Mrs. Pelham Odin cast her eyes up to the ceiling. "Quite like Romeo and Juliet, without the limelight," she said, in a fatigued tone. "Well, you must come to me before going to Devonshire. Charity Macandrew and her husband are coming. I want to give a dinner-party and introduce you two girls to all sorts of delightful people at a reception to follow. Everyone is delighted with the romantic story." "I daresay they are," said Gerald crossly. "The papers have made far too much of the matter." "I daresay they wouldn't have done so had it not happened to be the dull season," said Mrs. Pelham Odin consolingly. "Of course there have been romantic accounts, and portraits of the girls, and all that, but I have not seen what the newspapers call the sealed message." "Do you mean the phonograph record which Mavis sent me?" "Yes; only she didn't send it to you. She sent it to anyone who happened to fish it up." "Tod did that, but the message was sent to me. Nothing happens by chance, Mrs. Pelham Odin, so----" "Oh, dear me, here comes your occult stuff. Tod told me all about it. I don't like such deep subjects. The message----" "We have it," said Mavis, rising and going to a side-table on which stood a Jekle & Co. phonograph. "Gerald and I often turn on the machine to hear the message which brought us together." While she fitted the tube on to the machine Mrs. Pelham Odin yawned. "It was very clever of you to use a phonograph, since you couldn't read or write. I hope you are less ignorant now." "I am getting on very quickly. Gerald teaches me every day." "You conjugate the verb to love, I suppose. What's that?" Gerald raised his finger. "The message which Mavis sent me." "Sent anyone," muttered Mrs. Pelham Odin obstinately: but she listened. "This to the wide world," babbled the machine in the sweetest and most melodious of voices. "This to the Fairy Prince, who will come and waken me from dreams. Come, dear Prince, to the Pixy's House, and watch that the jealous ogress, who guards me, does not see you. I cannot read, I cannot write: but I talk my message to you, dear Prince. To the stream I commit the message on this first day of April in this year five. May the river bear the message to you, dear Prince. Come to me! Come to me! Come to me! and waken your Princess to life with a kiss." The machine stopped, for Gerald laid a hand on it. "That," he said solemnly, "is the Sealed Message." "As I thought," said Mrs. Pelham Odin, in her lively tones, "it might have been sent to the Man in the Moon." "Instead," said Mavis, kissing her husband, "to the dearest Fairy Prince on Earth." "Which has none outside pantomimes," ended Mrs. Pelham Odin, determined to have the last word. She managed to do so, for the husband and wife were kissing one another. THE END. End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Sealed Message, by Fergus Hume