Fair Play by Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte Southworth

Alberta Goldsborough had been a pupil in the convent school for somewhat more than four months. In all that time she had not once heard from her lover. She bore her trial with great stoicism, disdaining to complain, and doing all that was required of her with quiet indifference. She made no friends either among the teachers or the pupils. She was, as the little girl described her to be, proud and still. She felt sure that some time or other Vittorio would, with his Italian craft, succeed in discovering her retreat and effecting her deliverance. And she calmly awaited the time.

Julie McKnight, the little girl whom Vittorio had intrusted with the letter to his ladylove, watched all the afternoon for an opportunity of delivering it to Miss Goldsborough. Chance favored her. She was sent by her class mistress into one of the small music-rooms to practice her lesson on the piano. As she passed on the long hall, flanked on each side by a row of such rooms, she saw the door of one of them open and Miss Goldsborough seated at the piano. The child cast a hurried look up and down the hall, and, seeing no one near, she slipped in and thrust the letter into Alberta's hands, whispering eagerly: