"
"Oh, very likely she won't," his mother consoled him.
III.
Only four days after he had seen Armiger, Verrian received an envelope
covering a brief note to himself from the editor, a copy of the letter he
had written to Verrian's unknown correspondent, and her answer in the
original. Verrian was alone when the postman brought him this envelope,
and he could indulge a certain passion for method by which he read its
contents in the order named; if his mother had been by, she would have
made him read the girl's reply first of all. Armiger wrote:
"MY DEAR VERRIAN,--I enclose two exhibits which will possess you of all
the facts in the case of the young lady who feared she might die before
she read the end of your story, but who, you will be glad to find, is
likely to live through the year. As the story ends in our October
number, she need not be supplied with advance sheets. I am sorry the
house hurried out a paragraph concerning the matter, but it will not be
followed by another. Perhaps you will feel, as I do, that the incident
is closed. I have not replied to the writer, and you need not return her
letter. Yours ever,
"M. ARMIGER."
The editor's letter to the young lady read:
"DEAR MADAM,--Mr. P. S. Verrian has handed me your letter of the 4th, and
I need not tell you that it has interested us both.
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