
 fully," said Jermyn. 
 
 " Oh," began Kate, " we were walking along 
 the beach, talking about never mind what. I 
 hadn t the faintest idea how far we were from 
 the hotel, and the first thing I knew we were 
 near the lighthouse, and I didn t know that any 
 one else was anywhere near us indeed, I didn t 
 think. Just then Mr. Jermyn oh, the artfulness 
 of some men Mr. Jermyn he " 
 
 " He suddenly recognized Miss Trewman as 
 his superior officer for all time, and he made the 
 salute which custom has sanctioned for such 
 occasions," interrupted Jermyn. 
 
 " Very gracefully done," murmured Kate with 
 a tender look. 
 
 " What ? the salute ? Your remark encour 
 ages me to 
 
 No, you horrid fellow; the explanation." 
 
 " But what has this to do with Trixy ?" asked 
 Trif. 
 
 " Only this ; it seems that she had been fol 
 lowing us all the while, and she heard it." 
 
 Trif pursed her lips a moment, and laughed 
 before she said :
 
 148 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 " I suppose that soldiers are so accustomed to 
 noisy salutes that they don t always think " 
 
 "Oh, said Kate, "I m sure she didn t hear 
 the kiss, because I didn t, and I think oh, 
 Trif, you re too mean for anything ! To make 
 me " 
 
 " I think I made some remarks afterward," 
 said Jermyn, "but they were interrupted by a 
 shout of Hurrah, and on looking around we 
 saw Trixy." 
 
 " She shan t trouble you again !" exclaimed 
 Trif. " I ll take her home to-morrow." 
 
 " Please don t !" exclaimed Kate. 
 
 " How could you be so cruel ?" asked Jermyn. 
 
 "You inconsistent, incomprehensible couple. 
 A moment ago you were complaining that " 
 
 " But havn t you any mercy for Harry and 
 Fenie ?" asked Kate. " They are so ecstatically 
 happy here." 
 
 " Quite right, my dear !" said Jermyn gravely. 
 "Harry and Fenie, to be sure !" 
 
 " But they can see each other in New York 
 quite as well as if they were here," argued Trif. 
 
 " But what is to become of me ?" asked Kate. 
 "If you go home, Fenie will go with you, and 
 Harry will want to hurry after, and I can t remain 
 here alone, and you are the only married woman 
 of my acquaintance who is here, and who 
 knows." 
 
 " My dear girl ! " exclaimed Trif. " I beg a 
 thousand pardons. Let me see ; what can I do ? 
 I don t see what, except to caution Trixy very 
 carefully; and as she is the most conscientious 
 little thing in the world, and "
 
 THE COURAGE OF JOY. 149 
 
 " And the leakiest," added Kate. 
 
 " Be quiet, Kate ! I won t have the dear child 
 maligned. She never tells anything she is 
 ordered not to unless she is asked. I shall 
 tell her that she will make great unhappiness 
 for two people who love her dearly if she says 
 anything to anybody about anything which she 
 has heard or ahem ! seen this evening. Of 
 course, no one will question her, for no one has 
 any reason to suspect anything, and, of course, 
 nothing in the manner of either of you will give 
 any ground for curiosity." 
 
 " Twould be awful simply too awful," 
 moaned Kate, " if anyone should learn what has 
 happened on so short acquaintance. Beside, 
 I d be the principal sufferer, whereas it wasn t 
 in the least particular my fault." 
 
 " Twas all your fault, my dear," protested 
 Jermyn. " If you hadn t been the most incom 
 parable woman in all the world " 
 
 " Please don t forget," interrupted Kate, "that 
 we are not alone." 
 
 " I ll take Trixy aside at once," said Trif, 
 "and caution her thoroughly." 
 
 " You will make us everlastingly your debtors," 
 said Jermyn. " Let me find her for you." 
 
 While the young man was absent, the two 
 women talked as rapidly and earnestly and 
 ecstatically as only women can talk about the 
 most important event but one that can befall 
 one of their sex. Almost as soon as Jermyn 
 returned with the child, an orderly from the 
 fort appeared with the word that the officer was 
 wanted at his company quarters, so Jermyn bade 
 a reluctant adieu, and hurried away.
 
 ISO TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 As he passed through the postern gate of the 
 fort, he met an officer who seemed to be looking 
 for some one, and who exclaimed : 
 
 " Hurry along, old fellow ! Every one is wait 
 ing impatiently." 
 
 " Every one waiting ? What has happened ? " 
 
 " You ll learn in a moment." 
 
 " Has some high government official died, and 
 are all the troops at the fort to attend the 
 funeral ? " 
 
 " No such bad luck ; at any rate, you won t 
 have to go into mourning." So saying, the 
 officer led Jermyn into the club, where the 
 wondering man found several officers of his own 
 rank, and all bachelors. As Jermyn entered, all 
 arose, with glasses in their hands, and one of 
 them shouted : 
 
 " Here s Jermyn ! " 
 
 "Jermyn!" shouted the others in chorus, 
 after which each man drained his glass and 
 refilled it. Then some one shouted : 
 
 " Hats, off gentlemen ! Here s Her ! " 
 
 " Her ! " responded the chorus, and again the 
 glasses were drained. 
 
 " What are you fellows talking about ? " asked 
 Jermyn, with a savage frown. 
 
 " Don t lose your temper, old fellow," said one 
 of the party. " You know that we re not given to 
 prying into the personal affairs of our comrades, 
 but this information came to us unsought." 
 
 " Not only unsought," said Lieutenant Prew- 
 ser, "but we did all in our power to avoid get 
 ting it didn t we, Groston ? " 
 
 " Indeed we did. We tried to change the
 
 THE COURAGE OF JOY. 151 
 
 subject of conversation, or, more properly speak 
 ing, of report, but she wouldn t have it. She 
 got back to it every time, and she stuck to it 
 until she had her say." 
 
 " She ? Who ? " 
 
 "Trixy." 
 
 " Heavens ! " muttered Jermyn, while his face 
 became very red. 
 
 " The accused displays the customary sign of 
 guilt, remarked the oldest officer of the party. 
 
 " Really, Jermyn, said Prewser, " I never met 
 anyone who was more determined to talk. If 
 I d been alone I wouldn t have said anything 
 about it, but as there were three of us, and we 
 all tried to dis*uade her, and she persisted in 
 offering circumstantial evidence ahem ! too 
 strong to be set aside, we thought it only fair 
 that we, who have fought and bled and died 
 with you, or expect to do so, should be the first 
 to congratulate you. To think of all the women 
 who ve angled for you, yet whom you ve es 
 caped ! And you ve made such a glorious cap 
 ture, too ! If we hadn t agreed that there should 
 be only two toasts on this happy occasion, I 
 should be in favor of our drinking also to 
 Trixy." 
 
 " Confound her ! " exclaimed Jermyn, thinking 
 only of Kate s feelings should Trixy have talked 
 further before he captured her and led her to 
 her mother, "are you fellows so foolish as to 
 attach any importance to what a child like that 
 may say ? " 
 
 " Does the accused desire that the evidence 
 shall be reviewed, item by item, in his pres-
 
 152 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 ence ? " asked some one. " Only three of us 
 have heard it, but if the accused himself in 
 sists " 
 
 " Be quiet ! " Jermyn roared. 
 
 " Your secret is safe with us, old fellow," said 
 Prewser, " as you know well, so forgive us if 
 we ve been a little effusive in our rejoicing for 
 your sake. Go to your quarters and to happy 
 dreams. Jove ! how I envy you ! 
 
 " So so say we all of us," repeated the others 
 in unison, as Jermyn beat a hasty retreat. 
 
 The miseries which Jermyn wished Trixy dur 
 ing the short walk from the club to his quarters 
 quite out-H eroded Herod. Once fairly by him 
 self, however, his joy banished his anger. Let 
 the boys laugh among themselves ! They all 
 envied him didn t they say so ? How could he 
 ever sleep, after so exciting an evening ? What 
 had he ever done that he should be so richly 
 blessed as he would be with Kate Trewman for 
 his wife ? 
 
 There must have been a special Providence 
 watching over him in other days when he 
 thought himself in love, even when he failed to 
 win Tryphosa Wardlow, and, within a few days 
 how long passed they seemed ! when he 
 could not keep the face of Trif s pretty sister 
 out of his mind, and wouldn t have done so if he 
 could ! 
 
 But how very long the coming night would 
 be ! He had known long nights while on picket, 
 when his battery was on duty in the Indian 
 country and he had looked forward to them 
 with dread, but now there would be twelve
 
 THE COURAGE OF JOY. 153 
 
 hours, at the very least, before he could again 
 gaze upon the face of the woman who was all 
 the world to him. What could he do to pass 
 the time ? Study ? bosh ! Read ? No ; he 
 must sleep, for he owed it to Kate to appear his 
 very best the next day. Still, it was only ten 
 o clock ; he never retired before eleven. He 
 would read a little while ; read some poetry 
 something he had done but little in late years. 
 
 He had read but a few minutes when there 
 was a knock at the door and a servant handed 
 him a letter addressed in writing which he did 
 not recognize. He opened it and read : 
 
 We return to New York by the morning train. 
 You had scarcely left us when two ladies whom I ve 
 known only two or three days came to tell me how 
 glad they were of the news. When I learned what 
 they meant I expressed surprise, but they said that 
 every one in the hotel knew of it some one had 
 overheard Trixy talking of it to two or three offi 
 cers. That child ! 
 
 Sorrowfully, 
 
 KATE.
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 THE WOOING O IT. 
 
 ""THERE was a lot of misery four rooms full 
 1 of it when Kate Trewman announced to 
 the High wood party and her brother that she 
 could never, never, never again face the gossips 
 and the other people at the hotel after the story 
 of her engagement had got about with the infin 
 ity of detail which Trixy had imparted and the 
 additions which are inevitable when a story is 
 passed from lip to lip. Trif had promised to go 
 sailing the very next day with some new friends, 
 Fenie had promised several dances for the 
 "Ladies Night" at the fort, which would be 
 the next night but one, and Harry and Fenie 
 had agreed to make a little trip which Harry 
 thought would be peculiarly delightful, and 
 Fenie agreed with him, although she did not 
 know why. 
 
 But Kate was obdurate. She admitted to 
 Trif that she loved Jermyn dearly, strange 
 though it might seem, but for that very reason 
 her self-respect was stronger than ever, and 
 although she could endure anything for her own 
 sake she was not willing that anything should 
 occur, or that anything which had occurred, 
 should make the dear fellow laughed at and 
 (i54)
 
 THE WOOING O IT. 155 
 
 talked about. People were so mean ! Who 
 knew but some one would say that she had tried 
 to catch him, and succeeded ? The idea ! 
 
 " But Kate," argued Trif, "there s no need of 
 your being seen if you ll consent to remain a 
 day or two longer. You ve only to remain in 
 your room while I make my sailing trip with my 
 friends, and Harry and Fenie have their little 
 outing. You won t be alone ; think of the de 
 lightful thoughts that will keep you company! 
 The day after my trip I ll make a special 
 luncheon in my room, in honor of the happy 
 couple, and it will be entirely right, as your 
 brother will bring Jermyn. You certainly 
 couldn t be so heartless as to depart without 
 seeing him once more, and without letting him 
 see you." 
 
 " Do you think it would be heartless do you 
 think it would seem so to him ?" 
 
 " It certainly would, to him or to any other 
 good man, under the circumstances," Trif re 
 plied, with extreme New England positiveness. 
 
 "Then I will remain," said Kate; upon which 
 Trif kissed her and called her a dear good girl, 
 and Fenie kissed her and called her a sensible 
 girl, and Harry kissed her and said she was a 
 good sister, and Trixy offered to kiss her but 
 was rudely pushed away. 
 
 Jermyn knew nothing of this conversation. 
 He had done much desperate thinking after re. 
 ceiving Kate s note, and one consequence was 
 that he looked across the parade ground, saw 
 that lights were still burning in the adjutant s 
 office and the home of the post commandant, so
 
 156 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 he hurried over to the adjutant and made an 
 application for leave of absence for a week, on 
 important personal business. The post adjutant 
 looked astonished, for leaves of absence in the 
 army are charged against the month s leave 
 which each officer is allowed once a year in time 
 of peace, and the adjutant knew well that Jer- 
 myn had been carefully " saving his time " for 
 a month s run to the Pacific Coast during the 
 coming summer. Still, Jermyn pleaded urgency, 
 and begged for an immediate decision ; and the 
 post commandant, who was a large-hearted 
 gentleman, and also a close observer of the 
 individual members of his command, granted 
 the leave ; so the next morning, very early, before 
 any one at the hotel was stirring, Jermyn invaded 
 a lighthouse boat which he knew was to go to 
 Norfolk very early. His plan was to get upon 
 the steamer which started from Norfolk for the 
 train, miles away, touching at Old Point en route. 
 Neither Kate nor her brother should know of 
 his proximity until the train started ; after that, 
 well, Kate could not be other than the woman 
 he thought her, so she would be glad to see 
 him, and her brother, beside being a gentleman, 
 was himself in love ; so he would certainly give 
 the couple some opportunities for conversation 
 during the trip to New York. 
 
 While this was going on, the Admiral, who 
 had been somewhat upset by his exciting 
 experience of two or three preceding days, 
 and had been restoring himself by a veteran 
 seaman s favorite remedy, rest, got out of his 
 room very early, and sauntered about the beach
 
 THE WOOING O IT. 157 
 
 in search of a proper appetite for breakfast. It 
 did not help him much to meet Jermyn and 
 hear the young man s story of disappointment, 
 yet he heartily approved of the fellow s spirit 
 and wished him the happy time which undoubt 
 edly would be his. The excitement caused by 
 the interview gave the old gentleman the appe 
 tite for which he longed, so he went in at once 
 to breakfast, at which he lingered long. 
 
 As he sat at table, the train-boat from Norfolk 
 came in, and the Admiral looked through the 
 window toward the pier, hoping for a glimpse of 
 Kate. Evidently she had escaped him, for she 
 was not with any of the parties which moved 
 down from the hotel ; probably she was already 
 in the crowd, which always is an hour in advance 
 of starting time, and he did not like to bid a 
 lady good-by when there were all sorts of people 
 around to hear what was said. 
 
 As the boat cast off and started for Cape 
 Charles, the southern terminus of the railway, 
 the old gentleman raised his coffee-cup to his 
 lips, and murmured : 
 
 " God bless them ! " 
 
 " Who s you a-blessin ? " asked Trixy, who 
 had entered the breakfast-room and had been 
 moving by circuitous lines to " s prise " the 
 Admiral. 
 
 " Why, Trixy ! Good morning ! I ve not seen 
 you for several days. Do sit down and take 
 some breakfast with me. Tell me some news/ 
 
 " There ain t no news," said Trixy. " Yes there 
 is, too; but mamma says I mustn t ever tell any 
 more news until I m a big woman. And I can t
 
 158 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 take breakfast just now, cause I just was sent 
 down to ask the waiter to send Miss Trewman s 
 breakfast up to her room, specially a cup of 
 coffee." 
 
 " Miss Trewman s breakfast? Why Miss 
 Trewmanhas gone to New York." 
 
 " Oh, no, she hasn t. She changed her mind. 
 Mamma made her do it." 
 
 " Trixy, do you mean to say," asked the Admi 
 ral, as he arose hastily from the table, " that Miss 
 Trewman isn t on the boat which started for the 
 train at Cape Charles?" 
 
 " I mean to say she s up in her room," Trixy 
 replied, "for I just came from there and I saw 
 her. She said she wanted that coffee awfully, 
 too,so I mustn t wait any longer to see the waiter; 
 but I ll come back in a minute and take some 
 breakfast with you, if you like." 
 
 " Ah er," stammered the Admiral, who had 
 been thinking rapidly and looking at the light 
 house tug, which was already steaming back 
 from Norfolk, " suppose we hold the engagement 
 over until to-morrow morning ? The truth is, 
 I ve practically finished my own breakfast, so I 
 wouldn t be proper company. Besides, I ve just 
 thought of something which ought to be attended 
 to this instant." 
 
 " All right," said Trixy. "I m goin to have 
 one comp ny meal to-day anyway, cause mam 
 ma s goin to give a splendid little dinner in her 
 room to Miss Trewman and Mr. Jermyn." 
 
 " Indeed ! Excuse me, my dear, but I must 
 hurry." 
 
