"April 1," she read thoughtfully. She smoothed the paper out with a tender little hand, then folded it carefully, carried it to her room, and locked it in the box where she kept such treasures as she had brought to London with her. They were in the hall a little later, Denis had just gone, when there was another loud double knock at the door. Sarah came running, but Nell was before her. She opened the door; a telegraph boy stood on the step. She took the telegram from him. "For you this time, Sheila Pat!" Sheila Pat took it. She looked at it. "And ’er so little!" Sarah murmured from the background. "Molly," said the Atom, "wouldn’t you like to open it?" "No, thank you!" "I know it’s from that Ted!" opined Nell. "Open it, Atom. The boy’s waiting to know if there’s an answer!" From the dining room issued Miss Kezia. "A telegram? And for you, Sheila? Why do you not open it?" Sheila Pat hesitated. Longing to see if it were by any chance another telegram from Ireland, and determination not to let Ted Lancaster catch her, fought within her small bosom. "Are you afraid?" Miss Kezia said, coming forward. "I will open it for you." Now at the opening words of her sentence Sheila Pat’s head had been uplifted with a disgusted jerk, but as Miss Kezia finished speaking, a sudden impish glow shone in her face, and gravely she held out the orange envelope. Miss Kezia took it. They watched breathlessly. She tore open the envelope, she read what was written on the form inside. A great and triumphant satisfaction illumined the Atom’s small features as she watched the expression that overspread her aunt’s countenance. "It is, I suppose, intended to be witty," Miss Kezia observed at last. "I consider it a vulgar and sinfully wasteful joke. Sheila, did you know what the telegram contained?" "I thought it was somethin’ like that," the Atom said. "Please give it to me." She turned to Nell. "There can’t be two April Fools over _one_ thing, can there?" The telegram was long; it was addressed in full to Miss Sheila Patricia Kathleen O’Brien, and it said: "Shure and isn’t it afther being the 1st of April then, och begorra, and isn’t it meself will be having the laugh of ye entoirely at all at all, for when ye rade this, won’t ye be afther being taken in ochone acushla!" "That telegram," said Miss Kezia, in awful tones, "cost four shillings and eightpence to send." Nell eyed her admiringly. "How quickly you can add up!" she said. A little later Molly stole guiltily away up to her room. She locked the door, and sitting down on her bed began to tear open envelopes. Presently to her through the keyhole came a whisper:— "Molly O’Brien, I hear the rending of note-paper!" Molly jumped; her face grew scarlet. "Oh, Nell! I!—I—" Through the keyhole there was a ripple of triumphant laughter. Molly stood, red, and stammering futile excuses, and heard the laughter die away down the passage. *CHAPTER XXXV*