ut tight. They've both been expelled, and both been
disinherited. If I was inclined to look on the blue side of the
blanket, I should certainly feel that they were playing in very
tough luck. Burnett, of course, can come to you, and his soul is
full of the wish to bring his fellow-fright along with him. Which
wish of his is the gist of my epistle. _Can_ he bring him? He
wants to know before he broaches the proposition. I'm to be
skinned alive if Jack ever learns that such a plea was made, so I
beg you whatever other rash acts you see fit to commit during your
meteoric flight across my plane of existence, don't ever give me
away. Firstly, because if I ever get a chance to do so, I'm
positive that I should want to cling to you as the mistletoe does
to the oak, and could not bear to be given away; and secondly,
because I'm so attached to my own skin that I should really suffer
pain if it was taken from me by force. Bob wants you to think it
over, and let him know as to the whats and whens by return mail.

You are so inspiring that I could write you all day, but those
relics of what once was, but alas! will never be again, need to be
rolled up afresh in absorbent cotton, and so I must nail my Red
Cross on to my left arm, and get down to business. If you saw how
useful I am to your brother, you'd thank his lucky stars that I
came through myself with nothing worse than getting my ear stepped
on. I was hugging the ladder (being canny and careful), and the
man above me toed in. Isn't it curious to think that if he'd worn
braces in early youth _my_ ear would be all right now.

Behold me at your feet.

Respectfully yours,

Herbert Kendrick Mitchell.

When Mrs. Rosscott had finished the letter she looked across at her
caller, and said:

"You've read this, haven't you?"

"No," said he. "I tried to unstick it two or three times coming on the
train, but it was too much for me."

"Don't you really know what it says?" she asked more earnestly.

"Yes, I do," Clover answered, "but Denham must never know that I do."

"I won't tell him," she said smiling faintly. "But surely he can't be as
badly off as this says. Has he really lost all his hair?"

"Not all--only in spots," Clover reassured her; but then his recollections
overcame him,