 The Admiral hurried out of the room, and,
 
 THE WOOING O IT. 159 
 
 despite his years and his dignity, ran toward 
 " The Hole," a sheltered portion of the harbor 
 where small craft usually anchored. He got as 
 near as possible to the lighthouse tug, and waved 
 his handkerchief violently. Just as the anchor 
 of the tug dropped, a sailor reported to the offi 
 cer in charge : 
 
 " Signal from the shore, sir ! " 
 
 " Don t notice it," was the reply, made gruffly. 
 " Hang the impertinence of some of these spring 
 visitors." 
 
 " Yes, sir. I think it s Admiral Allison a-sig- 
 nallin , sir." 
 
 " Ah, that s different ! Lower away ! I ll go 
 ashore for him." 
 
 The tug s boat had scarcely touched the beach 
 when the Admiral gave the prow a mighty shove 
 and shouted, " Shove off ! Give way ! " first 
 wetting his feet thoroughly. Then he sprang 
 like a cat from thwart to thwart until he got aft 
 and dropped beside the astonished officer, whis 
 pering : 
 
 " Charley, you were at the Naval Academy 
 while I was on duty there ! " 
 
 " Yes, Admiral, and you were the best friend 
 I ever had there. I couldn t have pulled through 
 if it hadn t been for you, as you well know ! " 
 
 " I m glad you think so, my dear boy, for I 
 want some special help from you to-day. Up 
 anchor, and let me catch that train for New 
 York." 
 
 " Why, Admiral, you know what a slow old 
 tub this is, and we ve been blowing off steam." 
 
 " Never mind. Help me to catch that train.
 
 160 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 Burn out a boiler, if necessary, and charge it to 
 me. I ll stand a court-martial rather than lose 
 that train." 
 
 Within five minutes the tug was rounding the 
 pier in front of the hotel and the Admiral was 
 compounding a prescription which is highly 
 esteemed at sea by elderly gentlemen who are 
 suffering from great excitement and wet feet. 
 Black smoke poured so densely from the boat s 
 single funnel that a naval officer who was enjoy 
 ing a brief outing at the hotel and had got out 
 of bed early to enjoy as much as possible of it, 
 told his wife that probably a buoy had strayed 
 from its moorings somewhere and some sea- 
 captain had been complaining by telegraph to 
 the authorities at Washington. 
 
 The chase was a hard one; the train-boat had 
 fully ten minutes the start of the tug, but the 
 Admiral, who stood forward ready to hurry 
 ashore, remarked that it usually took fully ten 
 minutes to get all the passengers, luggage and 
 freight from the boat to the train. When finally 
 he went over the side he said : 
 
 " Charley, keep your eye on the rear platform. 
 If I wave my handkerchief you ll know I m 
 safely aboard. Then wait as long as the train 
 does ; if it starts at once, steam along up the bay 
 until you see it stop. I ll get the conductor to- 
 pull up and let us off." 
 
 " Us ?" 
 
 "Yes; Jermyn and me." 
 
 It was none of the young officer s business, as 
 he told himself, but he could not help wondering 
 what was up between the Admiral and Jermyn,
 
 THE WOOING O IT. 161 
 
 He saw the old gentleman scramble upon the 
 rear platform of the last car, and at that very 
 instant the train started, so the tug s nose was 
 put up Chesapeake Bay, while her commander 
 told himself that the chasing of a big ferry boat 
 by a small tug was a sort of service for which 
 boats of the lighthouse service were not designed, 
 and that the next time the Admiral wanted any 
 thing of the sort done, and wanted a locomotive 
 chased afterward, he hoped there would be a 
 torpedo boat in the harbor. 
 
 Meanwhile the Admiral was making his way 
 through the train in search of Jermyn, while the 
 latter, moving from front to rear, was looking 
 for Kate. The two men met suddenly in the 
 vestibule between two cars. 
 
 "Admiral !" exclaimed Jermyn. "Are you too 
 going to New York ?" 
 
 "Not this time, dear boy. Neither are you. 
 She s changed her mind Miss Trewman she s 
 still at the hotel. Where s the conductor? 
 Hang it, Charley will never be able to catch us 
 if we go on at this rate. Where s the bell- 
 rope?" 
 
 The old gentleman, who was quite short, 
 sprang lightly upward, blew two long blasts, and 
 the train began to slow. The Admiral opened 
 the vestibule door and said : 
 
 " Come on ! We ll have to jump." 
 
 Jump they did, and into some Eastern Shore 
 mud which did not harmonize with the attire of 
 either gentleman. As they floundered out of it, 
 screened from the train by some scrubby bushes, 
 the tug, which had heard the locomotive s stop-
 
 162 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 ping signal, blew three long blasts of her own 
 whistle. Long before she steamed abreast of 
 the part of the beach which the runaways had 
 reached, the Admiral was waving his handker 
 chief so wildly that Jermyn insisted upon reliev 
 ing him to spare him the pangs of a stiff shoulder 
 and the danger of apoplexy.
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 THE MISSING GUEST. 
 
 AS Trif was a prudent wife and housekeeper, 
 she had been moaning to herself for days 
 about the expense of the Southern trip. Never 
 theless, she arranged for a lunch party regard 
 less of expense, as befitted an occasion when 
 two happy couples, newly made so, were to be 
 her guests. She promised herself that she 
 would pay for it by not buying a single new 
 article of clothing, not even a new frock, for the 
 coming season. She would economize in any 
 and every way ; she would let her house, fur 
 nished, for a few months, and take Trixy and 
 Fenie and herself to some out-of-the-way place 
 where everything was cheap, and the other 
 boarders would not know her old clothes from 
 the newest. Further, as she would have to send 
 home for more money, she sat down and wrote 
 an ecstatic confession to her husband, telling 
 him that she really thought it her duty, as a 
 member of society, to complete the matches 
 which were as good as made between Harry 
 and Fenie, Kate and Jermyn. 
 
 Then she sent to Jermyn such a note as only 
 a great-hearted, good-hearted woman could write, 
 after which she insisted on helping to array Kate 
 1163)
 
 1 64 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 as a queen should be dressed for her formal cor 
 onation. She was as earnest as she was senti 
 mental, so she talked so strongly as well as 
 romantically to Kate that the latter grew sweeter 
 and handsomer every moment, until finally she 
 felt as if the occasion would be one of consecra 
 tion instead of a mere meeting with the man 
 who already seemed a very old acquaintance. 
 
 Trif told her she looked like a goddess, a sac 
 rifice, an angel, a queen everything a good 
 woman could be while trying to devote her love 
 and life to a worthy man. Trif had been telling 
 her, and Kate was in a condition of mind to 
 believe it, that marriages were made in heaven, 
 and despite all future ceremonies that might be 
 necessary her obligations were already recorded 
 above, and Kate rose to the dignity of the oc 
 casion, and looked sweeter and felt happier, 
 although more humble and earnest than in all 
 her life before, for were not all who were to be 
 present quite near to her? her brother, who 
 seemed in the seventh heaven of happiness; 
 Fenie, who appeared almost too beautiful, in 
 her happiness and devotion, to be merely hu 
 man ; Trif, the woman who had known love for 
 years and rejoiced in it with a nobility surpass 
 ing that of any other woman Kate had ever met; 
 and Trixy oh, Kate could take even Trixy to 
 her heart. Mischief-making though the child 
 had been, Trixy s hands and no others should 
 strew flowers when the day came for Kate and 
 Jermyn to be made husband and wife. What 
 a heaven on earth this much-abused old world 
 was, to be sure !
 
 THE MISSING GUEST. 165 
 
 " Oh, Kate," exclaimed Trif, reappearing for 
 about the twentieth time, " what do you suppose 
 it can mean? Before breakfast I wrote Jermyn, 
 asking him to lunch with us at noon, and I ve 
 just received word that he is not at the fort. He 
 has gone away gone to New York." 
 
 Kate almost tottered, so Trif hurried to sup 
 port her. Suddenly Kate changed her manner 
 and exclaimed : 
 
 " What a grand fellow he is !" 
 
 " What do you mean ? asked Trif, almost 
 doubting her own senses. Kate looked proud, 
 then pensive, after which she said softly : 
 
 " Last night I sent him word of what had 
 happened the remarks of those inquisitive 
 women, you know, who got hold of what Trixy 
 had said, and I told him it would be necessary 
 for me to return that I would go to New York 
 this morning. He has started at once to follow 
 me. I might have imagined, in advance, that he 
 would do exactly that. The splendid fellow !" 
 
 " The unhappy fellow, I should say," wailed 
 Trif. " There he goes, probably on the very 
 train he supposed you would take, and he is 
 looking for you, and his heart is aching as if " 
 
 " Oh !" gasped Kate, with the manner of a 
 tragedy queen. " I never, never thought of that." 
 
 " De lunch is served, ladies," said the colored 
 waiter who had been busying himself in the 
 room for some moments. 
 
 Come along, dear," said Trif. " If you 
 love him as I loved Phil the day after he pro 
 posed you ll have him in your heart very safely, 
 no matter how far away he may be. The more
 
 166 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 trouble you think him in, the dearer you will 
 love him. As to the rest of us, we will promise 
 to talk of him only." 
 
 " Indeed, yes," added Fenie, who had heard 
 the unwelcome news, and hastened to offer con 
 solation. " I won t say a word about any one 
 else even about Harry." 
 
 " Neither will I," volunteered Trixy, who had 
 followed her aunt into the room. " He " 
 
 " You little " interrupted Kate, moving 
 toward the child with vengeful gesture, but Trixy 
 continued : 
 
 " He looked so splendid last night when he 
 kissed you that I haven t thought of anythin 
 since except the way papa kisses mamma." 
 
 Then both women blushed, and Fenie looked 
 so oddly at Harry that the young man blushed 
 too, but recovered sufficiently to ask Fenie 
 whether they shouldn t set the others a good 
 example by leading the way to the table. 
 Although very little time elapsed before the 
 remainder of the party followed them, Fenie was 
 found with brilliant roses in her cheeks, while 
 upon her finger was a ring which none of the 
 party but Harry had ever seen before, and 
 Harry was looking as proud as a king, and 
 Fenie was regarding him as if she were his 
 most adoring and obedient subject. 
 
 " If my loss," said Kate gayly, after several 
 significant glances from Trif had compelled her 
 to see the brilliant upon Fenie s hand, " has 
 been to the gain of any one else, or even to two 
 other people, I shall endeavor to endure it 
 bravely. I ve always been sacrificing myself
 
 THE MISSING GUEST. 167 
 
 for my brother ; I shall be glad if my long vigil 
 is to end." 
 
 So the party became quite happy despite the 
 missing guest, and there was so much of the 
 merry joking that brothers and sisters can ex 
 change that Fenie and Harry soon began to 
 talk as if they had been engaged for months 
 instead of moments. And how Trif, the happy 
 wife, and Kate, the proud betrothed, did enjoy 
 the spectacle ! Kate, indeed, soon began to 
 hold herself to account for forgetting absolutely, 
 for at least half an hour, the loyal soul that was 
 vainly following her and might not be able to 
 find her until -when? She became very pen 
 sive and thoughtful; Harry must find out for 
 her, at the fort, if possible, how to communicate 
 with Jermyn. She would remain at the hotel, 
 be stared at, talked about, anything, if only that 
 the man who loved her should not remain un 
 happy a single moment longer than was abso 
 lutely necessary. She thought so seriously that 
 Trixy finally remarked : 
 
 " Mamma, dear, I don t believe Miss Trew- 
 man likes this kind of lobster." 
 
 " Card for you, ma am," said the waiter sud 
 denly to Trif. 
 
 Trif took the card and read aloud : 
 
 "Admiral Allison; just for a moment. 
 How odd ! Perhaps, Kate, tis something about 
 Jermyn. You may say I ll be down in a mo 
 ment." 
 
 " He s right outside de do , ma am," the waiter 
 replied. 
 
 " The business-like way of some men ! " ex-
 
 i68 TRIP AND TRIXY, 
 
 claimed Trif . " Still, it must be something im 
 portant. By the way, girls, the Admiral is a 
 delightful gentleman, and he knows the two 
 secrets that are in our hearts to-day, and we 
 have a vacant place at the table show him in, 
 waiter." 
 
 The party arose. The Admiral entered the 
 room, and behind him came 
 
 " Jermyn ! " shouted Kate. How ridiculously 
 thin armor is when there is a healthy heart un 
 der it ! Kate rushed at Jermyn, threw her arms 
 about him, and kissed him as affectionately as 
 if he were a long-lost relation. 
 
 " How did you come to be here ? " she finally 
 asked. 
 
 " The Admiral brought me," Jermyn replied. 
 
 Then, shocking, yet truthful to relate, Kate 
 kissed the Admiral also. She was the taller of 
 the two, so she had to lean over him, but no 
 one laughed or seemed astonished no one but 
 Trixy, who exclaimed, " My ! " but no notice 
 was taken of it. 
 
 " Ladies and gentleman," said the Admiral, 
 gravely, after the excitement had subsided a 
 little, and he stood with a lappel of his coat 
 drawn back while he drew from his pocket a 
 medal which hung from a clasp, " I thought 
 when this medal was presented to me by my 
 country that I had gained the highest honor of 
 which an American was capable, but I am now 
 compelled to change my opinion. Miss Trew- 
 man, the goddess of liberty will hereafter owe 
 you a grudge." 
 
 "But, Admiral," said Kate, all blushes and
 
 THE MISSING GUEST. 169 
 
 brilliancy, " how could you know that he had 
 gone, and that that oh, that I wanted him 
 back?" 
 
 " Oh, I chanced to meet him, very early this 
 morning, learned that he was going, and the 
 reason of his sudden departure." 
 
 " And you prevented him ? " 
 
 " How could I ? He said that you had gone 
 unexpectedly, and that he thought it his duty 
 to follow you. I should have felt as he did, 
 in similar circumstances, so I bade him God 
 speed." 
 
 " But he started. I don t " 
 
 " I did, my dear," said Jermyn, " but the Ad 
 miral, with a special boat, chased our craft and 
 the train, found me, stopped the train, and 
 brought me back, and here I am." 
 
 " Oh, you are, indeed ! Admiral, you re an 
 angel." 
 
 The Admiral bowed profoundly and said : 
 
 " I cannot contradict a lady." 
 
 " But how did you know Oh, do explain 
 what I m sure none of us yet understand." 
 
 " The Spaniards have a saying, the old gen 
 tleman replied, " that fortunes, like miseries 
 always travel in couples. While I was break 
 fasting this morning, and feeling an almost im 
 pertinent interest, I must confess, in the affairs 
 of an estimable couple who seemed to have en 
 countered contrary winds, Trixy " 
 
 " Trixy ? " 
 
 " Really, Miss Trewman," said Trixy, with a 
 troubled yet appealing face, " I didn t tell him 
 anything awful. He said you d gone to New
 
 170 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 York, and I said he was mistaken, cause mam 
 ma had made you change your mind, and that 
 mamma was goin to give a luncheon party this 
 mornin to you and Mr. Jermyn, and and that 
 was all I said wasn t it, Admiral ? " 
 
 " Absolutely all. Whatever has happened 
 since has been entirely through what Trixy 
 said." 
 
 Then Kate kissed Trixy, and told her that she 
 was the dearest little thing that ever was born, 
 and the information seemed to do the child a lot 
 of good. Afterward it occurred to Kate that 
 the man who had been the principal subject of 
 her thoughts during the day was getting very 
 little of her attention, and as the Admiral in 
 sisted upon departing, and Harry and Fenie had 
 eyes only for each other, and Trif seemed en 
 tirely happy with no one to talk to, the meal 
 passed delightfully although slowly to its close. 
 When general conversation chanced again to 
 begin, Fenie remarked : 
 
 " It does seem that none of us can have any 
 more misunderstandings. There never would 
 have been any but for Trixy, but she certainly 
 can do no harm in the future." 
 
 " Trixy certainly has learned her lesson," said 
 Trif. 
 
 " Papa says that some folks never get through 
 with their lessons till they die," observed Trixy, 
 while all the rest looked serious.
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 A BLISSFUL WEEK. 
 
 THE Highwoods and Trewmans started for 
 New York a few hours after the lunch-party 
 ended, and Jermyn accompanied them. He had 
 wanted to do so, from the first, but found many 
 difficulties in the way of saying so ; for when 
 women are intent upon a journey they find so 
 much to do and talk about that a man, no matter 
 how dear he may be to any member of the party, 
 learns to his mortification that there are times 
 when man is utterly uninteresting to woman. 
 
 Jermyn finally found himself so manifestly in 
 the way that he begged Trixy, whose dolls were 
 packed within ten minutes of the first announce 
 ment of the impending departure, to go upon the 
 verandah with him and take a long look seaward. 
 A friend of his had been promising to sail a 
 yacht down from New York, and the verandah 
 was as good as any place in the fort from which 
 to view the offing. Besides, the Lieutenant did 
 not care to be seen again at his quarters. He 
 feared that a secret which several of his com 
 rades shared with him might not be as safe as 
 it should be, and he was in no humor to be 
 joked about the most serious interest of his life. 
 
