room, profusely decorated with ringlets, lace, and
perfumed with _patchouli._ She brought a letter from her mistress. It
ran thus:

"_Sir_--I cannot sufficiently express my thanks for your
kindness in writing to me on the subject of the bills; of which
I had also heard a few hours previously. As a perfect
_stranger_ to you, I cannot estimate your kind consideration at
too high a value. I trust the matter will be explained; but I
should much like to see you. If you would be kind enough to
write a note as soon as you receive this, I will order it to be
sent to me at once to Tyburn Square. I will wait on you at any
hour on Friday you may appoint. I believe that I am not
mistaken in supposing that you transact business for my friend
Sir John Markham, and you will therefore know the inclosed to
be his handwriting. Again thanking you most gratefully, allow
me to remain your much and deeply obliged,

"JULIANA SNAPE."

This note was written upon delicate French paper, embossed with a coat
of arms. It was in a fancy envelope: the whole richly perfumed, and
redolent of rank and fashion. Its contents were an implied confession of
forgery. Silence, or three lines of indignation, would have been the
only innocent answer to my letter. But Miss Snape thanked me. She let
me know, by implication, that she was on intimate terms with a name good
on a Westend bill. My answer was, that I should be alone on the
following afternoon at five.

At the hour fixed, punctual to a moment, a brougham drew up at the
corner of the street next to my chambers. The Honorable Miss Snape's
card was handed in. Presently, she entered, swimming into my room,
richly yet simply dressed in the extreme of Parisian good taste. She was
pale--or rather colorless. She had fair hair, fine teeth, and a
fashionable voice. She threw herself gracefully into the chair I handed
to her, and began by uncoiling a string of phrases, to the effect that
her visit was merely to consult me on "unavoidable pecuniary
difficulties."

According to my mode, I allowed her to talk; putting in only an
occasional word of question, that seemed rather a random observation
than a significant query. At length, after walking round and round the
subject, like a timid horse in a field, around a groom with a sieve of
oats, she came nearer and nearer the subject. When she had fairly
approached the point, she stopped, as if h