CHAPTER XXIX.

LETTER FROM THE ONE WHO REVEALED OUR WHEREABOUTS.

"My dear Mrs. Brewer:

"I was relieved to get your letter for I have thought so many times to write to you since I came home, but there seemed so little for me to say, for I had done such an unpardonable thing and all the harm was done and I felt there was nothing for me to say. I spoke of you in Albany and when I reached home and read the letter in the paper, on my way from Seattle to Everett I was simply stunned for I recognized the woman who had gotten on the train with us, who changed her berth to the one opposite us and came over and introduced herself and spoke of you. I realized she had had some information that led her to know who we were and that I knew of your whereabouts as I had only spoken of Mildred meeting you to Miss Hurd in Albany. Of course if she was interested she could, as I now see, easily find a summer resort near Everett and she could easily find we were from Everett.

"I was so humiliated and ashamed of myself for in all my life I have never before done anything that

seemed so unprincipled and I simply said nothing to the doctor about it, for he is so loyal to his friends and patients and I had always thought that one of my virtues, too; I think had I seen you and talked with you it would have been different. After having our interest aroused by your talking to Mildred, I asked a woman about you who lives out there during the summer. She is the only person I have ever discussed your affairs with here. There was absolutely nothing said against you. The lady spoke of your very lonely life. This was the morning after you talked with Mildred and we were wondering who you could be, and decided it must be Nettie Fitch. This was before you came to see the doctor. I remember the lady said you seemed so mysterious and evidently were in constant fear lest someone would get your child and how hard it was to manage and control a growing boy under those circumstances and that you seemed almost a nervous wreck. I think I lost sight of your position in the case in my regret that you should be living such • a life of loneliness when I could only remember you as a merry, happy, absolutely care-free child and I always thought of you as being a leader in social circles and had never known any of the facts in the case, absolutely nothing but that you had gone away with your child. If you ever told Dr. Mead he has never spoken of it. So when in Albany I met Miss Hurd and she spoke of knowing you at Painesville, I was all interest. She spoke most highly of you and your hus

band and seemed to think it a deplorable matter that you were not better suited to one another. I told her of your talk with Mildred (which was most unpardonable for it was not my affair at all and I knew you did not want it to be known) and later she came up and said: "I want to ask more about Nettie " but I had told her all I knew already and I realized I had done wrong. I thought to write to her and ask her not to speak of it but I thought if she were your friend she would not and so I let it go. I don't know why I did not think to write and tell you and you could have gone away. I just felt sick every time I thought of it till one day in Jefferson I overheard some people talking and hearing your name mentioned I listened and one of them said: "Oh! it's no secret where Nettie Fitch is. Lots of people know." I felt so relieved because I felt I, while not the less blamable, was not the first to tell where you were.

(N. B. She was, though, for no one in Jefferson knew, not even my mother).

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And it was known any way, so on the train when this woman who could not get sympathy from any one came up and we, during the trip became acquainted, I talked of it to her when she mentioned having visited you but beyond saying to her that under the circumstances it must be hard for you to control a boy, I have said absolutely nothing against you and I have never heard one single word against you.