 In the angle of the verandah they sat, Jermyn 
 (170
 
 172 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 and Trixy, the child looking seaward through 
 her mother s opera-glass, and the officer looking 
 into the sky, his thoughts that afternoon having 
 a somewhat heavenly tinge. 
 
 " Oh, I believe there s the yacht way out 
 there ! Don t you see it ? " 
 
 " Where ? What ? " asked Jermyn, dreamily. 
 
 " Why, the yacht, of course. Don t you see 
 that great big boat with lots of sails ! That s 
 the way yachts are, aint it ? " 
 
 " I suppose so." 
 
 " You don t look as I feel when folks is comin 
 to see me ; though, to be sure, they don t come 
 in yachts." 
 
 " I beg your pardon, Trixy. I fear I was 
 thinking about something else." 
 
 " Say ! " remarked Trixy, suddenly dropping 
 the glass. "Do you know what I wish? I 
 wish you was goin to New York with us." 
 
 " Trixy," said Jermyn earnestly, " so do I." 
 
 " Well, why don t you ? " 
 
 " Hem ! I suppose it is because I haven t 
 been asked." 
 
 " That s a funny reason ! I thought big men 
 could do anything they wanted to, withont any 
 body tellin em they could or they couldn t. 
 When I get to be a big woman, mamma says I 
 won t have to ask her what I can do before I do 
 it. Won t that be lovely ? " 
 
 Jermyn did not reply, so the child began again 
 to scan the offing with the glass. Then she 
 wanted to do something else, and Jermyn was 
 reminded amusingly of some ways of his sisters, 
 when those estimable women were very young.
 
 A BLISSFUL WEEK. 173 
 
 " Say," remarked Trixy, suddenly, " mamma 
 says you great big soldiers are just like little 
 children in one way. You never can go any 
 place without askin somebody to let you." 
 
 "Your mamma is entirely right about it," said 
 Jermyn, with a laugh. 
 
 "How funny!" said Trixy, as if talking to 
 herself. 
 
 The child finally disappeared, but Jermyn re 
 mained. He wondered how he could explain his 
 reappearance at the fort, after taking a week s 
 leave only twenty-four hours before, should any 
 awkwardness on the part of any one prevent him 
 joining the party. He wished he might see Trif 
 alone for a moment or two, but he knew better 
 than to disturb a woman absorbed in the duties 
 of packing. He was uncomfortable; he felt 
 that he was in the way, but he pulled himself 
 together by saying that he might as well be a 
 thousand miles away from Trif and Kate as he 
 was at that moment, while they were occupied 
 as they were. He could still make a pretense of 
 looking for that yacht, for Trixy had left the 
 glasses in her chair. Perhaps, after their work 
 was done, one or other of the ladies might acci 
 dentally find him, and something might be said 
 that would give him the opportunity for which 
 he longed. 
 
 " Mamma," said Trixy, entering the room and 
 stumbling over trunks, " why don t Mr. Jermyn 
 go to New York with us ? " 
 
 " Oh, I do wish he could ! " exclaimed Trif. 
 " Fenie, wouldn t it be be delightful ? " 
 
 " Indeed, yes," the girl replied, " but don t say
 
 174 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 anything about it to Kate, for the mention of it, 
 when it can t be done, would simply break her 
 heart." 
 
 Trixy propounded some more questions, but 
 was told that her mother was very busy, and 
 must not be bothered, so the child started in 
 search of other company, and when she reached 
 the beach she found the Admiral, whom she 
 asked : 
 
 " Who is it that officers like Mr. Jermyn have 
 to ask when they want to do somethin ? " 
 
 " Oh," said the Admiral, who was discussing 
 the naval topic of the day with a brother officer, 
 "why, the commandant of the fort ! " 
 
 Trixy hung upon the Admiral s chair a mo 
 ment or two, but what she heard was as bad as 
 Greek to her, so she strayed away, and asked 
 questions of other acquaintances, and she was 
 gone so long that her mother wondered what had 
 become of her. 
 
 When the packing was finished, to the very 
 last article which had been overlooked, and for 
 which the trunks had to be reopened, Kate and 
 Fenie sat down to rest, and naturally each began 
 to talk of the subject which was uppermost in 
 the minds of both, and finally they became so 
 confidential that Fenie exclaimed : 
 
 "Wouldn t it be lovely if Jermyn were going 
 North with us ? " 
 
 " Ch, Fenie ! " murmured Kate, looking as 
 Mother Eve probably looked when the gates of 
 Eden closed behind her. 
 
 " Why don t you make him ?" asked the 
 younger woman.
 
 A BLISSFUL WEEK. 175 
 
 " Make him ? He is an officer of the Govern 
 ment, and has his duties to perform. Do you 
 suppose I would dare ask him to neglect them?" 
 
 " I m sure I can t see what duties there can be 
 to embarrass him, for there isn t any war going 
 on. 
 
 " Xo, but there seems to be so much else. 
 Don t you remember that mysterious mission 
 that took him and the Admiral North a few days 
 ago? Jermyn must be of great importance, 
 despite his modest rank, or he never would have 
 been associated with an admiral, on public 
 business." 
 
 " I d ask him, any way, if he were my lover, 
 : if only to make him happy for a moment," said 
 Fenie. 
 
 " Would you ?" asked Kate. Should she be 
 outdone in affectionate impulse by a mere girl 
 like Fenie ? She wondered what had become 
 of Jermyn ; then she said so. 
 
 " He s out at the angle of this verandah, or 
 was a half hour ago, Trixy told me ; he was 
 looking for the yacht of a friend. And Kate," 
 continued Fenie hurriedly, for Kate had already 
 started, " you needn t be afraid to talk to him, 
 for there are no occupants of those rooms." 
 
 Kate tripped out to the piazza and saw Jermyn 
 with a face so sober that it shocked her. She 
 approached him softly and touched his arm ; he 
 looked up quickly, but with an entirely different 
 face. 
 
 "Am I to go to New York all alone ?" Kate 
 asked, with a look which set Jermyn s well- 
 controlled heart dancing, although its owner 
 said
 
 176 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 " What ? Your brother, and Mrs. Highwood 
 and Miss Wardlow aren t they going ?" 
 
 " You know very well what I mean, you con 
 summate hypocrite." 
 
 "And you know very well, or you ought to," 
 said Jermyn, "that I d gladly follow you all over 
 the earth. Still, I can t force myself upon the 
 remainder of the party. * 
 
 "Then Trif shall Invite you, at once," said 
 Kate. 
 
 " Trif," Fenie was saying at almost the same 
 moment, as her sister returned from an uns,uc- 
 cessful search for Trixy, " Kate has gone out to 
 ask Jermyn to accompany us North ; wouldn t 
 it be the graceful thing for you, as the head of 
 the party, to add your request to hers ?" 
 
 " Where is he ?" asked Trif. She was on the 
 piazza, soon after Fenie told her where the Lieu 
 tenant was. 
 
 " How kind and thoughtful of you !" said Jer 
 myn. " I suppose," he continued hypocritically, 
 " that I might possibly get permission to be 
 absent a few days longer if " 
 
 " That s all right," intruded the voice of 
 Trixy. " You can go, and that ain t all you ll 
 get into a lot of trouble if you don t go. I ve 
 been to see the head man about it." 
 
 " The head man ? " echoed Jermyn, while the 
 others looked inquiringly at the child. 
 
 " Yes. Don t you know ? I mean the man 
 up at the fort, that all you soldiers have to ask 
 when you want to do anything. I told him all 
 about it, although he kept on interruptin , and 
 sayin yes, yes, as if he wanted me to stop
 
 A BLISSFUL WEEK. 177 
 
 talkin . I didn t stop, though, so at last he said, 
 " Little girl, I ve already heard something about 
 the matter. Please say to Lieutenant Jermyn, 
 with my compliments, that he is to go to New 
 York at once, and that he isn t to show his face 
 here again for several days, and that if he dares 
 to do so I may have him held to account for 
 getting a leave of absence on false pretenses. 
 There ! I think I ve told it just like he said it, so 
 you see you ll have to go if you don t want to 
 catch it." 
 
 " Trixy," exclaimed Jermyn, utterly aghast, 
 " do you mean to say that you have actually 
 called upon the Post Commandant and told him 
 that I was here, and that " 
 
 " Yes, I told him everything I could, so he d 
 be sure to let you go ; told him about your bein 
 here to lunch with mamma he looked awful 
 s prised then, cause he thought you d gone to 
 New York, so I told him what you went for, and 
 how the Admiral brought you back, and then he 
 told me he wished I d find the Admiral and say 
 he d be glad to have him come up to the fort to 
 dinner. Then he looked as if he didn t know 
 what to think, and I got afraid that mebbe he d 
 change his mind and not let you go after all, so 
 I told him that twas real important, and about 
 last night up by the lighthouse don t you re 
 member ? Oh, mamma ! I promised you real 
 solemn that I wouldn t say a word about that to 
 anybody, didn t I ! I wonder how I came to do 
 it?" 
 
 Kate looked at Jermyn, and Jermyn blushed ; 
 then he looked at Kate, and Kate blushed ; as 
 12
 
 178 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 to the others, they looked at both of them and 
 laughed merrily. But Kate wasn t going to let 
 the dear fellow feel uncomfortable, so she said 
 softly 
 
 " You ll go with us ? " 
 
 " You ve heard my orders, my dear, although 
 I must say that they did not come through the 
 customary official channels, but as I got a week s 
 leave last night for this very purpose 
 
 " You shall have a blissful week," interrupted 
 Trif, " with no one to disturb or make trouble." 
 
 " But you forget that the General command 
 ing this department has headquarters at New 
 York, and if Trixy should 
 
 " Sh h " whispered Kate. " That dreadful 
 child might appeal to the President of the 
 United States, in his capacity as commander- 
 in-chief of the army and navy." 
 
 " Do be quiet," said Jermyn. " The child is 
 listening with all her might."
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 APRIL SHOWERS. 
 
 A HAPPIER couple than Fenie and Harry- 
 could not be found in all New York. This 
 must be true, for both of them said so one even 
 ing while they were the only occupants of Trif s 
 cozy parlor, while Trif and her husband were 
 out, making a short call. 
 
 Harry had just told Fenie that while he was 
 very happy about his sister and Jermyn, because 
 he thought them specially suited to each other, 
 he was also very sorry for them, for naturally 
 love could not be so delightful to Jermyn as to 
 him, for was not the officer at least ten years the 
 older. Ten years, to Harry, seemed time enough 
 to transform a young man into a person of mid 
 dle age. 
 
 Fenie said she never would have mentioned 
 such things if Harry had not begun it, but she 
 was dreadfully sorry for Kate, for the dear girl, 
 being much older than she six or seven years 
 older could not know the bliss of youth that 
 gives itself entirely to thoughts of love. 
 
 Harry did not like to hear any allusions made 
 to the age of his sister, for Kate had always 
 seemed to him, until he met Fenie, the embodi 
 ment of everything girlishly delightful. Was
 
 iSo TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 she not the merriest romp of the family ? Was 
 it not she who always brought him out of his 
 brown studies ? Did she not play with the 
 younger children as if she herself was still in 
 short dresses ? 
 
 By a natural coincidence, Jermyn and Kate, 
 only a few squares away, were congratulating 
 themselves that they were not young things like 
 Harry and Feme. They had seen much of the 
 world ; they knew men and women well ; they 
 had gone through many illusions from start to 
 finish, but now they had found each other, the 
 world might move on in its orbit, or out of its 
 orbit, with no end of trouble to all concerned 
 except them. They were one in soul and pur 
 pose for all time, and, they devoutly hoped, for 
 all eternity. 
 
 About this time a bell rang somewhere in the 
 house, but neither of them heeded it. Why should 
 they ? Were they not sitting and looking as if Jer 
 myn had merely dropped in for an evening call ? 
 Kate was pretending to do some alleged " fancy 
 work," and Jermyn was admiring the movements 
 of her pretty hands, and wishing that his pay or 
 his prospects were so good that the aforesaid 
 pretty hands might never have to do anything 
 more exacting or less becoming, and thinking he 
 had been a brute to propose to such a woman 
 when he had only his pay, nearly two thousand 
 a year, and a thousand or two dollars he had 
 saved, when the current of his thoughts was dis 
 turbed by the appearance of Trixy, who stood 
 before him in a waterproof cloak and a face 
 covered with tears.
 
 APRIL SHOWERS. 181 
 
 " Trixy ! " exclaimed Jermyn. " What has 
 happened to you ? " 
 
 " They re havin an awful row," sobbed the 
 child. 
 
 " They ? Not your father and mother ? " 
 
 " No, indeed ! They never fight aren t you 
 ashamed of yourself ! It s the other two - Aunt 
 Fee and Harry. She says she never loved him 
 much anyhow, and she didn t ask him to go 
 clown South and bother her, and he said he 
 didn t believe she knew her own mind, and she 
 said she wished he had any mind worth knowin , 
 and she wished he was half as much of a man 
 as Lieutenant Jermyn, that he d been abusin . 
 She said you was a man, and he wasn t 
 nothin but a boy. And papa and mamma was 
 gone out, and I was awful frightened, and I got 
 the cook to bring me around here, so I could 
 ask Miss Trewman if somethin couldn t be done 
 for em. 
 
 " Why should he have abused me ? " asked 
 Jermyn of no one in particular. 
 
 " Why should she compare him with you ? " 
 asked Kate. "Jermyn," she exclaimed, "did 
 you ever make love to Fenie Wardlow ?" 
 
 " Never ! Upon my honor, my dear." 
 
 " Then I m sure I don t know " 
 
 " Neither do I. Suppose I go around with 
 Trixy and find out ? 
 
 " I shall go with you," said Kate. There was 
 something in her voice that Jermyn had never 
 heard before, and it distracted his thoughts 
 about Harry and Fenie. Nevertheless the two 
 quickly left the house together, and Jermyn
 
 iS2 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 talked to Trixy rather than to Kate, and Kate 
 was made so uncomfortable thereby that she 
 talked incessantly to Trixy, which mystified Jer- 
 myn greatly, although Kate s hand grasped his 
 arm tightly all the while. 
 
 On their way they chanced to meet Harry, to 
 whom Jermyn said quickly : 
 
 " Well met, old chap ! Come along with us. 
 We are going to make a call and would like to 
 have you with us ; we can promise that you shall 
 have a pleasant time." 
 
 " I d be glad if something pleasant would hap 
 pen on this particular evening confound it!" 
 replied Harry i:i the gruff tone which some very 
 young men, despite good breeding and associa 
 tion, sometimes indulge in. When they reached 
 the Highwoods house and started up the steps 
 Harry shrank backward and said : 
 
 " Not there, thank you. Not this evening." 
 
 He started quickly away, but Jermyn, with 
 Kate still clinging to his arm, soon overtook 
 him, grasped his shoulder as a policeman might 
 seize a prisoner, and said, kindly enough : 
 
 " My dear fellov.-, I ve seen a score of clever 
 youngsters through lovers quarrels, and I m go 
 ing to see you through one this evening no\v, 
 or I m going to break your neck. Which do 
 you prefer ? 
 
 Harry answered nothing, although he acted 
 like a surly criminal led by a jailor. Meanwhile 
 Kate was grasping Jermyn s arm tightly and 
 pressing close to his side. What had become of 
 Trixy no one knew or thought, yet no sooner 
 did they ring the bell than the child stood in 
 the open doorway.
 
 APRIL SHOWERS. 183 
 
 Kate hurried to Fenie s room, where she found 
 the occupant bathed in tears. At any other time 
 such a spectacle would have moved Kate to ten 
 derness, but now she rudely shook the girl and 
 asked : 
 
 " Tryphena Wardlow, were you ever in love 
 v:ith Jermyn ?" 
 
 " No," replied the girl with a wondering blush. 
 "That is " 
 
 " Did he ever make love to you? Tell me 
 this instant !" 
 
 " No. That is " 
 
 " Did he ever kiss you ?" 
 
 "No, no, no a thousand times no! Aren t 
 you ashamed of yourself, to have asked such a 
 question ? " 
 
 " Yes I am ! said Kate, " and I sincerely 
 beg your pardon, but here, dear, let me dry 
 your eyes. You poor little darling, has Harry 
 been a brute ? Oh, won t I make life miserable 
 for him when I get him alone, at home? There, 
 dear ! If your own sister isn t here to comfort 
 you, you shan t lack another. Come down stairs 
 with me ; Jermyn is here, and I want you to look 
 your prettiest." 
 
