taken from the postman that morning at the moment of coming from the
door, and in the hurry of embarking had forgotten ever since. Opening it
quickly, she read:--

'MY DEAR ETHELBERTA,--Your letter reached me yesterday, and I called
round at Exonbury Crescent in the afternoon, as you wished. Everything
is going on right there, and you have no occasion to be anxious about
them. I do not leave town for another week or two, and by the time I
am gone Sol and Dan will have returned from Paris, if your mother and
Gwendoline want any help: so that you need not hurry back on their
account.

'I have something else to tell you, which is not quite so
satisfactory, and it is this that makes me write at once; but do not
be alarmed. It began in this way. A few nights after the
dinner-party here I was determined to find out if there was any truth
in what you had been told about that boy, and having seen Menlove go
out as usual after dark, I followed her. Sure enough, when she had
got into the park, up came master Joe, smoking a cigar. As soon as
they had met I went towards them, and Menlove, seeing somebody draw
nigh, began to edge off, when the blockhead said, "Never mind, my
love, it is only the old man." Being very provoked with both of them,
though she was really the most to blame, I gave him some smart cuts
across the shoulders with my cane, and told him to go home, which he
did with a flea in his ear, the rascal. I believe I have cured his
courting tricks for some little time.

'Well, Menlove then walked by me, quite cool, as if she were merely a
lady passing by chance at the time, which provoked me still more,
knowing the whole truth of it, and I could not help turning upon her
and saying, "You, madam, ought to be served the same way." She
replied in very haughty words, and I walked away, saying that I had
something better to do than argue with a woman of her character at
that hour of the evening. This so set her up that she followed me
home, marched into my pantry, and told me that if I had been more
careful about my manners in calling her a bad character, it might have
been better both for me and my stuck-up daughter--a daw in eagle's
plumes--and so on. Now it seems that she must have coaxed something
out of Joey about you--for what lad in the world could be a match for
a woman of her experience and arts! I hop