"I don't know. You'll see. Her face seems to have shrunk, and her eyes
have grown so big. She laughed and talked just as she always does, but
somehow—I thought—I don't exactly know what, only she didn't seem like
herself. Malcolm told me yesterday that she has not been well for ever
so long. She has never quite got over that bad cold, and the fever
coming after it. At least Malcolm seemed to think it was that. Poor
Ethel! I am so sorry."
Nigel pushed his chair farther back, thereby putting his face into
shade. Daisy was too intent upon her occupation to notice him.
"I thought you'd like to know, because you and Ethel always were such
friends. It seemed funny that she had not been to see us; but Malcolm
says she gets so easily tired she really can't walk far, most days.
That's not like Ethel. Now I have done both trays. The old box is quite
empty, so Fulvia may as well let me have it. There's only the place in
the lid for the looking-glass; nothing else, of course. Just a piece of
crumpled paper, written all over! Why, it must be part of a letter, and
in Mr. Carden-Cox's handwriting. How comical of Fulvia to keep it here!
I dare say she tucked it away in a hurry, and then forgot all about
what she had done."
"Did what?" Nigel asked dreamily.
"This! Look; it is part of a letter. Funny of Fulvia. I think I'll
see what it is about? 'N.B.—One line more. My dear fellow, you do not
really mean—' Oh! Oh, I say! Oh, Nigel! Oh!"
"What's the matter now?"
Daisy's eyes were round; her mouth was open. She could only articulate,
"Oh, I say!"
"Daisy, pray explain yourself. Don't be idiotic!"
"It's the lost postscript."
"Nonsense!"
"But it is! It must be! Look; it is, really! Half a sheet, and Mr.
Carden-Cox's handwriting, and it begins, 'N.B.,' and it says, 'My dear
fellow.' Look! That can't be Fulvia. And none of the other three was
to a 'fellow.' Ethel's and Fulvia's and mine were found. I know mine
was, because Mr. Carden-Cox let it out, though he made a secret of it
at first—I wonder why! But yours was never found, and Mr. Carden-Cox
has always declared it must have gone to Fulvia. He said she had put it
away somewhere, and forgotten. But I don't see how she could forget—do
you? Fulvia said she had never had it, you know."
Daisy held the half-sheet before Nigel's eyes.
"It's yours. I shall tell Fulvia. How could she be so stupid?"
Nigel received the paper from Daisy's hand, but looked at her instead
of it.
"Where did you find this?"
"In Fulvia's old dressing-box, hidden away behind the glass. Didn't you
hear me say so?"
"No. What business had you to examine it?"
Daisy was disconcerted.
"I—don't know. I thought I would read a word or two. I didn't think it
was anything, really, till I saw 'N.B.' and 'fellow.'"
"Another time you will act more honourably if you don't look at all."
"But Fulvia gave me leave to turn out her box. She did really, Nigel,
and she didn't say there were secrets."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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