 "It isn t necessary," said Fenie, trying to 
 clear her face of the traces of sorrow and anger. 
 " He s no eyes for any one else when you re 
 present." 
 
 "You darling girl! Say that again and 
 again ! 
 
 " Old chap, Jermyn was saying to Harry, 
 " I don t know what has been the trouble, but I 
 know the nature of it, for I ve seen signs of it in
 
 1 84 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 many other men who have been in love. Take 
 all the blame to yourself do ! Tis the privilege 
 of men to relieve women of all of that sort of 
 thing they can." 
 
 " Tis very well for you to talk," grumbled 
 Harry. " They jest at scars that never felt a 
 wound. But 
 
 " But, you blessed idiot, do you know what 
 you are in danger of losing ? Fenie is one of 
 the sweetest little women on the face of the 
 earth." 
 
 " How do you know?" asked Harry defiantly. 
 "Were you ever in love with her? From some 
 thing she said this evening I am half inclined 
 to " 
 
 " I was in love with her sister, many years 
 ago," said Jermyn softly ; "so I know the family 
 quality." 
 
 " I beg your pardon," said Harry, humbly, 
 and trying hard to be once more a gentleman. 
 " But she said " 
 
 " Tis no matter what she said. Be a man ; 
 be a lover; be a gentleman. Sh h h! 
 they re coming." 
 
 Kate entered with Fenie, who greeted Jermyn 
 effusively, while Harry chatted with his sister, 
 there being no one else for him to speak to, for 
 Trixy had disappeared. Kate and Jermyn soon 
 succeeded in making the conversation general, 
 and in compelling Harry and Fenie to talk to 
 each other. Then Jermyn and Kate began to 
 admire some of the Highwoods pictures so in 
 tently that Harry and Fenie could talk only to 
 each other ; they dropped their voices, but the
 
 APRIL SHOWERS. 185 
 
 tones were audible and promised well. Finally, 
 as the others turned they saw something which 
 caused them to say : 
 
 " We beg a thousand pardons." 
 
 "You needn t," replied Fenie bravely. "We ve 
 made up, and I don t care if all the world knows 
 it, for it was all my fault from the first." 
 
 " What a fib !" exclaimed Harry. 
 
 It isn t! But how " here Fenie turned 
 to Kate, "did you chance to come to the rescue ? 
 My heart was almost broken." 
 
 "And mine," added Harry. 
 
 "And mine," said Kate tragically. 
 
 " Mine is of no particular consequence," 
 drawled Jcrmyn, with a reproachful look at 
 Kate, "still, it got a frightful stab." 
 
 " You poor fallow !" exclaimed Kate, making 
 amends in the most delightful manner appro 
 priate to the occasion. This demonstration in 
 cited Harry and Fenie to be very tender to each 
 other, and there was an instant of delicious 
 silence, too soon broken by a pitiful wail which 
 seemed to come from a portiere. 
 
 " I s pose it don t matter about my poor little 
 bit of a heart, but it was broke most to pieces." 
 
 " Did that child overhear the quarrel ?" whis 
 pered Fenie. 
 
 " Twas she who brought us word about it," 
 Kate replied. 
 
 Then Harry and Fenie kissed Trixy, and Jer- 
 myn took her into his arms, and the child, 
 relieved of h^r load of responsibility, fell asleep, 
 and Jermyn held her so tenderly and looked at 
 her so fondly and thoughtfully that Kate looked
 
 1 35 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 upon him with a new and tender expression in 
 her eyes, although she wouldn t for the world 
 have had him see it. Finally Kate herself took 
 the child, so softly that she did not waken it, 
 and carried it to and fro a moment or two, and 
 finally laid it upon a sofa, and Jermyn looked r.t 
 Kate every moment, and thought, and thought, 
 and thought. At last he ventured to remark : 
 
 "All the artists and poets have been wrong. 
 They should have made Cupid a little girl. 
 
 The four sat and talked until Trif and Phil 
 returned, and then they continued to talk, yet 
 ihe astute heads of the family did not hear or 
 see anything that could make them imagine that 
 there had been any trouble. Indeed, Trif told 
 her husband that it seemed strange that Jermyn 
 and Kate should have spared time for a call on. 
 that particular evening, when Jermyn s time was 
 so short, and he must soon be away for no one 
 knew how long.
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 " THEY TAKE NO NOTE OF TIME. 
 
 KATE and Jermyn were so happy in each 
 other s society, now that they had not to 
 pay attention to a lot of mere acquaintances, 
 that they agreed with the hero of Gilbert and 
 Sullivan s "Mikado" that each second was a 
 minute, each minute an hour, each hour a day, 
 and each day a year. Nevertheless, after the 
 illogical manner of lovers, no sooner was the 
 last half of the week under way than they be 
 gan to complain that ".ach day seemed only an 
 hour long. 
 
 " Must you really go at the end of your 
 week ? : asked Kate. " Does a week, in military 
 parlance, mean literally a week no more, no 
 less ? " 
 
 Exactly and mathematically a week," sighed 
 Jermyn. " "i is even worse in our case, for the 
 week includes the time I spent in reaching here, 
 the time I will spend in returning, and the day I 
 started, but was taken back by the Admiral. 
 
 " Oh ! " exclaimed Kate, after a startled look, 
 "that means that you must start back to-mor 
 row ! " 
 
 It does indeed. I ve gone over it by every 
 applicable rule of arithmetic, but I can nnd no 
 other solution. 
 
 (187)
 
 i88 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 Kate at once became so dismal that she could 
 not talk much, and Jermyn, remembering the 
 ways of his mother and sisters when they had 
 trouble on their minds, suggested that there 
 could be no better time to make his good-bye 
 call upon the Highwoods; he assured himself 
 that a short chat with sympathetic women would 
 enable Kate to bear her trouble more bravely. 
 He got his reward, for Trif chatted so kindly 
 with him that he himself soon felt much better 
 than he had dared hope, so he felt correspond 
 ingly grateful, and wished he might do some 
 thing in return for the good woman to whose in 
 terest he owed so much of his fortune in love. 
 Suddenly there came to him a thought which 
 he voiced at once. 
 
 " Mrs. Highwood, I shall go back by way 
 of Washington. I m greatly your debtor; I 
 needn t go into particulars, but wouldn t you 
 like to spend a few hours in Washington ? You 
 couldn t have a better guide than I, and " 
 
 " Twould be splendid ! " Trif exclaimed. : But 
 you wouldn t be so heartless as to leave Kate 
 behind ? " 
 
 " I m greatly obliged for the suggestion." 
 
 " And," continued Trif, who had been think 
 ing rapidly. " would it be dreadful of me to take 
 Trixy also ? She has long been wild to see the 
 Baby of the White House, and by some lucky 
 accident she might get a peep at that fortunate 
 child." 
 
 It might not be difficult ; I ve had the honor 
 of meeting the baby s mother, in other years, 
 and am sure she would be delighted to meet a 
 woman like Trixy s mother."
 
 "THEY TAKE NO NOTE OF TIME." 1 189 
 
 " We will go," said Trif. " I shan t have to 
 wait to consult Phil, for he asked me why I 
 didn t improve my opportunity to see Washing 
 ton during our return trip from Old Point." 
 
 A cheerful party of four started for Washing 
 ton the next afternoon, and on the morning after 
 ward Jermyn busied himself in showing the ladies 
 the sights of the capital. But Washington is a 
 large city, and time did fly so rapidly to Kate 
 and Jermyn, for the latter would be obliged to 
 take the night train for Fort Monroe. 
 
 Trixy saw the baby of the White House, and 
 devoured it with her eyes, and asked it questions 
 about its dolls, while two fond mothers looked 
 and listened. The call was short, but, as the 
 party made their adieus, Trixy slipped back and 
 said to the lady of the house : 
 
 " Your husband can do anything he likes with 
 soldiers, can t he?" 
 
 "That depends," was the reply. "Why do 
 you ask ? " 
 
 " Cause I wish he would make Lieutenant 
 Jermyn go back to New York with us. I m sure 
 Miss Trewman wishes so too, cause they re only 
 just engaged, and he s only been in New York 
 a week, and " 
 
 "There goes the only man who could manage 
 an affair of that kind," said the lady, pointing to 
 an alert-looking gentleman who was approaching 
 the house. 
 
 " Thank you, very much." 
 
 " Where is Trixy ? " asked Trif, as the party 
 passed through the gateway. " Why, there she 
 is, talking to a stranger ! How the child has
 
 190 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 lost her manners ! Mr. Jermyn, won t you kindly 
 bring her back ? " 
 
 Jermyn hurried to the rescue, and was some 
 what astonished to see that the gentleman witn 
 whom Trixy was talking was the Secretary of 
 War. 
 
 " Mr. Jermyn ! " said the Secretary. Jermyn 
 saluted. 
 
 " This young lady has been telling me an in 
 teresting story. By the way, there are to be 
 some new guns tested at Sandy Hook, New York 
 harbor, in a day or two. It mijht be of use to 
 some of the classes at the fort if an officer from 
 there were to observe the tests and take back a 
 detailed report. Would your own studies be re 
 tarded if you were to remain absent a week or 
 ten days longer ? " 
 
 " Not in the least," Jermyn replied, with the 
 promptness becoming a soldier. 
 
 " Call at the Department some time this after 
 noon, then, for your detail. I ll send a copy of 
 it to your commanding officer, and you will re 
 port by letter to him, so that you may be recalled 
 if necessary. Will you do me the honor to intro 
 duce me to this young lady? " 
 
 " With pleasure. Miss Highwood, allow me 
 to present the Honorable the Secretary of War." 
 
 " What a long name ! " exclaimed Trixy, with 
 a curtesy. 
 
 " I m sorry, Miss Highwood, that my time 
 won t allow me to show you special attention 
 while you are here, but I hope we may meet 
 again. Good day. Mr. Jermyn, I wish you a 
 pleasant trip ! "
 
 "THEY TAKE JVO NOTE OF TIME." 191 
 
 Jermyn hurried the child back to her mother, 
 who said : 
 
 " I hope, Mr. Jermyn, that you apologized to 
 the gentleman for Trixy s rudeness ? " 
 
 " I hadn t the opportunity," Jermyn replied. 
 "Ladies, I ve an interesting announcement to 
 make ; I am to accompany you back to New 
 York." 
 
 " Oh, Jermyn!" exclaimed Kate. " Tis too 
 good to be true." 
 
 " Nevertheless, His as true as it is good. The 
 gentleman with whom Trixy was talking was 
 the Secretary of War, and he has ordered me 
 back, for a few days, on duty that will occupy 
 my time for only a few hours a day." 
 
 "You clever fellow! How did you manage 
 it?" 
 
 "I didn t. Trixy did it." 
 
 " Trixy " echoed both ladies. 
 
 " Why," said the child, " I only told him all 
 about Mr. Jermyn and Miss Trewman. The 
 lady in the White House told me he was the 
 right man to ask if Mr. Jermyn couldn t go back 
 to New York with us, so I asked him." Then 
 Trixy looked up with the inquiring air she al 
 ways had when she suspected she had done 
 something wrong, but didn t know what it was. 
 
 " Bless me ! " exclaimed Kate. " I wonder 
 only that she didn t ask the President himself." 
 
 " That s what I was goin to do," explained 
 Trixy, " but the lady said the other man was the 
 right one, so I asked him." 
 
 All three adults stopped and stared fixedly at 
 Trixy, at which the child began to cry; so Trif
 
 1 9 2 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 picked her up and kissed her and told her to 
 "never mind," and Kate stooped and kissed 
 her, and when she lifted her head there were 
 tears in her eyes ; so Trif looked hurriedly to 
 ward the War Department and said it was good 
 for the public sense of propriety and dignity that 
 the Secretary was out of sight, otherwise it 
 would be just like Kate to kiss him also, as she 
 had kissed the Admiral on a certain occasion. 
 
 Kate hurried the party away ; she explained 
 later that while looking toward the White House 
 she was sure that she saw the hostess looking 
 through the window at her and smiling at her. 
 
 " I declare ! " she said, with downcast eyes 
 and cheeks a-flame, " there s no living with 
 Trixy, nor " 
 
 " Nor any living without her eh ? " added 
 Jermyn. 
 
 The remainder of the day was the very mer 
 riest, so four people said, that any party had 
 ever spent in Washington. Jermyn took his 
 guests to the old chamber of the House of Rep 
 resentatives, and mystified them a few moments 
 with the " whispering gallery " over the Speak 
 er s desk, making Kate his latest victim, despite 
 her appeals to him to be quiet, and his assur 
 ances that no one else could hear a word he 
 was saying, although he was forty feet away. 
 Kate became so embarrassed that she suddenly 
 withdrew and Trixy took her place a change 
 which Jermyn did not notice until he heard a 
 peal of childish laughter, and, stepping forward, 
 saw Kate and Trif standing some steps from 
 the arch and Trixy joining them, and saying :
 
 "THEY TAKE NO NOTE OF TIME." 193 
 
 " That s the funniest thing I ever heard of !" 
 
 "What is the funniest thing, dear? asked 
 Trif. 
 
 "Trixy," exclaimed Jermyn, "don t tell, 
 please." 
 
 " But I must mind mamma," pleaded the 
 child. "Besides " 
 
 " Trixy," exclaimed Jermyn, " if you repeat 
 what I said Til never speak to you again." 
 
 " Trixy," said Kate, " if you don t tell I ll 
 never speak to you again I mean," for Kate 
 had caught an appealing look from Jermyn " I 
 won t speak to you if you do tell." 
 
 The child was so confused that she did not 
 know what to do, so she turned to her mother 
 for advice, and Trif hurried her a few steps in 
 advance. 
 
 " Remember, Trixy ! " cried Kate after them. 
 
 " Don t forget, Trixy !" shouted Jermyn, in his 
 sternest tone of command. 
 
 Two more uncomfortable lovers than Kate 
 and Jermyn were in the next five minutes could 
 not have been found anywhere, for Kate won 
 dered what it was all about and insisted upon 
 knowing, and Jermyn replied that he would tell 
 her at some future time, and Kate wanted to 
 know why he couldn t tell her at once, and Jer 
 myn replied, somewhat sheepishly, that some 
 things might be said in the privacy of a whisper 
 ing gallery that could not easily be said face to 
 face in a crowded street, upon which Kate 
 wailed : 
 
 " But that child heard it !" 
 
 " Never mind, my dear; she ll forget it." 
 3
 
 194 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 " Not she I I m beginning to believe that the 
 smaller the child the less chance there is of her 
 forgetting what shouldn t be remembered. And, 
 oh, Jermyn! Of all men in the world, here 
 comes Admiral Allison ! What if she should 
 tell him ?" s 
 
 11 If she does," said Jermyn desperately, " I ll 
 never again dare look him in the face ; I shall 
 always believe he is laughing at me. Tis all 
 your fault, my dear. If you hadn t made me 
 love you so dearly, I wouldn t have said 
 
 " Let us overtake them quick !" said Kate. 
 
 "We ve been up to the whisp rin gall ry," 
 Trixy was already saying to the Admiral, 
 and " 
 
 " Trixy !" sternly spoke three voices as one. 
 
 " What rare fortunes Providence has in store 
 for old men !" exclaimed the Admiral. " I 
 greatly wanted and needed to see Jermyn, this 
 very day, and I not only find him unexpectedly, 
 but get a couple of glimpses of Paradise beside 
 yes, three, for here is Trixy also." 
 
 "Paradise?" echoed Trixy. "It was some- 
 thin about Paradise that 
 
 " Trixy !" said Jermyn warningly. 
 
 "Allow me," said the Admiral, " to take you 
 all to a hotel, where I may rob you of Jermyn a 
 few moments." 
 
 Jermyn took the child s hand, placed himself 
 between her and the Admiral, and thus they 
 walked to the hotel.
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 "BEYOND THE DREAM OF AVARICE." 
 
 I\A ^ ^ ear ky>" sa d the Admiral, as soon 
 I V 1 as the party had been comfortably 
 stowed at a hotel, of which officers of the united 
 service are very fond, and after luncheon had 
 been ordered, " don t you want to make your for 
 tune by a few strokes of your pen or pencil ? " 
 
 "Admiral," replied Jermyn, "my heart never 
 before warned me so savagely of the condition 
 of my pocket. Fire away." 
 
 " Good ! Do you remember a conversation we 
 had a few nights ago at the fort with a certain 
 semi-public character about business?" 
 
 " A few nights ago ? " repeated Jermyn dream 
 ily. " I remember such a talk, but it seems that 
 it was a few months ago." 
 
 "Tut, tut! Wake up ! This is business not 
 moonshine." 
 
