So much Annette confided to her mother who passed on the great news with elaborations and annotations to Captain Jack.

To Captain Jack himself Annette gave little actual information.

Indeed, shorn of its element of prophecy, there was little in Tony's letter that could be passed on.

Nor did Annette drop any hint but that all was quite well with her brother, much less that he had suggested a temporary loan of fifty dollars but only of course if she could spare the amount with perfect convenience.

After this letter there was silence as far as Tony was concerned and for Annette anxiety that deepened into agony as the silence remained unbroken with the passing weeks.
With the anxiety there mingled in Annette's heart anger at the Maitlands, for she blamed them for Tony's dismissal from his position.
This, it is fair to say, was a reflection from her mother's wrath, whose mind had been filled up with rumours from the mills to the effect that her son had been "fired." Annette was wise enough and knew her brother well enough to discredit much that rumour brought to her ears, but she could not rid herself of the thought that a way might have been found to hold Tony about the mills.
"He fired the boy, did the ould carmudgeon," said Madame Perrotte in one of her rages, "and druv him off from the town." "Nonsense, Mother," Annette had replied, "you know well enough Tony left of his own accord.