"Yes, quite a bulky package. I did not notice it until this
moment."
"But how--"
"Don't ask me how it got there. It's just--there. I did not even
know there was a pocket in this cloak I wore. Whoever put the
package there was more clever than I."
"But what is it?"
"I'm going to look--Cora."
"Cora? Then you know me--Ed?"
"As you do me. Of course. Did you think you could deceive me?"
"I--I hoped to. But the package--what does, it contain?"
"We will look--together."
He led her to a dangling electric light, drew, something from the
folds of his cloak, and unwrapped the paper. Then he gave an
exclamation of surprise.
"Ten thousand dollars of my missing bonds!" he whispered.
"Really, Ed?"
He extended them to her.
"Oh, Ed! I'm so glad!"
"So am I, yet I have been suspecting it."
"Suspecting it?"
"Yes. I may as well admit it, of late I have not worried about my
loss. Recently I have been convinced that it would come back. And
you see I was right."
"But this is only half of it."
"I know, but the rest will come. It is not so easy to return the
cash."
"But who could have slipped it into your pocket?"
"Don't you know? Can't you guess--after what we heard?"
"The--the nun?"
"Exactly."
"And she is--"
"That is a mystery--as yet, but I have my suspicions. She brushed
past me in a crowd, and I thought I felt her hand upon my velvet
cloak, but as I never suspected the garment contained a pocket, I
gave it no further thought. Had I the remotest idea--what had
happened there might have been a disturbance. But the talk we heard
just now gave me a clue."
"Hush!" exclaimed Cora, and she shivered slightly in her rather thin
costume. "Here come Paul and Belle. I have penetrated their
disguises. Isn't Paul splendid as Marc Anthony? and Belle makes a
perfectly classical Psyche."
"And Walter?" asked Ed with a veiled hint of jealousy in his tones.
"It was horrid of him to play the clown."
"But I like him best in some such humble role," spoke Ed.
"I wish you had not discovered me," went on Cora. "It would be such
fun to hear things, and say things, in some other character than
ourselves."
"But I could not find, even in the Rosebud, a fairer type than that
of Jack's real sister," he replied gallantly.
"There's the supper gong!" exclaimed Cora; "and I must hurry away,
as I have my duties to look after. Oh, but I'm so glad about the
money. I wish it were all back. Are you going to make this public?"
"I don't know. We'll talk about it again."
"Well, run along now," commanded the girl with a pretty air of
superiority. "Why don't you join in with that milkmaid and
Pocahontas? They are charming--both of them."
"I think I will just run along with--Rosebud," he answered, and he
drew her arm more firmly within his own as they advanced toward the
fairy tables set about all over the lawn, where, as the repast was
served, masks were suddenly taken off, and the merrymakers were
treated to many surprises.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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