"Rubbish!" exploded her mother. "You've got yourself into a nice scrape. How do we know what she said in these letters?" she asked Wally.
"You didn't keep copies of them, did you?" asked Wally.
"Have you got his letters?" from her mother.
"There's nothing to be done until we see them," said Mrs. Bryce, impatiently.
"They are private letters, and I must say . . ." began Isabelle, hotly.
"You be quiet," ordered her mother, angrily. "I can't see that you were much use, Miss Watts."
"Mrs. Bryce, I had no idea that this was going on. I knew she wrote letters, but I supposed they were to you or to school friends. I did not feel it necessary to censor her mail."
"You ought to know her well enough by now to know that when she seems to be behaving she is doing her worst."
Mrs. Bryce summoned a maid and ordered Isabelle's trunk to be reported the moment it arrived. While they waited Mrs. Bryce interrogated Miss Watts as to whom Isabelle had met in Bermuda. Isabelle was at the window, gazing from behind the curtain at her admirer, but she noticed that Captain O'Leary's name was merely mentioned in a list of the English officers they had met.
"Look here, Isabelle, how about Edouard?" whispered Wally, at her elbow. "Does he think he is engaged to you, too?"
She felt the laugh behind his words, so she answered gravely:
"Don't worry. I disinherited them both," Isabelle assured him.
"Did she have any violent love affairs?" inquired Mrs. Bryce.
"There were two very devoted young men, Percy Pollock and Jack Porter. But I thought Isabelle handled them very well," replied Miss Watts.
"Are you engaged to them?" whispered Wally again.
"Wally, I'm not engaged to anybody," answered his child.
The maid announced the trunks and Isabelle went in search of her treasures. When she returned she carried in each hand a bundle of letters tied with ribbons.
"Son Jean's," she said, offering one bundle to Max. "We need not go over Son Edouard's."
Mrs. Bryce began to read. As she finished a page, she handed it to Wally, and he in turn passed it to Miss Watts. The two women read solemnly, but Wally laughed occasionally. Isabelle sat by, now and then taking a peek at the author of this new trouble.
"Well!" remarked Mrs. Bryce when the last tender words had been read.