 " I beg your pardon," said Jermyn, quietly 
 rallying himself. " You mean the affair of that 
 gold placer on the Pacific Coast? Do you sup 
 pose I ever can forget it, after the misery that 
 came of it, and the trouble you were put to ? 
 
 "Never mind me, at present, except to give 
 me your close attention. My dear boy, our 
 suggestions did the business, and Blogsham has
 
 196 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 more sense of honor than I usually attribute to a 
 business man. Our plans were of so much prom 
 ise that he has already organized a company to 
 develop the property. The capital is a million 
 dollars, with permission to increase to three mil 
 lions, and there are at present ten thousand shares 
 of the par value of one hundred dollars each." 
 
 " Hem ! That sounds business-like, but I don t 
 see how it implies the sense of honor of which 
 you spoke a moment ago." 
 
 "What? Oh, to be sure; I ve not reached 
 the most important part of the story. Well, the 
 projector writes me that he hasn t forgotten his 
 promise, and that there are five hundred shares 
 of the stock waiting for me, and five hundred for 
 you, which we can have if " 
 
 " No, I ve fooled away enough of my hard 
 earnings upon projects of that kind. Excitement 
 of that sort may do for you, on the pay of a rear 
 admiral, retired, but I " 
 
 " Do let me finish, won t you ? I wouldn t put 
 a cent into gold-mining, unless I myself were the 
 manager of the concern, if I were a dozen times 
 as well off as I am. But don t you remember 
 Blogsham s promise ? We re to have this stock 
 for nothing but the services we have already 
 rendered. Blogsham asks only that the trans 
 actions and his assertions to the company may 
 be entirely business-like, that we shall send him 
 for the company s archives, the sketches which 
 gave him his new ideas as to how to make the 
 placer a working success. 
 
 " Whew-w-w-w- ! " whistled Jermyn. " Will 
 you kindly remember where those sketches are
 
 "BEYOND THE DREAM OF AVARICE." 197 
 
 or where there is every reason to believe they 
 are ? " 
 
 Perfectly ; nevertheless they mus be ob 
 tained. Fifty thousand dollars is too much 
 money for either of us to throw away Blogs- 
 ham says the stock can already be sold at par. 
 I m sure that Mrs. Highwood is too much inter 
 ested in your future welfare to make any objec 
 tion to giving up the original document." 
 
 " You forget that she sent it to her husband." 
 
 "Well, he and she are one, aren t they? I 
 should imagine so, from Madam Trif s manner 
 of talking about her lord and master." 
 
 " But there was a private letter on the same 
 sheet of paper, which " 
 
 " Which can easily be erased." 
 
 " I can t ask it really I can t," said Jermyn. 
 " I d rather lose fifty thousand dollars than re 
 mind Mrs. Highwood of something that would 
 be embarrassing to think of, in my presence." 
 
 " Then ask her by letter, from as far away as 
 you like. It ought to be done at once though, 
 for offers like Blogsham s are too much in air 
 when made only verbally. We must have the 
 sketches. If you won t ask for them I must. 
 My conscience won t let me see a woman like 
 Miss Trewman marry a subaltern with less than 
 two thousand a year. The income of fifty thou 
 sand dollars, added to your own salary, will en 
 able you to marry, and support your wife in a 
 manner that she is accustomed to." 
 
 Jermyn was in an unpleasant quandary, but 
 he soon got out of it by saying that to ask for 
 the letter would be ungentlemanly of him, so he 
 couldn t do it.
 
 198 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 "Then, you stupid fellow," said the Admiral, 
 " I myself shall ask for them for my own 
 sketch, at least. She already knows that I 
 know the contents of the letter." 
 
 " You won t dare remind her of it," exclaimed 
 Jeimyn. 
 
 "Won t I, though! Indeed I will. I have 
 sufficient excuse. I shall tell her frankly why I 
 want it that an estimable though obstinate 
 friend of mine is about to marry on an insuf 
 ficient income, and that I m so sorry for his wife 
 that I m going to settle fifty thousand dollars 
 upon her, and that I can t do it unless I regain 
 the sketch which was on the blank half of that 
 letter sheet ; your sketch, you ll remember, was 
 on the back of the written portion. Then, if 
 she gives me the entire letter 
 
 " Which you know she wouldn t do." 
 
 " I don t see why not, if I first ask her to 
 erase the writing. Now, my dear boy, I have 
 you at my mercy. You re on your way back to 
 the fort; I will accompany the ladies back to 
 New York, and " 
 
 " Aha ! You will, will you ? " exclaimed the 
 younger man, with a soldier s instinctive delight 
 at getting an enemy at a disadvantage. I m go 
 ing back to New York with them myself. I ve 
 been ordered back, on duty." 
 
 " Hem ! For how long, may I ask ? " 
 
 " Well, as you can learn by inquiry at the De 
 partment, I may as well tell you that it will be 
 for a week, at the least." 
 
 " Suppose, then," said the Admiral, after a 
 moment of thought, "that we agree upon an
 
 BEYOND THE DREAM OF AVARICE." 199 
 
 armistice. You go to New York; so shall I. I 
 shan t annoy you in your special business never 
 fear and I ll give you a full week in which to 
 make up your mind, but if by that time you 
 haven t procured those sketches I shall charge 
 myself with the getting of them, no matter how 
 much begging and arguing may be required. 
 Is it agreed ? " 
 
 " I suppose it must be," said Jermyn. " You 
 well know that I couldn t willingly deprive you 
 of the chance to make fifty thousand dollars, 
 after all you have done for me, you great-hearted 
 old rascal ! " 
 
 " Not even if I were to give the money to your 
 wife ? " said the Admiral, with a world of shrewd 
 ness in the sidelong look with which he regarded 
 his companion. 
 
 " You know very well that I wouldn t allow 
 you to do such a thing ! " replied Jermyn angrily. 
 
 " Hurrah ! " shouted the Admiral. 
 
 By that time the luncheon was ready, and the 
 Admiral made himself delightfully companiona 
 ble to the ladies, but Jermyn was so silent and 
 abstracted that even Kate rallied him, asking 
 him if the New York duties which the War De 
 partment had imposed, compelled such hard 
 thinking ? Jermyn replied that they weren t, 
 but that the Admiral had just given him the most 
 provoking lot of orders that one man ever re 
 ceived from another, so both ladies insisted at 
 once upon knowing what the orders were, and 
 both men maintained silence to a degree that 
 was simply maddening, so Kate quizzed Jermyn 
 privately, and he told her, privately, that she
 
 200 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 mustn t say another word about it. Kate after 
 ward told Trif, in confidence, that she must have 
 been right in supposing that the business upon 
 which the two men had gone North, a few days 
 before, must have been of great importance to 
 the Government, as well as of an extremely secret 
 nature ; but that, nevertheless, it was a burning 
 shame that older officers had such despotic con 
 trol of their juniors,and that if women had charge 
 of government affairs, there would not be any of 
 such manifest injustice. 
 
 They all went to New York that night. While 
 Jermyn visited the Department for his order, the 
 Admiral scoured Washington for the projector 
 of the gold mine, who had been in the city the 
 day before, but as the man had already returned 
 to the metropolis, the Admiral intended to be at 
 his elbow, to keep the promise of stock alive un 
 til the sketches could be obtained. Should there 
 seem to be any danger, he would promptly break 
 the armistice and ask Trif for the fateful letter. 
 
 Suddenly, however, while the two officers were 
 smoking together on the train, Jermyn struck 
 terror to the Admiral s heart by saying : 
 
 " Your plan for reclaiming those pictures may 
 be of no good. Tis more than likely that High- 
 wood has destroyed that letter." 
 
 " My dear boy ! " exclaimed the old man. 
 " Please don t imagine anything so dreadful ! 
 Destroyed one hundred thousand dollars ? Hor 
 rors ! " 
 
 " I think it likely," continued Jermyn, "for at 
 Old Point I chanced to hear Mrs. Highwood 
 say that after carefully reading her husband s
 
 * BEYOND THE DREAM OF AVARICE." 201 
 
 letters she always destroyed them, so that no 
 one else by any chance could see them. Like 
 husband, like wife you know the old saying." 
 
 " But you saw the letter in Highwood s own 
 hands," said the Admiral. 
 
 " True ; but at that time his wife was away, 
 and I suppose he kept all of her letters to look 
 at again and again I am sure I should do so, 
 if I were married and my wife was away from 
 me." 
 
 " Good boy ! I m glad to see that you already 
 know the feeling. Still if he should have de 
 stroyed them ! " 
 
 It was the Admiral s turn to be strangely si 
 lent during the evening, and the ladies marvelled 
 greatly at the change in a man who had seemed 
 to them the life of whatever company he chanced 
 to be in, and Kate found opportunity to whisper 
 to Trif that Jermyn did not seem to be entirely 
 under the Admiral s thumb after all, for he 
 seemed to be in remarkably good spirits com 
 manding spirits, indeed, she could say. 
 
 At a part of the road over which the train 
 passed early in the night, Jermyn begged the 
 ladies to go with him to the rear platform to 
 observe a beautiful moonlight landscape which 
 he knew of old. The Admiral, who remained 
 behind with Trixy, soon began to sketch on the 
 back of a letter. The shrewd old chap had 
 argued to himself that if the letter had really 
 been destroyed there could be nothing dishon 
 orable in duplicating his own sketch on the 
 back of another letter, and offering it in evi 
 dence. It would be virtually the same picture, 
 for he would draw it from memory, as before.
 
 202 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 He worked so long that Trixy, wishing to do 
 something new, began to look over his shoulder, 
 and soon she exclaimed: 
 
 "Why-y-y! I ve got a picture just like 
 that." 
 
 " You have ? " replied the Admiral, carelessly. 
 " That s strange ; where did you get it ? " 
 
 " I tore it off a letter the back of that letter 
 that came from the fort one day, for you, don t 
 you know, and I opened it by mistake while I 
 was " 
 
 The Admiral dropped pencil and paper, 
 placed his hands upon Trixy s shoulders, and 
 exclaimed : 
 
 " You have that picture ? Where ? " 
 
 " Why, in my scrap-book, at home." 
 
 " Fifty thousand dollars saved ! " shouted the 
 Admiral. He was anything but silent when the 
 ladies returned ; indeed, he talked so incessantly 
 that Trif had to break in upon one of his best 
 stories by pleading that she must remove some 
 of the dust of travel before leaving the train at 
 New York.
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 TRICKS UPON TRIXY. 
 
 A FTER reaching New York the Admiral lost 
 f\. no time in calling at the Highwoods, and 
 although he tried to appear at his best, Fenie 
 said to her sister in strict confidence that there 
 must be something about sea air which specially 
 suited veteran sailors, for the Admiral did not 
 seem the same man he had been at Old Point. 
 He was genial, courteous, conversational, witty, 
 but there was a certain indefinable something 
 lacking; after much study, the girl concluded 
 that the difference came of a strange absent- 
 minded manner which appeared to possess him 
 once in a while, for no apparent reason. 
 
 As the old gentleman had spent but a single 
 hour at the Highwoods when this sage conclu 
 sion was announced, Trif called her sister a 
 goose, and said she had been carrying Harry in 
 her mind so long that she was incapable of judg 
 ing other men with any degree of fairness. 
 Nevertheless, Trif told her husband that the 
 Admiral did not seem entirely himself. 
 
 The truth was that the old gentleman chanced 
 
 to call at an hour when Trixy was calling upon 
 
 a juvenile acquaintance a few squares away, 
 
 and as she was at the age when children never 
 
 (203)
 
 204 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 know when to go home unless they are sent 
 away or sent for, the Admiral was unable to ac 
 complish the real purpose of his visit, which 
 was to see Trixy s scrap-book. He went away 
 with about as uncomfortable a mind as you or I 
 might have, dear reader, were fifty thousand 
 dollars almost within our grasp, yet with a 
 child s caprice and carelessness somewhere be 
 tween it and full possession. 
 
 The Admiral rested badly that night, but he 
 awoke in the morning with a capital plan of 
 operations. He went to a bookstore and pur 
 chased a large assortment of illustrated papers, 
 American and foreign, and sent them to his ho 
 tel. Then he made a morning call at the High- 
 woods, just for a moment, to ask if he might not 
 take Trixy to walk with him. The child was 
 delighted, especially when the old gentleman 
 took her to his hotel and showed her all his 
 picture papers, and asked her whether she 
 would not like to spend the following morning 
 with him, and bring her scrap-book, so that he 
 and she might paste into it all the pictures she 
 might select from his papers. 
 
 Success being thus assured, his spirits re 
 turned in full force, so that after he called on 
 Kate Trewman in the afternoon Kate herself 
 hurried around to the Highwoods to tell them 
 that she had never before found the Admiral 
 such delightful company, and that evidently 
 there was nothing like a trip to New York to 
 brighten any one s wits. Trif and Fenie were 
 mystified, and after Kate s departure they agreed 
 that there must be something in advancing years 
 that made men variable in spite of themselves.
 
 TRICKS UPON TRIXY. 205 
 
 The Admiral lay in wait for Jermyn, who was 
 to dine with him that evening after returning 
 from the gun-proving grounds, and he tormented 
 the young man so unmercifully about the letter 
 that Jermyn wished he had dined alone. The 
 Admiral could afford to be playful, for was he 
 not sure of getting at least one of the pictures ? 
 
 The next morning bright and early he called 
 for Trixy and her scrap-book, and gallantly in 
 sisted upon relieving her of the weight of the 
 book itself ; with the precious volume in his 
 hand he felt as if the stock certificates were 
 already in his possession. He hurried the child 
 to his hotel, heartlessly passing several candy 
 shops and two soda-water places, until some 
 pointed remarks brought him to a proper sense 
 of the courtesies due to very young ladies who 
 walk with gentlemen of mature years. 
 
 Trixy s tongue, never inactive for many mo 
 ments at a time, was entirely loosened by the 
 gratifying flavors imparted to it by the Admiral s 
 kindness, so its owner soon began to talk of the 
 two subjects which were uppermost in home 
 conversation. 
 
 " Say," she asked, " Mr. Jermyn don t have 
 to be killed until there is a war, does he ?" 
 
 " No indeed, my dear, nor even if there should 
 be a war. What put so dreadful an idea into 
 your head ?" 
 
 " Oh, only that mamma says it would be so 
 dreadful when Miss Trewman loves him so 
 much. Besides, mamma says it would be dread 
 ful hard in another way, cause the Trewmans 
 ain t rich. They used to be, but their father
 
 206 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 lost a lot of money in business a few years ago, 
 and papa says he hasn t got it back yet." 
 
 The Admiral quickly lost his compunctions of 
 conscience about the trick he intended to play, 
 which was to abstract the original sketch from 
 Trixy s scrap-book during the clipping and 
 pasting operations at the hotel, and substitute 
 the imitation which he had made on the train. 
 It had seemed an ungentlemanly and under 
 handed thing to do, much though he informed 
 himself that the result would not injure the 
 child in anyway. Now, after what Trixy had 
 told him about the condition of the Trewman 
 finances, it would be a matter of absolute duty. 
 Still more, he would fulfil the threat he had 
 made to Jermyn, in case Jermyn s own sketch 
 could not be recovered. He could not do it all 
 at once, of course ; Jermyn s pride would never 
 allow it, but he would make the bride a hand 
 some present in government bonds on her wed 
 ding day, and he would bequeath the remainder 
 of the fifty thousand to her in his will, and 
 should the fortunes of war or peace take Jermyn 
 from earth before him, he would see that the 
 remainder of the money should reach the widow 
 at once. With such virtuous and unselfish re 
 solves, what harm could there be in plundering 
 a small girl s scrap-book ? 
 
 " Papa says," continued Trixy, " that there is 
 no sense in worryin about it, cause both of em 
 are so fond of each other that they d marry for 
 love even if they had to starve afterward. 
 
 " Hem ! Quite likely. I suspect I would, if I 
 were either of them.
 
 TRICKS UPON TRIXY. 207 
 
 " Is that so ? I must tell mamma that, cause 
 p raps it will keep her from worryin . Papa 
 says she worries too much about her friends 
 affairs." 
 
 " Er my dear, I wouldn t say anything about 
 it, if I were you ; for maybe your parents might 
 not like to think that you had been repeating 
 any of their conversation." 
 
 It took considerable effort on the part of the 
 Admiral to prevent any farther disclosures, and 
 the old gentleman was very glad when he reached 
 the hotel, and an examination of the pictorial 
 papers gave the child something new to talk 
 about. The Admiral had scissors and paste 
 ready, and allowed Trixy to clip at will while he 
 endeavored to rob the scrap-book. He lost no 
 time in turning the pages, but a hasty exami 
 nation failed to disclose the sketch which rep 
 resented fifty thousand dollars, so he looked 
 again, with extreme care. Toward the end his 
 heart sank, and at the last page he uttered a low 
 groan. 
 
