"DEAREST MAY,--I've been to see my friend `in power,' and he says it's
`all right,' that you've only to get your brother over as soon as
possible, and he'll see to getting him a situation. The enclosed paper
is for his and your guidance. Excuse haste.--Your affectionate coz,
SARAH LILLYCROP."
It need hardly be said that May Maylands finished her letter with
increased satisfaction, and posted it that night.
Next morning she wrote out a telegram as follows:--"Let Phil come here
_at once_. The application has been successful. Never mind clothes.
Everything arranged. Best love to all."
The last clause was added in order to get the full value for her money.
She naturally underscored the words "at once," forgetting for the moment
that, in telegraphy, a word underlined counts as two words. She was
therefore compelled to forego the emphasis.
This message she did not transmit through her own professional
instrument, but gave it in at the nearest district office. It was at
once shot bodily, with a bundle of other telegrams, through a pneumatic
tube, and thus reached St. Martin's-le-Grand in one minute thirty-five
seconds, or about twenty minutes before herself. Chancing to be the
uppermost message, it was flashed off without delay, crossed the Irish
Channel, and entered the office at Cork in about six minutes. Here
there was a short delay of half-an-hour, owing to other telegrams which
had prior claim to attention. Then it was flashed to the west coast,
which it reached long before the letter posted on the previous night,
and not long after May had seated herself at her own three-keyed
instrument. But there, telegraphic speed was thwarted by unavoidable
circumstances, the post-runner having already started on his morning
rounds, and it was afternoon before the telegram was delivered at Rocky
Cottage.
This was the telegram which had caused Philip Maylands so much anxiety.
He read it at last with great relief, and at the same time with some
degree of sadness, when he thought of leaving his mother "unprotected"
in her lonely cottage by the sea.