mail. Some one had opened most of the envelopes, probably to ascertain whether the contents were purely personal or should be turned over to the court representative; Ethel discovered that her cousin's wife had taken active part in more enterprises for others and had possessed even a wider circle of friends of every sort than she had imagined; but she came upon nothing which referred in any way to the picture of the group of officers or to Barney Loutrelle.
Ethel tied up two of the prints in their wrapping and took the other to her room. At moments she thought that she should tell Barney about it as early as possible; at other times she knew that she could not, until the meaning of its possession by Agnes became clearer, or at least until it was certain that Agnes had obtained the photographs because of him. What would he think, if she told him? She remembered how he had looked when he had stood before the fire in the cabin with his hands outstretched and she had spoken to him suddenly of himself; and how he had flushed when he turned to her. So she held his photograph before her and thought.
Her uncle Lucas called early the next morning to ask what she was doing about the business matters concerning which she had consulted him several days ago. When she said that she had written to Wyoming that she had failed to obtain help from her family, he told her he would wire Wyoming to disregard her letter; he had decided to "protect" her interests in the projects under way.
She thanked him and made no comment; he—being Lucas, Junior, not Senior—made no comment and asked no pledges before he departed.
That afternoon she received a letter from Barney in
