"Yes;" said Cyn, seriously, "and thank Heaven that it was love, and not disappointment, that came!"
"Love shall not come in vain!" Nattie said, as seriously. "I will be worthy of it!"
The after years only could prove her words. But in Clem"s face the belief in them was written as plainly as if those future possibilities were acknowledged results.
"We must have another feast to celebrate events!" Cyn said then, gayly.
"You are happy; my romance is O. K.; Celeste is ecstatic; Quimby as joyful as circ.u.mstances permit the victim of mistake to be; Jo and I are hopeful of future fame--and we certainly must have a feast!"
"With plenty of dishes this time," laughed Clem, "and there shall be no more crosses on the wire!"
"But bless my heart!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Cyn, "here you two are making love like ordinary mortals"--at this Nattie hastily withdrew the hand Clem had taken-- "Quimby and Celeste, for instance! This will never do! We must end this romance of dots and dashes as it commenced, to make it truly "Wired Love!""
"True enough! so we must!" answered Clem merrily, and rising, he went to the "key," with his eyes looking straight into Nattie"s, and wrote something that made her blush and seize his hand in shy and unnecessary alarm, saying,
"Suppose Jo should be over in your room! He might be able to read it!"
"Very well," replied Clem, as he laughed and kissed her, regardless of the spectator. "I am quite content to make love like common mortals, Cyn, and I hope, my darling Nattie, that we are done now with all "breaks" and "crosses," as we are with Wired Love. Henceforth ours shall be the pure, unalloyed article, genuine love!"
And Nattie, half-laughing, half-serious, but wholly glad, took the key and wrote, "O. K."
If any one is anxious to know what Clem wrote when Nattie stopped him, here it is.
MY LITTLE DARLING MY WIFE
[Transcriber"s Note. The concluding three lines were printed in the American Railroad dialect of Morse. It cannot easily be represented in ASCII as it requires dashes of different lengths]
THE END