It contained no note, but the address was in Winnie's
handwriting.
Badger tore the package open almost before the expressman was out of the
room. A lump came into his throat as he looked at the ring. He
remembered so distinctly the time he gave it to her and all the words
then said. It seemed impossible that she had returned it now in this
curt manner.
"I'll ask her to take it back!" he muttered. He dropped the ring into a
pocket of the suit he was wearing, that he might be sure to have it with
him when he met her--for that he would meet her in some way or other he
was firmly resolved.
"Her father has driven her into this. It's not her wish, I know. But she
is so good and dutiful that she may stick by this decision, to please
him. I allow that there is where the trouble is going to come. But I
won't give her up! Not unless she tells me positively with her own lips
that everything is ended."
Badger now did something which he would never have dreamed of doing a
short time before. Even the thought of it would have been greeted with
scorn. He carefully put the letter in an inner pocket, put away the
trinkets which Winnie had returned, and set out to find Frank Merriwell.
The act did not even strike him as incongruous.
"Inza and Elsie will do anything for Merriwell! He can go in and out of
Lee's house as he wants to.
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