 "What s the matter?" asked Trixy, looking 
 up from her work. 
 
 " I beg a thousand pardons, my dear. I 
 merely gave way, for an instant, to a bad habit 
 into which old gentlemen sometimes fall. How 
 are you getting along? Oh, you re finding a 
 capital lot, aren t you ? Don t you want to stop 
 a moment or two, and show me your book ? " 
 
 Trixy began at once to turn the leaves, and to 
 tell the story of each picture. The Admiral 
 listened patiently as long as he could, but soon 
 he said :
 
 2o8 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 " Won t you show me the one that is like the 
 sketch I made on the train the day we returned 
 from Washington ? " 
 
 " Certainly." Trixy turned the pages rapidly, 
 but suddenly stopped and looked puzzled ; then 
 she exclaimed : 
 
 " Somebody s hooked it, I do believe ! " 
 
 " Oh, don t say that ! " said the Admiral, in a 
 shaky voice. " Look again ; perhaps you have 
 pasted some other picture over it." 
 
 " No I didn t. I know just where I had it in 
 the book ; it was right here, by the picture 
 Aunt Fee made of some of the sand hills behind 
 the fort, because they were the only two drawin s 
 I had. And now there ain t nothin there ! " 
 
 The Admiral looked carefully at the page. 
 Evidently something had been pasted there, and 
 Vvith childish lavishness of mucilage. It could 
 not have dropped out, for bits of paper still 
 adhered to the page. It was plain that some one 
 had carefully removed the sketch. 
 
 "Trixy," said the Admiral, as a suspicion 
 came into his mind, " have you ever shown this 
 book to Lieutenant Jermyn ? " 
 
 " No, never. He ain t ever at our house long 
 enough for me to show him anything." 
 
 " Have you loaned the book to any other little 
 girl, or exchanged pictures with any one ? " 
 
 " No, indeed ! Besides, I was keepin that 
 picture real careful, to remind me of somethin 
 mamma told me to. She told me that whenever 
 I looked at that picture I must remember to 
 never again take any writin from her portfolio 
 and ask other people to finish it for me. I d
 
 TRICKS UPON TRIXY. 209 
 
 just like to know what s happened to that pic 
 ture; I m goin to ask ev rybocly about it as 
 soon as I get back home. 
 
 " Oh, don : t, please," said the Admiral hastily, 
 " or you ll make me very unhappy." 
 
 "What for?" 
 
 " Oh. I should dislike to have your father and 
 mothc" and aunt annoyed about so slight a 
 matter --so far as I am concerned; and you 
 wouldn t have thought of it, you know, if I 
 hadn t spoken of it." 
 
 " But they wouldn t be annoyed, and p raps 
 one of em knows where the picture is." 
 
 Eh ? Which of them?" The old gentle 
 man looked keenly over the tops of his glasses 
 as a new thought came to him. 
 
 " Why, pap::, ! guess, cause he s got a picture 
 a good deal like it on the back of a letter that 
 mamma wrote him, and I saw him lookin real 
 hard at it the other day, and I asked him what 
 twas about, and he said, Oh, nothin . " 
 
 "Aha!" 
 
 " What did you say ? " 
 
 Did I say something? I must have been 
 merely clearing my throat." 
 
 What a funny lot of noises you do make this 
 mornin . Well, I guess I ll paste some pictures 
 .n the book " 
 
 The Admiral lit a cigar, an indulgence of 
 which he never was guilty before dinner, except 
 when laboring under severe mental excitement. 
 One tiling at least seemed clear; the letter, with 
 Jcrmyn s sketch, had not been destroyed ; there 
 fore he, the Admiral, could hope to get it, for 
 14
 
 210 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 men knew better than women the value of fifty 
 thousand dollars, and they would forgive other 
 men for asking pointed questions under the 
 circumstances. 
 
 But had Phil the Admiral s own sketch ? If 
 so, why had he taken it from the book ? Merely 
 to tease Trixy ? Scarcely. 
 
 Suddenly the Admiral smote his forehead 
 and muttered to himself; 
 
 " How stupid of me. Mrs. Highwood herself 
 removed that picture. She knew that her 
 daughter had it ; she knew the history of it, for 
 I told her all, and she can scarcely have for 
 gotten it. She has a woman s natural delicacy, 
 bless her, about the incident being recalled to 
 my mind, so knowing that Trixy was to bring 
 the book to my room she has abstracted the 
 sketch so that I should not see it and be re 
 minded of a mortifying experience. Oh, woman, 
 woman ! How you do keep alive the human 
 tenderness that man does so much to kill ! " 
 
 Suddenly, however, the Admiral sprang to his 
 feet and exclaimed : 
 
 " What if, to make assurance doubly sure, she 
 has destroyed that sketch ! "
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 THREE BLIND MICE. 
 
 FROM that time forward the Admiral was a 
 persistent caller at the Highwoods, for he 
 could not regain his natural composure until he 
 had seen and questioned Phil. The first evening 
 he called Phil had gone out to dinner with some 
 old classmates, and as the Admiral said nothing 
 of the purpose of his visit there was nothing to 
 prevent Phil from remaining late at his office 
 the next night. 
 
 All the while, too, Jermyn, whom the Admiral 
 met daily at breakfast, carried himself with an 
 air of bravado which was in the highest degree 
 exasperating. Was it possible that the fellow 
 had himself secured those sketches in some way, 
 and was having a malignantly delightful time in 
 torturing an old man who had been his best 
 friend ? It did not seem possible, so one morn 
 ing the Admiral cautiously remarked : 
 
 " By the way, have you done anything about 
 those sketches ?" 
 " Not a thing." 
 
 " You don t know anything about them ?" 
 " No more than when we first came North." 
 " When do you intend to find out ?" 
 " Never, if there s no way but the one you 
 have suggested." 
 
 (211)
 
 212 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 " I don t wonder," said the Admiral icily, 
 " that you re willing to lose your share of the 
 money, for a man in love is generally fool enough 
 to think that he, and particularly his wife, can 
 live on air, but " 
 
 "Admiral!" 
 
 " Oh, be angry, if you like, but 1 mean it. On 
 the other hand, do you think it is conduct be 
 coming an officer and gentleman to deprive me 
 of a lot of money when I ve several times put 
 myself to great inconvenience, out of unselfish 
 regard for you ?" 
 
 " I d do almost anything in the world to oblige 
 you, Admiral," replied Jerrnyn, "but after what 
 you ve said regarding what you might do with 
 your share of the money, you can t blame me 
 for being reluctant." 
 
 " See here, dear boy," pleaded the Admiral, 
 "I ll withdraw that threat if you ll get merely 
 your own sketch. I ll cheerfully lose my own 
 share, if I may feel entirely comfortable about 
 your future." 
 
 That shot told. Jermyn could not endure the 
 thought of any man playing martyr for him, so 
 he answered somewhat sulkily : 
 
 " I must do it." 
 
 " Good ! When ?" 
 
 " Very soon." 
 
 " Time is precious, dear boy." Then the Ad 
 miral told of his plan regarding Trixy s scrap- 
 book, and his defeat, and finally asked : 
 
 " Don t you suppose you cou d make another 
 sketch of the surroundings of that placer as you 
 did at the fort ?"
 
 THREE BLIND MICE. 213 
 
 " Easily." 
 
 The Admiral hastily offered the back of a let 
 ter and a pencil, and followed with his eyes each 
 mark that Jermyn made. When the sketch was 
 almost complete, Jermyn stopped and asked : 
 
 " Why do you want this, Admiral ? " 
 
 " For use as a voucher, in case your original 
 should be lost." 
 
 " Oh, that would be a forgery ! " 
 
 " Nonsense ! Can a man forge his own signa 
 ture ? What would you say in answer to that 
 question, if you were member of a court-martial ?" 
 
 " I scarcely know," replied Jermyn slowly, 
 "but " here he paused long enough to tear the 
 paper into strips, and tear the strips crosswise, 
 " I must give my honor the benefit of the doubt. 1 
 
 " Oh, you idiot," exclaimed the old gentleman 
 angrily. " You re worse than an idiot, for you re 
 intimating that I, an officer and gentleman, am 
 counselling a crime." 
 
 " Forgive me, Admiral. You know very well 
 that I couldn t, for an instant, think such a 
 thing. Still, any man must be ruled by his own 
 conscience." 
 
 Jermyn went down to the Sandy Hook proving- 
 grounds, and the Admiral spent a miserable 
 day, relieved somewhat by a call upon Kate, to 
 whom he determined to tell the whole story, and 
 to appeal to her, first for Jermyn s sake and then 
 for his own, to help him to get those sketches. 
 He knew women, he thought ; Kate was a young 
 woman of unusual balance of mind, so she prob 
 ably had been sensible enough to wonder on 
 what she and Jermyn would live after they mar-
 
 214 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 ried. They would soon marry, the Admiral was 
 sure ; for love, like many other disturbances to 
 which humanity is subject, acts most powerfully 
 where longest delayed or avoided. 
 
 But, alas, for human courage ! The veteran 
 who had led boarding parties and storming 
 parties, could not muster sufficient courage to 
 tell a woman that another woman had been bent 
 upon making a match for her, and that two men, 
 one of whom was the young woman s own lover, 
 had seen the plan in black and white, while Kate 
 herself had no thought of ever becoming Mrs. 
 Jermyn. 
 
 So he called again at the Highwoods, made a 
 full confession to Trif and her husband, and 
 begged for the sketches. Fortunately, the couple 
 were alone, Harry and Fenie having gone to a 
 dinner which the Trewmans were giving to both 
 happy couples. Phil seemed greatly amused by 
 the story, and said : 
 
 * So that explains the mystery of those two 
 pictures ! " Then, for the first time, he told Trif 
 of meeting Jermyn in Madison Square, and of 
 Jermyn s strange embarrassment on seeing one 
 of the pictures, and how Phil himself had 
 chanced to see the other, only two or three days 
 before the Admiral s call, in Trixy s scrap-book, 
 extracted it, and put the two together to make a 
 pretense of mystery some evening for Trif s be 
 wilderment and his own amusement. 
 
 " You dreadful fellow ! " exclaimed Trif. 
 " The idea of you keeping a secret from me 
 and for three whole days ! " 
 
 "But, pardon me," said the Admiral, "do 
 either of you find it impossible to forgive me ? "
 
 THREE BLIND MICE. 215 
 
 " On the contrary," replied Phil, " it is impos 
 sible to see where you were to blame. Trixy 
 herself took the letter to you and asked you to 
 finish it, so you couldn t help reading it. Nei 
 ther could you help supposing it to be what she 
 thought it, her own letter, for it began Dear 
 Old Papa. " 
 
 " But, persisted the Admiral, " I was guilty, 
 shamefully so, that in my absent-mindedness I 
 took it from my pocket at the club, to sketch 
 upon. 
 
 "Just as I frequently use letters to figure 
 upon," said Phil. 
 
 " Thank you thank you. And poor Jermyn, 
 in making his own sketch, and knowing, of 
 course, the subject of conversation, looked at 
 the written portion, supposing it to be some 
 thing pertinent to the subject." 
 
 " Quite naturally, and each of you afterward 
 had a lot of trouble which he didn t in the least 
 deserve." 
 
 "I don t see," said Trif, "that anyone is to 
 blame but I. The experience teaches me never 
 again to leave a letter unfinished." 
 
 " Thank you, my dear," said Phil. " You see, 
 Admiral, that your loss is to be my gain. Here 
 after I m not to be disappointed when longing 
 for letters." 
 
 " What letters, papa ? " asked Trixy from the 
 sitting-room, where she was conducting a spell 
 ing lesson for dolls. 
 
 " None, dear tis nothing that you would 
 understand. 
 
 " If there is no feeling against me, therefore,"
 
 2i6 TRIP AND TR1XY. 
 
 said the Admiral, adhering to the purpose of his 
 call, "would you mind, after erasing Mrs. High- 
 wood s lines, giving the sketches to me ?" 
 
 " It will give me the greatest pleasure to place 
 them in your hands," said Phil, taking some 
 papers from the pocket of his coat. " Why, 
 they re not here! Hem! Ah, I remember; I 
 changed some papers hurriedly this morning to 
 my coat at the office, and apparently those were 
 among them. I ll get them to you to-morrow, 
 and leave them at your hotel as I come up 
 town." 
 
 "I shall be there to receive them," said the 
 Admiral, putting on a look of resignation. " Ex 
 cuse my eagerness and anxiety in the matter, 
 but those sketches have become a veritable 
 nightmare to me." 
 
 " I don t wonder," said Phil, " considering 
 what they represent. Trixy, dear, don t laugh 
 so loud. What is the matter ? " 
 
 " Oh, I m tellin the dolls somethin funny, 
 and I have to do the laughin for the whole lot 
 of them, don t you see ? " 
 
 " Bless the child ! " exclaimed the Admiral. 
 " Don t check her, please. I wonder if the dolls 
 would think it an intrusion if I were to look 
 on?" 
 
 " Phil I " said Trif, suddenly. 
 
 " Yes, my dear." 
 
 " Do you want to please me very much ?" 
 
 " You know I do." 
 
 " Then go down to your office to-night for 
 those sketches it isn t yet late enough for the 
 janitor to be asleep. I m sure that our friend
 
 THREE BLIND MICE. 217 
 
 the Admiral, will sleep much easier when he has 
 those pictures securely in his possession." 
 
 " Oh, I couldn t think of putting you to such 
 trouble," said the Admiral quickly, although he 
 told himself that Trif was a woman of a million. 
 Trif insisted, and begged the Admiral to wait 
 until Phil s return. It seemed to the old gentle 
 man that every minute of Phil s absence would 
 be an hour long, yet under Trif s influence the 
 minutes passed almost as quickly as seconds, so 
 before long Phil s step was heard in the hall. 
 Trif and the Admiral instinctively arose, but to 
 their surprise they saw a very blank face as Phil 
 exclaimed : 
 
 " Tis the most provoking thing that ever 
 happened. Those sketches are nowhere in the 
 office." 
 
 " What can have become of them ? " mur 
 mured Trif. 
 
 " I ve not the faintest idea. Here are some 
 more papers that were in the same pocket. 
 
 " Foiled again, as the villain always says in 
 a melodrama," remarked the Admiral; "kindly 
 consider me the villain." The old gentleman 
 was trying to make light of his disappointment, 
 but he looked so grave that Phil hastened to 
 say : 
 
 : I assure you, Admiral, that the sketches can 
 not possibly have been lost, nor can any one 
 have stolen them. I shall make thorough 
 search for them at once, and give myself no 
 peace until I have found them." 
 
 I beg that you won t put yourself to any in 
 convenience, said the Admiral. Nevertheless,
 
 2i8 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 he made haste to take his departure, hoping 
 that the search would begin at once and con 
 tinue through the night, unless the missing pa 
 pers were sooner found. 
 
 " I shall carry them to you, in person, as soon 
 as I get them," were Phil s parting words. 
 
 " Come at any hour," replied the Admiral. 
 " Don t fear that you may disturb me." 
 
 Then he went to his hotel, and hopefully, 
 fearfully, remained awake until and through the 
 " dog watch " hours, but in vain.
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 THE OTHER COUPLE. 
 
 AS Harry and Fenie had no prospective for 
 tunes complicated by scraps of paper in 
 another man s pocket, they had every reason to 
 be entirely happy, yet soon they found them 
 selves very much to the contrary. Fenie had 
 begun early, like a loyal wife that was to be, to 
 tell Harry of everything that was on her mind, 
 and Harry, like a good brother, began to be 
 concerned about his sister s prospects. The 
 family fortunes were not in as bad condition as 
 Trixy had led the Admiral to fear, but what 
 loving brother could be entirely cheerful while 
 his sister was in danger of losing fifty thousand 
 dollars ? 
 
 He began to be absent-minded at home, and 
 Kate quickly noticed it, and asked him what was 
 the matter, and when he replied, " Nothing," he 
 did it in a tone that whatever was the matter 
 was the reverse of nothing, so she set herself to 
 discovering what it could be. She at once 
 assumed that it was trouble of some sort be 
 tween him and Fenie, and she determined to 
 rectify it, no matter what it might be. They 
 were mere children, Harry and Fenie, in Kate s 
 estimation, and would need her sisterly care and 
 supervision until they were safely married. 
 (219)
 
 220 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 With the best of intentions she called upon 
 Fenie to find out all about it, and she found the 
 girl in a state of high excitement, for she had 
 been helping Trif to search every pkice in the 
 house where those a\vful sketches could possibly 
 have been put, for Phil, like many another man, 
 was an adept at dropping the contents of his 
 pockets in unexpected places. Kate was think 
 ing of nothing but the business on which she 
 had come, so she proceeded promptly to business. 
 
