"Trust me, my boy. Don't worry. I'm always Johnny-on-the-spot. Where
did you say the hotel was? I'll go up and get ready. Oh, by the way,
who is the young lady?"
"She's a friend of Mr. Dauntless's," said Mr. Derby.
"To be sure; I might have known. Silly question."
The young men watched him enter the hotel, but they did not see him
fall into the clutches of his wife just inside the door.
"Where have you been?" demanded Mrs. Van Truder.
"I've been looking everywhere for you, my dear," he said, almost
whimpering. "I've got a grand secret, but I can't tell you. Don't ask
me!"
"Is it a wedding?" she demanded sternly.
"Dear me! Do you know it too?" he cried, bewildered. "But that's not
the real secret; it's only part of it. Joe is going to marry some
friend of his to-night--but that's as far as I'll go. I'll NOT betray
the secret." He hurried away to avoid questions, muttering to himself
as he went: "She's dying to know. But a secret's a secret. She sha'n't
know that I am to be a witness."
Mrs. Van Truder pondered long and deeply, but she was not well enough
acquainted with all of the facts to hazard a guess as to who the girl
might be.
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