Not understanding very well, and moreover much agitated by the subject, Nattie knew not what to say.

"This is awful!" went on Cyn, savagely beating the pillow with her fist; "what contrary things love affairs are!"

Fearful of having in some way betrayed her secret--the only conclusion she could draw from Cyn's extraordinary outburst--Nattie stood looking guiltily at the floor a few moments, then recovering herself, she went to Cyn, and said, in a voice full of emotion,

"I do not just comprehend your meaning, dear, but it may be you think I might not quite like the idea, on account of that--that first affair on the wire. If so, dismiss the thought. You and Clem are suited to each other, and--" Nattie stopped, unable to continue.

Cyn, who had been beating the innocent pillow, as if it was the cause of all this, while Nattie was speaking, now threw it across the room, as she exclaimed.

"Oh! the perversity of human nature! Oh! you degenerate girl! As if I cared for Clem in that way! Have I not from the first set my heart on this real-life romance ending in the only way it could rightfully end?"

A sudden light came into Nattie's face, but it died away in a moment.

"Then you do not care for him? Poor Clem!" she said, in a low voice.

"Poor Clem, indeed!" cried Cyn, pacing the floor excitedly. "I cannot--no, I cannot--believe it of him! He certainly has sagacity enough not to run his head against a beam in broad daylight, even--"

"If Jo had not," she was about to add, but checked herself suddenly. Not for the world would she betray Jo's confidence. What had pa.s.sed between them to-day should be a secret always, never again to be mentioned--but never forgotten in the friendship and companionship of after years.

"You must be very difficult to suit, dear, if you do not like Clem!"

said Nattie, with unconscious significance, after waiting in vain for Cyn to finish her sentence.

"It is not that," replied Cyn, somewhat sadly. "Do you not know I have only one love,--music?"

"Poor Clem!" again said Nattie, from the depths of her tender heart.

"For I know he loves you, dear. He could not help it, who could?"

Such words would have been sweet to the vanity of an ordinary woman. But on Cyn they had a very opposite effect.

"Things have come to a pretty pa.s.s if one can not laugh and joke, and enjoy one's self with friends without being made love to!" she said, annoyed. Then looking scrutinizingly at Nattie, she asked,

"And you--did you really wish Clem and I might love each other?"

Nattie played nervously with the fringe of her dress, hesitated, then replied in a low tone,

"I fear I did not, Cyn!"

"Then it may come right yet!" exclaimed Cyn, hopefully.

Nattie shook her head.

"And he loving you? Oh, no!" she said. "I shall never be able to say O.K. to what you term your romance of the dots and dashes, Cyn. In fact, I have made up my mind that there are some people born to go through life missing both its best and its worst, and that I am one!"

"Pray, do not say that!" urged Cyn, too disturbed to bring her easy philosophy to bear on the situation. "Of all things, do not get morbid."

"But it is the truth!" persisted Nattie. "Even my name, for instance, proves it! I was christened Nathalie, a very fine poetic name. But, in all my life no one ever called me by it! I was always mediocre Nattie!"

"And _I_ have curtailed you down to Nat!" said Cyn, with whimsical remorse. "But what a tangle we are in! First it was the man of musk and bear's grease, who came between you! Then, when he was explained away, came blundering I! Why did you not lock me out of sight somewhere? I would have done it myself had I known--" ironically-- "what an extremely fascinating and dangerous person I was!"

At this Nattie could not help smiling.

"Is was not your fault; it was Fate!" she said, her smile becoming a sigh, that Cyn echoed, for she thought of Jo. But yet unconvinced, she said,

"Fate! No; it cannot be! I think better of Clem than to believe he, too, has made a mistake, like Quimby, and fallen in love with the wrong woman!" then starting up, she exclaimed, tragically, "Who? ah! who shall cut the Gordian knot and bring about a crisis that shall cause this 'wired love' to terminate in 'O. K.'?"

As if invoked by Cyn's words, there came a sneeze from outside, and Miss Kling pushed open the door unceremoniously.

"I wish to have some conversation with you, Miss Rogers," she said in a tone of severity.

"Some other time, if you please," Nattie replied, impatiently, for her talk with Cyn had unnerved her; "just now I am engaged."

Miss Kling drew herself up and said, with even more austerity,

"There is no time like the present, and since Miss Archer is here, it may not be amiss for her to hear what I have to say."

Nattie frowned, but Cyn, not unwilling to be diverted even by Miss Kling from the topic that was so annoying her, said,

"Very well. We are listening, Miss Kling."

"Miss Rogers," proceeded Miss Kling solemnly, after a preparatory sneeze, "I know _all_."

The emphasis on the last word was truly tremendous, and Nattie started astonished, while Cyn looked up with awakened curiosity.

"May I inquire what you mean by all?" inquired Nattie stiffly.

"Yes," repeated Miss Kling, without heeding the question. "I know ALL. I have for some time suspected that something underhanded was going on.

Now I know what it is that has been so carefully concealed from me! I have long objected to your a.s.sociates, Miss Rogers, but--"

"Pardon me, but that certainly does not concern you!" interrupted Cyn disdainfully.

Miss Kling looked at her and sneezed a sinister sneeze.

"It concerns me to know what kind of people I have in my house!" she replied, "and since you force me to speak out, Miss Archer, I will say that in my opinion no truly modest and proper girl would become intimate with those who pad their legs and paint their faces, and show themselves to the public"--this insinuation struck Cyn so comically that she could hardly suppress a laugh. "My suspicions, to return to what I was about to say, Miss Rogers, were first awakened by hearing that--that instrument"--Cyn and Nattie exchanged looks of intelligence--"you have here going, when I knew you were not in the room. And now, as I said, I know _all_! I pa.s.s over the audacity of such proceedings on _my_ premises, but their utter immorality is too much for me to bear! Yes! I found a wire, and know where it leads! Into the room of two young men! That any young woman should so immodest as to establish telegraphic communication between her bed-room and the bed-room of two young men is beyond my comprehension!"

Cyn felt a mischievous desire to inquire how it would have struck her, had it been the bed-room of _one_ young man? Nattie, who had flushed crimson at the first knowledge of Miss Kling's discovery, now drew herself up and replied with dignity,

"Really, Miss Kling, I think this extravagance of language utterly uncalled for! I admit it was not exactly correct for me to allow the wire to be run without consulting you, but beyond that, there was nothing reprehensible in my conduct."

Miss Kling held up her hands in horror.

"Nothing reprehensible in being connected by a telegraph wire with two young men!" she exclaimed. "Nothing--"

"Excuse my intrusion; but, Cyn, will you please inform me if I am to stand all night loaded with green stuff, like a farmer on a market day?"

at this point the merry voice of Clem interrupted, as he came hastily in, still bearing the burden Cyn had piled upon him. Then becoming aware of Miss Kling's presence, he added to her, "I beg pardon for my abrupt entrance, but the outer door being open, I made bold to enter;" then explanatory to Cyn, "Your door was locked, as also was mine, of which Quimby has the key; and as Celeste has not yet been able to part with him, there I have been standing in the hall, like patience with a load of dandelions!"

"We were having such an interesting conversation," Cyn answered, with a scornful glance in Miss Kling's direction, "that I quite forgot you and the lapse of time."

Clem instantly became aware of something amiss in the atmosphere, and glanced around inquiringly. Miss Kling immediately enlightened him.