 " Harry seems quite unhappy," she began 
 bluntly. " He is entirely unlike his usual merry 
 self." 
 
 " Indeed? replied Fenie vacantly. 
 
 " Yes ; he looks as if he had slept scarcely a 
 wink last night." 
 
 " Pshaw ! " exclaimed Fenie with a slight 
 frown. 
 
 Kate was somewhat provoked at this, but she 
 controlled herself and continued : 
 
 " I asked him what was troubling him, but he 
 wouldn t tell me, although he has always made 
 me his confidant." 
 
 Fenie looked uncomfortable, but she showed 
 no sign of becoming communicative, so Kate 
 went on : 
 
 " Don t you suppose I would be of any sendee 
 to you or him in the matter ? " 
 
 " Not in the slightest degree," said Fenie, 
 with a start. She was thinking only of the 
 ridiculousness of Kate assisting at the work of 
 rummaging the pockets of the various garments 
 which Phil had worn since he missed the 
 sketches, but Kate naturally failed to imagine 
 that, so she misconstrued the gesture.
 
 THE OTHER COUPLE. 221 
 
 " I do hope, dear," she said, as sympathetically 
 as she could, that it isn t anything serious ! " 
 
 " But it is, said Fenie, looking as if she would 
 like the subject dropped. For that very reason 
 Kate clung to it determinedly. 
 
 " Serious? for two people who ought to love 
 each other very dearly ? 
 
 " Yes, replied Fenie bluntly. She was afraid 
 to say much, for, if she gave Kate any clue to 
 the matter, she did not know how much further 
 she might be persuaded to go. She knew that 
 her tongue sometimes ran away with her, and 
 she was not going to let Kate know anything 
 about the missing letter and its double contents. 
 
 Suddenly T: if, who did not know that there 
 was a visitor in the parlor, called Fenie, and the 
 girl, glad of an excuse, hurried away with the 
 promise that she would return in a moment. 
 When, however, she explained to her sister, Trif 
 tokl her she was very silly not to see that Kate 
 was misunderstanding matters, and supposing 
 there was trouble between Fenie and Harry. 
 
 " But, said Fenie, " as she already knows that 
 it concerns a couple who ought to love each other 
 very dearly those were her own words she will 
 think there is something wrong between her and 
 Jermyn, or between you and Phil." Trif was per 
 plexed by this view of the matter, so she and 
 her sister set themselves to devise some way of 
 throwing Kate off the scent, and, as neither of 
 them had any experience in deceit, they evolved 
 and discarded several plans in rapid succession. 
 
 Kate was becoming rostive. She had a wo 
 man s sense of the courtesy that was due her, and
 
 222 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 she began to feel hurt by what seemed to be neg 
 lect. Just then Trixy meandered into the par 
 lor, from nowhere in particular, and Kate had 
 no scruples about questioning her. 
 
 Trixy, dear," she said, " I m very glad to see 
 you. 
 
 Trixy indulged in a long stare before she 
 replied : 
 
 " That s funny ! You don t look as if you was. 
 
 " Don t I ? I m very sorry for it. Th". truth 
 is, I m greatly troubled about several things. 
 I m afraid, for one thing, that Harry and Fenie 
 aren t as happy as they have been. 
 
 " I guess you re right," was the reply, "though 
 I wouldn t have thought of it if you hadn t said 
 so. They talked awful solemn to each other last 
 night. I don t know what they was talkin 
 about, but once Harry put his hands all over his 
 face and said : Oh, twill be awful awful ! 
 
 " Dear me ! And what did your Aunt Fee 
 say ? " 
 
 "She didn t say nothin for a long time, and 
 then she said she thought he was makin alto 
 gether too much fuss about it." 
 
 "About what?" 
 
 " I don t know, except she said somethin 
 about Mr. Jermyn bein a real nne fellow anyway, 
 so she thought Harry ought to be quiet, and 
 make the best of it." 
 
 Jermyn ! Aha ! Harry was jealous ! How 
 much cause had he? If any, then she, Kate, 
 had quite as much. Oh, the ways of very young 
 women ! Was Fenie s head still turned by the 
 attention which Jermyn had paid her at Old
 
 THE OTHER COUPLE. 223 
 
 Point? Had she really lost her heart to him? 
 Was she tiring of Harry, and wishing she might 
 yet capture the officer ? Jermyn had admitted 
 to Kate that he had been greatly impressed by 
 Fenie until she, Kate, herself appeared on the 
 scene, but it couldn t be possible that he 
 
 "Trixy?" said Kate suddenly, "does Lieu 
 tenant Jermyn come here often?" She was 
 ashamed of herself as soon as she had spoken, 
 for when could he call ? Was he not at the 
 proving-grounds all day, and at Kate s own 
 home every evening until late ? Still, the 
 question had been asked, so she awaited the 
 answer. 
 
 " Why, no. He came here this mornin , very 
 early, and 
 
 "And your mamma saw him ?" 
 
 " No, mamma was out." 
 
 " So you entertained him ?" 
 
 " No, I didn t either. I wanted to, cause I 
 like him lots, but he and Aunt Fee began talkin 
 about a letter, and then Aunt Fee told me to get 
 all my new dolls to show him, now that they ve 
 all got new dresses, and it took me a lot of time 
 to get them all together, and when I came back 
 with em he was gone." 
 
 Kate was angry, but of one thing she informed 
 herself at once it was that she was not going 
 to lose Bruce Jermyn because of any flirtation 
 he might have had with that flighty girl, or of 
 any letters that might have passed between 
 them. Men would be flirts, she supposed that 
 is, bachelors would but she would marry Bruce 
 Jermyn, even if he had flirted with half the
 
 2i4 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 women in creation. She had long cherished the 
 fine belief that no man ever strays from a woman 
 who appreciates him ; when she became Mrs. 
 Jermyn she would be everything to him that 
 wife could be to husband, and then she would 
 defy anyone, even a girl as pretty as Fenie, to 
 get and keep a bit of his heart. 
 
 As to Fenie, it would break Harry s heart to 
 lose her, and if temptation were out of her way 
 she probably would love Harry sincerely after 
 they were married. Jermyn would be out of the 
 way in a day or two, but, oh, how she did wish 
 she knew what was in the letter which the two 
 had talked about ? 
 
 Fenie finally returned and Kate said to her: 
 
 "You expect Harry this evening, I suppose?" 
 
 " Oh, yes, I suppose so." 
 
 " I hope you will have a very pleasant evening 
 with each other." 
 
 " Oh, so do I. I hope it will be pleasanter 
 than last evening. If that dreadful let " 
 
 Fenie stopped abruptly, but it was too late. 
 Kate was regarding her searchingly, and Feme s 
 face became scarlet. 
 
 " What letter do you refer to ?" 
 
 " Oh, don t ask, please." Fenie felt that she 
 should scream. 
 
 "A letter which has made much unhappiness 
 for you and Harry? 
 
 "Yes; yes; oh, yes!" Fenie looked so miser 
 able that Kate almost forgave her. After all, 
 was she not a mere girl? Perhaps a womanly 
 word, spoken in season, might do her good, 
 beside providing peace for Kate s own mind in 
 the future. So she began :
 
 THE OTHER COUPLE. 225 
 
 " I believe you re real sorry about it." 
 
 " Oh, indeed I am ; sorrier than I can begin 
 to tell you." 
 
 " Then, dear," said Kate, compelling a genu 
 ine pardoning spirit to take possession of herself, 
 "try to think no more about it, no matter what 
 the contents of the letter may be. Let bygones 
 be bygones. Some things must be lived down, 
 if we are to be all we should. Do your share 
 toward it, and all may yet be well." 
 
 " But you and Jermyn : 
 
 So Jermyn really was implicated ! Neverthe 
 less, Kate set her lips firmly and replied : 
 
 "Jermyn shall live it down; I shall never 
 recall the matter to his attention, but shall 
 do all in my power to make him forget the 
 letter." 
 
 " But," said Fenie, with a wondering look, 
 " how did you chance to know anything about 
 it?" 
 
 " Never mind about that. You still love 
 Harry, don t you ? " 
 
 " Indeed, yes ! " 
 
 "And you will show him that letter after 
 you are married ? " 
 
 " Why, yes if it is ever found." 
 
 Kate wanted one more proof of Fenie s re 
 pentance ; it was a hard one to exact, but she 
 was determined to have it. 
 
 " You will show the letter to me too ? " 
 
 " Yes after you are married, and if you ll 
 promise to forgive us." 
 
 "I do promise now !" said Kate, and de 
 parted with the air of one who had done a noble 
 15
 
 226 TRIF AXD TRIXY. 
 
 deed, while Fenie hurried to Trif and told her 
 that Kate already knew about that letter, 
 despite all that had been done to keep any 
 knowledge of it from her, and Trif wondered 
 how she could have learned, and said that 
 Harry must have told her, and Fenie retorted 
 that Harry was no tell-tale child, and that it 
 must have been Jermyn or the Admiral, and 
 that whichever it was he was real mean, for 
 hadn t Trif, while writing the letter, planned 
 merely what had come to pass, to the manifest 
 delight of the parties most nearly interested? 
 
 Kate improved her first opportunity to warn 
 her brother against long engagements, and 
 Harry asked whether she herself was willing to 
 practice what she preached, and Kate bravely 
 answered that she was. 
 
 " But let that subject rest, for the present," 
 she said. " I ve learned some things accident 
 ally to-day, and I don t wonder that you have 
 been so unhappy for a day or two. You needn t 
 be afraid to call on Fenie this evening. There 
 will be nothing unpleasant. 
 
 " My dear sister !" exclaimed Harry, "what 
 are you talking about ? What have you learned, 
 and where, and how ? " 
 
 " Entirely by accident. Trixy " 
 
 " Trixy ? Goodness ! Will that child never 
 cease to make trouble?" 
 
 Then Harry dashed out of the room.
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 THREE DAYS GRACE. 
 
 THE Admiral worried himself almost sick 
 over Phil Highwood s inability to find the 
 missing sketches, and his condition of mind and 
 body was not improved by a meeting which he 
 had with the projector of the new mining com 
 pany. That gentleman insisted that the sketches 
 should be filed at once, for his promise from his 
 fellow-incorporators had been merely verbal, 
 and he warned the Admiral that such promises 
 were frequently ignored in business, and that 
 he, the projector, would be powerless to force 
 the matter should his associates vote against 
 him. 
 
 The Admiral explained the cause of the delay 
 and the importance of the matter to Jermyn in 
 particular, and this affected the projector so 
 strongly, he once having been a poor young man 
 engaged to be married, that he succeeded in ex 
 acting from the directors a written promise that 
 if the sketches were deposited with the com 
 pany within three days from date the stock 
 should be delivered; otherwise it would be dis 
 posed of elsewhere. 
 
 All this caused the old gentleman to once 
 more speak to Jermyn about the matter, and
 
 223 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 Jermyn, noting the condition to which excite 
 ment had brought his friend, and not knowing 
 that the Admiral had already made a clean 
 breast of the matter to the Highwoods, one 
 morning went to throw himself upon Trif s 
 mercy, but, as already intimated, he saw only 
 Fcnie. He succeeded in telling her the story, 
 but when he learned that the sketches had dis 
 appeared he became about as miserable as the 
 Admiral. 
 
 Had he spoken when first the sketches were 
 asked for, there would have been no trouble, he 
 learned; he therefore reproached himself se 
 verely for his friend s sake and for Kate s, and 
 began wondering how he could ever make 
 amends to the man who had done so much for 
 him. As an army officer s opportunities for 
 making fifty thousand dollars are practically 
 non-existent, he became so moody that Kate 
 thought her suspicions about him and Fenie 
 were verified. 
 
 But Kate \vas not going to lose a happy even- 
 Ing from the short remainder of Jermyn s leave 
 of absence, as she persisted in calling his as 
 signment to duty at Sandy Hook. As she was 
 going to be magnanimous, and had begun finely, 
 she resolved to complete the task, so she ex 
 claimed to Jermyn suddenly one evening : 
 
 " My dear boy, I want you to stop thinking 
 about that letter. Don t start nor ask me any 
 questions. I ll promise to overlook it, and for 
 get all about it, in the course of time, if you 
 will be your old self once more." 
 
 " Cut I never can forget it," replied Jermyn, 
 " never ! Think of the cruelty of it, to you ? "
 
 THREE DAYS GRACE. 229 
 
 " But if I ignore it, and cast it from my mind 
 forever, why should you persist in cherishing it 
 and being miserable about it? " 
 
 " Why ? Because I am a man and love you." 
 
 " I shall love you the more, because you have 
 been so miserable about the matter. Won t that 
 satisfy you ? 
 
 How grand a woman she was, Jermyn thought! 
 Still, how could she have learned about that let 
 ter, and the drawings that made it so valuable ? 
 Had the Admiral told her, and asked her to add 
 her entreaties to his own ? Trif could not have 
 been the informer ; she had every reason for 
 avoiding the subject, in conversation with Kate. 
 Kate had said he must not ask her how she 
 learned about the tormenting paper ; but sud 
 denly he found out, or thought he did, for Kate 
 said : 
 
 " Will it make your mind any easier to know 
 that I have fully forgiven her?" 
 
 " Then you really know all ? " said he, looking 
 into her eyes. He did it very coolly, in the cir 
 cumstances, Kate thought, but she was not go 
 ing to recede a bit from the greatness of mag 
 nanimity upon which she had resolved, so she 
 said : 
 
 " Yes, all ; but why should I harbor any ill 
 feeling ? Besides, she is quite weak and silly. 
 She will know more when she grows older." 
 
 " I am sorry to hear you speak of her in that 
 way," said Jermyn, gravely. " I had hoped that 
 you and she would become very warm friends; 
 indeed, I supposed you were so already." 
 
 Kate darted a suspicious look at Jermyn.
 
 2jo TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 Was there duplicity in a man apparently so 
 honest ? If so, her faith in human nature would 
 be forever lost. 
 
 " Why do you wish us to be warm friends ? " 
 she asked, coldly. " So that you may frequently 
 have her near you ? " 
 
 Jermyn looked amazed and indignant as he 
 exclaimed : 
 
 " Kate, I swear to you that the tender regard 
 I once had for her is gone forever Do believe 
 me." 
 
 " Then it was not you who wrote the letter 
 about which you and she have been so troubled 
 about in the last few days? " 
 
 " I ? Why, you said you knew all about it ! 
 Don t you know that she wrote it ? " 
 
 " The forward minx ! " 
 
 " I thought you said you had forgiven her? " 
 
 " I wish I hadn t ! The idea of a girl as care 
 ful as Fenie Wardlow professes to be 
 
 " My dear girl, you ve been dreadfully misin 
 formed in some way. Fenie didn t write the 
 letter; twas her sister." 
 
 "Jermyn!" exclaimed Kate, utterly aghast. 
 What was the world coming to ? She had heard 
 of married women who pretended to adore their 
 husbands, and who intrigued with other men, 
 but she supposed they were far from the society 
 in which she moved. So it was Trif and her 
 carelessness, call it, over which Fenie had been 
 so uncomfortable when Kate called, a few hours 
 back ! Oh, the wickedness of the world ! Whom 
 now was there to trust ? 
 
 " So," said Kate, slowly and coldly, " it was a
 
 THREE DAYS GRACE. 231 
 
 married woman, one whom I have respected 
 and loved, who wrote you the letter which " 
 
 "Stop, Kate at once. There is a dreadful 
 mistake somewhere. Let us be entirely frank 
 with each other, for the good of all concerned. 
 The only letter about which I have had any dis 
 comfort is one which Mrs. Highwood wrote to 
 her own husband." 
 
 " Her own husband ! " echoed Kate, with a 
 blank stare. 
 
 " Yes. Let us begin at the beginning, and 
 get your mind out of this dreadful tangle. Do 
 tell me from whom, and how, you got your 
 information about that unspeakably troublesome 
 letter ? " 
 
 "From Trixy," answered Kate, feebly; at 
 which Jermyn laughed heartily before he re 
 plied : 
 
 " I might have imagined it. The little marplot ! 
 Now listen : the letter is one which Mrs. High- 
 wood wrote her husband, from Old Point, on 
 two subjects, one of which was very delightful, 
 for it was you ; I was the other. By an acci 
 dent, which I will explain later, the letter fell 
 into the Admiral s hands, and he, not distin 
 guishing it from several others which he took 
 from his pocket an hour or two afterward, made 
 a sketch upon the back of it ; I, who chanced to 
 be with him, made another. Both sketches are 
 now needed, at once, to perfect some business 
 arrangements in which the Admiral and I are 
 greatly interested and by which we might profit 
 greatly, but Highwood, to whom his wife sent 
 the letter when she regained it, has mislaid the
 
 232 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 sheet, or the two parts of it, and the Admiral 
 and I, as well as the entire Highwood family, 
 are greatly troubled about it." 
 
