so as to
attract only young men of science. The young men are not to be told
about _me_: the prize is in dollars, "with other advantages to be later
specified." The varieties found are to be conveyed to a port abroad, not
yet named, and shipped for New York in a steamer belonging to the McCabe
Trust.'

'Then am I to understand that the conditions affecting your marriage are
still an entire secret?'

'That is so,' said Miss McCabe, 'and I guess from what the marchioness
told me, your reference, that you can keep a secret.'

'To keep secrets is the very essential of my vocation,' said Merton.

But _this_ secret, as will be seen, he did not absolutely keep.

'The arrangements,' he added, 'are most judicious.'

'Guess Pappa was 'cute,' said Miss McCabe, relapsing into her adopted
mannerisms.

'I think I now understand the case in all its bearings,' Merton went on.
'I shall give it my serious consideration. Perhaps I had better say no
more at present, but think over the matter. You remain in town for the
season?'

'Guess we've staked out a claim in Berkeley Square,' said Miss McCabe,
'an agreeable location.' She mentioned the number of the house.

'Then we are likely to meet now and then,' said Merton, 'and I trust that
I may be permitted to wait on you occasionally.'

Miss McCabe graciously assented; her chaperon, Lady Rathcoffey, was
summoned by her from the inner chamber and the society of Miss Blossom,
the typewriter; the pair drove away, and Merton was left to his own
reflections.

'I do not know what can be done for her,' he thought, 'except to see that
there is at least one eligible man, a gentleman, among the crowd of
competitors, and that he is a likely man to win the beautiful prize. And
that man is Bude, by Jove, if he wants to win it.'

The Earl of Bude, whose name at once occurred to Merton, was a remarkable
personage. The world knew him as rich, handsome, happy, and a mighty
hunter of big game. They knew not the mysterious grief that for years
had gnawed at his heart. Why did not Bude marry? No woman could say.
The world, moreover, knew not, but Merton did, that Lord Bude was the
mysterious Mr. Jones Harvey, who contributed the most original papers to
the Proceedings of the Geographical and Zoological Societies, and who had
conferred many strange beasts on the Gardens of the latter learned
institution. The erudite papers were read, the eccentric animals were
conferred, in the name of M