"Well, if I send a foolish, chattering girl's note about nothing, and I happen to write it in a 'back hand,' that fact will tell my correspondent what I want to tell her. So if I write in an ordinary hand, that will mean something quite different. In the same way, if I write, 'My dear Mary,' it will signify one thing, while 'Dear Mary' will mean another; I've arranged fourteen different forms of address, each having its own particular meaning. The punctuation will mean something, too, and the way I sign myself, and the colour of my ink, and the occasional slight misspelling of a word--all these and a dozen other things are carefully arranged for, so that I can tell a friend pretty nearly anything I please, while seeming only to tell her the colour of my new gown--if I ever have a new gown again--or anything else of the kind that girls are fond of writing letters about." "But you and all your correspondents must have copies of your code for all this. Isn't there great danger that one or another of them may be discovered?" The girl laughed before answering. "Even you, General Stuart, must have found out that it is difficult to discover what is in a young woman's mind. This code exists nowhere else in the world. We've all learned it by heart, and can recite it backward or forward or even sideways. No word of it has ever been written down on paper, or ever will be. You gentlemen are fond of saying that we women cannot keep a secret. You shall see how well we keep this." "O, as to that," answered Stuart, "I never shared any such belief. Why, women keep secrets so well that we never know even what they think of us. Is not that so, Captain Pegram?" "Yes, and perhaps it is fortunate for us, too, sometimes." "But I did betray a secret to Captain Pegram this morning," Agatha continued, speaking gravely now. "He seemed so troubled at having to arrest me under the circumstances in which I seemed to have placed myself, that I relieved his mind by telling him I was acting under your orders, or, at least, with your consent." "Perhaps you'd like to prefer charges against the captain? I dare say he was very stern and inconsiderate." Instantly the girl flushed, and speaking with unusual seriousness, she answered: "I beg to assure you, General Stuart, that Captain Pegram was altogether generous and kind to me--far more so than I had a right to expect. I can never sufficiently thank him."