 " So is Harry and Fenie," said Kate, as if 
 talking to herself. " What an idiot I have been ! 
 How they will laugh at my expense ! But oh, I 
 am so happy, although I don t deserve to be, for 
 I have been jealous, suspicious, hateful 
 
 " Do restrain yourself, my dear girl." 
 
 " I ve also been meddlesome, 1 Kate con 
 tinued, " and impertinent, and, worse than all, 
 inexpressibly stupid, on account of that dreadful 
 letter. Meanwhile, I am being heartless, for 
 you said the loss of the letter was making 
 trouble for you and the Admiral. How much is 
 the trouble to you ?" 
 
 " Oh, merely fifty thousand dollars worth." 
 
 " Jermyn ! I supposed that I had promised to 
 marry an army officer with nothing but his 
 salary, and I was priding myself on marrying 
 for love alone, without any of the sordid ideas 
 which fill women s heads, as well as men s, in 
 these selfish days, but you seem " 
 
 " Don t change your mind, I beg, for I am 
 fully as poor as you thought me. I expect to be 
 fifty thousand dollars better off if that letter 
 with my sketch comes to light within a few 
 hours; otherwise my entire fortune is the 
 couple of thousand dollars I have saved." 
 
 Kate smiled bravely and sweetly as she re 
 plied: 
 
 " Please don t omit me, while you re giving an 
 account of your possessions. Not that I have 
 any money, but "
 
 THREE DAYS GRACE. 233 
 
 "Bless you!" exclaimed Jermyn, with the 
 demonstration appropriate to the circumstances. 
 There was a short silence, which Kate broke by 
 saying : 
 
 " I wonder what was in that letter about you 
 and me." 
 
 Jermyn did not answer. 
 
 " Do you know? " Kate asked. 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " Then tell me." 
 
 " I can t, my dear really I can t." 
 
 " Do you think it right that either of us should 
 keep anything from the other?" 
 
 " No; but a communication from a husband 
 to his wife belongs only to the two Mr. and 
 Mrs. Highwood." 
 
 " Never mind. I shall know it all some day. 
 Fenie promised that I should." 
 
 " Indeed ? When is she to tell you ? " 
 
 " After I am married." 
 
 " And you are very, very curious to know ? " 
 
 "Wildly so!" 
 
 " I can see but one way to assist you." 
 
 " What is it ? " 
 
 " Can t you imagine?" 
 
 " No. Do tell me at once." 
 
 Jermyn took her hands in his and replied : 
 
 " Tis only this ; get married as soon as possi 
 ble. I shall soon be entitled to ask for two 
 more weeks of absence, and then 
 
 " I shall be ready," said Kate softly, yet with 
 a look which made Jermyn wonder how much 
 happier a man could be without losing his 
 senses.
 
 234 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 " One thing I must do at once, though," said 
 Kate, suddenly regaining her alertness and self- 
 control. " I must apologize abjectly to Fenie 
 for my shameful suspicion that she had been en 
 gaged in a flirtation with you. I must do it 
 this very evening. Please take me around there 
 at once." 
 
 "And rob myself of one of my few remaining 
 hours of bliss ? 
 
 " You must learn to be blissful while doing 
 whatever I wish you to do." 
 
 Fenie was so surprised by the communication 
 which Kate made that she did not think to be 
 indignant; on the contrary, she laughed, which 
 was the worst punishment she could have in 
 flicted. Meanwhile, Trif was telling Jermyn 
 that he and Kate must take dinner with her and 
 Phil the next night. The other happy couple 
 would be present, so would the Admiral, and 
 the dinner would be the finest she had ever ar 
 ranged. 
 
 " Yes," said Trixy, "there s to be ice-cream, 
 and the other kind of ice, and mamma says I 
 can eat a lot of both ; and there s to be a s prise, 
 too." 
 
 Trif nodded warningly at Trixy. She could 
 not remember which of her prospective dishes 
 had been alluded to in family conversation as a 
 surprise, yet she warned her daughter to be 
 quiet. 
 
 "She doesn t mean the letter?" whispered 
 Jermyn. 
 
 "Alas, no!" sighed Trif. "How I wish it 
 might be ! "
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 THAT SURPRISE. 
 
 THE dinner was all that Trif had promised, 
 and the guests were in high spirits, although 
 some of them had believed in advance that it 
 would be almost like a funeral feast, for were 
 there not two blocks of stock which would not 
 go out of the minds of at least two of the party? 
 
 Good manners prevented any show of sadness, 
 and good company soon did the rest. There 
 was an abundance of merry chat, and the host 
 and hostess, with Harry and Fenie, encouraged 
 the Admiral and Jenny n to tell stories of field 
 and flood, of which civilians seem never to tire, 
 so it was not until late in the evening that the 
 party arose from the table. Then the ladies 
 were begged for music, and the officers were 
 coaxed to sing, and time flew so rapidly that it 
 was almost midnight when the guests said they 
 must take their leave, and Trif murmured that 
 Trixy ought to have been put to bed hours 
 before, but the dear child had been so quiet 
 that her mother had scarcely known she was 
 present. 
 
 I dislike to bring up unpleasant subjects on 
 such an occasion," said Phil, "but before we 
 separate I must express my great sorrow and 
 (235)
 
 236 TRIP AND TRIXY, 
 
 mortification at the loss of those pictures. I 
 never before had so serious an accident, and I 
 -wish it were in my power to make some rep 
 aration." 
 
 " There is one way in which you can do it, my 
 dear sir," replied the Admiral. 
 
 " What ? Do name it and it shall be done/ 
 
 "It is merely this. Kindly persuade your 
 wife to re-write, from memory, and on the same 
 kind of paper, if possible, the letter which, 
 through my stupidity, has caused all the trouble. 
 Have her write it with the same kind of ink ; 
 then give the letter to me ! " 
 
 " I ll do it at once," said Trif. 
 
 " And you ll show me the letter ? " added Kate. 
 
 " Not for worlds ! " answered Trif, with a 
 laugh and a blush that made Kate still more 
 curious. 
 
 " What then? " asked Phil. 
 
 " Then," said the Admiral, firmly, " I shall 
 duplicate my pencil sketch upon the back of it; 
 Jermyn shall duplicate his on the back of the 
 written page, and I shall file both as vouchers." 
 
 " A most brilliant plan ! " exclaimed Phil. 
 " Eh, Jermyn ? " 
 
 " Brilliant enough," was the reply, " but I 
 don t entirely like it. My friend, the Admiral, is 
 the most honest man alive, yet to me the plan 
 seems very like forgery." 
 
 "Oh, not at all!" said Phil. "A man can t 
 forge his own writing or drawing. Besides, 
 there s no question of morals involved. The 
 company is willing to give the stock, in payment 
 for services rendered, the services made by you
 
 THA T SURPRISE. 237 
 
 gentlemen, showing how to get water to property 
 which would be worthless without it. No other 
 man, should he find the originals, can possibly 
 present them or use them in any way, for he 
 would not know what they signified, nor could 
 he find any one but the existing company who 
 could apply them to the property in question. 
 Neither of you have talked of the matter else 
 where ? " 
 
 " I don t believe," said the Admiral, with a 
 long sigh, a shake of the head, and a reminis 
 cent wink at Jermyn, "that any matter which 
 affected business has ever been kept close by 
 two men eh, Jermyn ? " 
 
 " Quite right, Admiral. Still, as to duplicat 
 ing my sketch 
 
 " You can t prevent me, at least," the Admiral 
 replied, " so I shall beg Mrs. Highwood to rewrite 
 the letter at once. If Jermyn chooses to throw 
 away fifty thousand dollars oh, Miss Trewman, 
 you have more influence over him than any one 
 else; do reason with him. Better still, com 
 mand him. Don t let him throw good money to 
 the dogs." 
 
 " What dogs ? Who s throwin money to 
 em?" drawled Trixy, who had begun to fall 
 asleep. 
 
 " Mr. Jermyn, my dear, is doing it," said Phil, 
 " and all because your own father stupidly lost a 
 couple of pictures." 
 
 "Gracious!" exclaimed the child, yawning 
 and rubbing her eyes. 
 
 " What shall I do, my dear ? " asked Jermyn, 
 as Kate turned an anxious face toward him.
 
 238 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 "The money, should I get it, will be practically 
 yours ; that is, it will enable me to support my 
 wife far better than my unaided salary will. 
 
 The Admiral, Fenie and Harry looked in 
 tently at Kate. Trif, at a table in the sitting 
 room, had been writing rapidly with her hus 
 band looking over her shoulder. When she 
 had finished Phil took the pen and did some 
 thing to the letter, at which Trif nodded approv 
 ingly and then slyly drew Phil s face down to 
 her and kissed it. Then she tore the two leaves 
 of the sheet apart, and gave one to each of the 
 despoiled men, saying 
 
 "Admiral, this is the portion which you used. 
 Jermyn, this is yours. Kate, have you brought 
 him to his senses ? " 
 
 "Shall I ?" asked Jermyn. 
 
 " Yes," said Kate, " if you think it right." 
 
 " But I don t. 
 
 "Then you shan t " exclaimed Kate, snatch 
 ing the paper from him. " No one shall ever 
 blame you, though, for tisn t you who are throw 
 ing away the money; it is I." 
 
 She stepped quickly toward the grate, ex 
 tended her hand, stopped, turned her head and 
 said : 
 
 " As some reward for my self-sacrifice, mayn t 
 I read the letter before I burn it ? " 
 
 " You poor child ! murmured Trif. 
 
 " What ? Was it as bad as that ? 
 
 "Look at it, Kate," said Phil, "and you will 
 know what Trif means." 
 
 In a second Kate was under the chandelier and 
 turning the sheet, but as she looked her face
 
 THA T SURPRISE. 239 
 
 became blank, for Phil, supposing the paper 
 was to go into the hands of a lot of business 
 men, had penned over every line so skillfully, 
 after the manner of commercial correspondents 
 who make erasures in letters, that not a word 
 of the original writing was decipherable. 
 
 " You shall know it all, you dear disappointed 
 girl, said Trif. " I shall tell you every word of 
 it this very evening this very moment. Come 
 with me ; I know the others will excuse us under 
 the circumstances." 
 
 Together they started to leave the room, but 
 encountered Trixy, who was just entering. 
 
 " I most forgot about that s prise," said the 
 child to Jermyn, as she stopped before him. 
 "The dinner was so good, and you folks talked 
 so much, that I didn t get a chance to say 
 nothin , and then I got sleepy while you was 
 singiiv, and I d have forgot all about it entirely 
 if you hadn t begun to talk about throwin 
 money to dogs, and papa explained how it was." 
 
 Then she raised both hands high in the air and 
 shouted : 
 
 " Here s your old pictures." 
 
 " Come on, boys," shouted the Admiral, 
 springing forward, and snatching both sketches. 
 He explained afterward, very sheepishly, that 
 he believed his mind had been weakened by long 
 anxiety about those sketches, for he imagined 
 himself young again, and taking part in a land 
 ing party in Mexico. 
 
 " Oh, Trixy," exclaimed Trif, snatching her 
 child into her arms, "you naughty, precious, 
 dreadful, blessed, awful, angelic, terrible, lovely 
 darling ! "
 
 240 TRIP AND TRIXY. 
 
 "Jermyn!" exclaimed Kate, and Jermyn 
 opened his arms, while Fenie gasped " Harry ! " 
 and Harry made haste to support her. The 
 ladies being thus disposed of, the Admiral and 
 Phil could only shake hands, which they did 
 with a vigor that made each man wince. Finally 
 Phil said: 
 
 " My dear, will you kindly stop kissing that 
 child long enough for me to ask her a question ? 
 Trixy, where did you get those sketches ? " 
 
 " Why, I found out that twas you that took 
 one of em out of my scrap-book, and I thought 
 it was just one of your tricks, so I d play one 
 on you, and the first thing I knew I got the 
 chance, cause a lot of papers fell out of a coat 
 of yours on a chair, and there was one of the 
 pictures on the outside of a letter, and twas my 
 own picture, so I took it, and afterwards I found 
 there was one somethin like it on the inside 
 part of the letter, and I was goin to tell you, 
 some time, how nicely I had tricked you. 
 Then I heard a lot of talk about pictures that 
 the Admiral and Mr. Jermyn wanted, and I 
 thought mebbe I had em, and I knew mamma 
 was goin to have both of the gentlemen here 
 to dinner in a day or two, and I thought I d 
 keep the s prise till then, when there d be more 
 people to laugh at it." 
 
 " Suppose," said Trif with frightened eyes, 
 " that I had set the dinner for to-morrow instead 
 of to-day !" 
 
 " But you didn t, my dear madam," said the 
 Admiral. " All the world loves a lover, and I 
 devoutly believe heaven does too. Suppose
 
 THAT SURPRISE, 241 
 
 that you had put Trixy to bed at the usual 
 hour!" 
 
 "Oh, don t!" 
 
 " Let me see the sketches, Admiral," said 
 Kate. She looked at them carelessly, turned 
 them over, and said : 
 
 " Trif, the writing on this page has been 
 erased. May I read it ?" 
 
 " Yes, dear, if you will take it into the next 
 room." 
 
 Kate was absent several moments a long 
 time, Jermyn said, to read what his own eyes 
 had seen at a glance, but when she returned 
 she embraced Trif effusively and Jermyn told 
 himself that Kate s eyes were most angelic 
 when they were dewy. 
 
 There was a double wedding in June, and the 
 Admiral, by permission of both families, gave 
 away both brides. Trixy strewed flowers in 
 front of each couple as they walked up the 
 aisle of the church, and she looked and felt as 
 important as if she were both brides. Neither 
 couple asked her to be their guest on their 
 wedding journey, which she thought rather 
 strange, in view of their extreme affection for 
 her, and her mother had much difficulty in 
 explaining. Both brides, however, had her visit 
 them soon afterward, and for so long a time 
 that Trif began to complain that she had no 
 daughter.
 
 HENRY ALTEMUS PUBLICATIONS. 
 
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 54 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. An Autobiography. 
 
 55 THE LAST ESSAYS OF ELIA, by Charles Lamb. 
 
 56 TOM BROWN S SCHOOL DAYS, by Thomas 
 
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 57 WEIRD TALES, by Edgar Allan Poe. 
 
 58 THE CROWN OF WILD OLIVE, by John Ruskin. 
 
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 59 NATURAL LAW IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLD, 
 
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 60 ABBE CONSTANTIN, by Ludorlc Halery. 
 
 61 MANON LESCAUT, by Abbe Prevost.
 
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 65 THE LIGHT OF ASIA, by Sir Edwin Arnold. 
 
 66 THE LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME, by Thomas 
 
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 67 THE CONFESSIONS OF AN ENGLISH OPIUM- 
 
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 68 TREASURE ISLAND, by Robert L. Stevenson. 
 
 69 CARMEN, by Prosper Merimee. 
 
 70 A SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY, by Laurence Sterne. 
 
 71 THE BLITHEDALE ROMANCE, by Nathaniel 
 
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 73 FANCHON, THE CRICKET, by George Sand. 
 
 74 POEMS, by James Russell Lowell. 
 
 75 JOHN PLOUGHMAN S TALK, by the Rev. Charles 
 
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 76 JOHN PLOUGHMAN S PICTURES, by the Rev. 
 
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 77 THE MANLINESS OF CHRIST, by Thomas 
 
 Hughes. 
 
 78 ADDRESSES TO YOUNG MEN, by the Rev. Henry 
 
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 79 THE AUTOCRAT OF THE BREAKFAST 
 
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 80 MULVANEY STORIES, by Rudyard Kipling. 
 
 81 BALLADS, by Rudyard Kipling. 
 
 82 MORNING THOUGHTS, by Frances Ridley Havergal. 
 
 83 TEN NIGHTS IN A BAR ROOM, by T. S. Arthur. 
 
 84 EVENING THOUGHTS, by Frances Ridley Havergal. 
 
 85 IN MEMORIAM, by Alfred (Lord) Tennyson 
 
 86 COMING TO CHRIST, by Frances Ridley Havergal. 
 
 87 HOUSE OF THE WOLF, by Stanley Weyman. 
 
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