I will write
again about this, and give you my own ideas. In the meantime,
don't risk meeting him too often in the park.
"Yours, M. O."
"Well?" asked the nurse, returning to the bedside. "Have you done
with it?"
"Meeting him in the park!" repeated Mrs. Milroy, with her eyes
still fastened on the letter. "_Him_! Rachel, where is the
major?"
"In his own room."
"I don't believe it! "
"Have your own way. I want the letter and the envelope."
"Can you close it again so that she won't know?"
"What I can open I can shut. Anything more?"
"Nothing more."
Mrs. Milroy was left alone again, to review her plan of attack by
the new light that had now been thrown on Miss Gwilt.
The information that had been gained by opening the governess's
letter pointed plainly to the conclusion that an adventuress
had stolen her way into the house by means of a false reference.
But having been obtained by an act of treachery which it was
impossible to acknowledge, it was not information that could be
used either for warning the major or for exposing Miss Gwilt.
The one available weapon in Mrs. Milroy's hands was the weapon
furnished by her own returned letter, and the one question to
decide was how to make the best and speediest use of it.
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