There was a general laugh. For "Mister Cotesworth," not sure that Eve would keep his secret, and alarmed for the safety of his official position, had taken to delivering his letters in person; clad in his best black coat, with a silk hat, the blue goggles, and a tasselled cane, he not only delivered them with his own hands, but he declaimed the addresses in a loud tone at the door. Not finding Cicely at home, he had followed her hither. "Fer Mis' Fer'nen Morrison. A _ferwerded_ letter," he said to Susannah in the hall, at the top of his voice. The judge had gone to the dining-room with Miss Polly, to see her little dog, which was ailing. Cicely put the letter in her pocket. After a while she said to Eve, "I never have any letters, hardly." "But you must have," Eve answered. "No; almost never. I am going up-stairs for a moment, Eve. Don't come with me." When she returned, more music was going on. As soon as she could, Eve said, inquiringly, "Well?" "It was from Ferdie." "Is he coming back?" "Yes," responded Cicely, unmoved. Eve's thoughts had flown to her own plans. But she found time to think, "What a cold little creature it is, after all!" At that moment they could say no more. About midnight, when Eve was in her own room, undressing, there was a tap at the door, and Cicely entered. She had taken off her dress; a forlorn little blue shawl was drawn tightly round her shoulders. She walked to the dressing-table, where Eve was sitting, took up a brush, and looked at it vaguely. "I didn't mean to tell any one; but I have changed my mind, I am going to tell you." Putting down the brush, she let the shawl fall back. There across her white breast was a long purple scar, and a second one over her delicate little shoulder. "He did it," she said. Her eyes, fixed upon Eve's, were proud and brilliant. "You don't mean--you don't mean that your _husband_--" stammered Eve, in horror. "Yes, Ferdie. He did it." "Is he mad?" "Only after he has been drinking." "Oh, you poor little thing!" said Eve, taking her in her arms protectingly. "I have been so hard to you, Cicely, so cruel! But I did not know--I did not know." Her tears flowed. "I am telling you on account of baby," Cicely went on, in the same unmoved tone. "Has he dared to touch baby?" said Eve, springing up. "Yes, Eve; he broke poor baby's little arm; of course when he did not know what he was doing. When he gets that way he does not know us; he thinks we are enemies, and he thinks it is his duty to attack us. Once he put us out-of-doors--baby and me--in the middle of the night, with only our night-dresses on; fortunately it wasn't very cold. That time, and the time he broke baby's arm (he seized him by the arm and flung him out of his crib), we were not in Savannah; we were off by ourselves for a month, we three. Baby was so young that the bone was easily set. Nobody ever knew about it, I never told. But--but it must not happen again." She looked at Eve with the same unmoved gaze.