offices in Rouen. Mr. Schofield was given directions in regard
to supplying you with the missing issue at once.

"I fear that you may have had difficulty in deciphering some of my
former missives, as I was unfamiliar with the typewriter when I took
charge of the 'Herald'; however, I trust that you find my later letters
more legible.

"The McCune people are not worrying us; we are sure to defeat them. The
papers you speak of were found by Mr. Parker in your trunk, and are now
in my hands.

"I send with this a packet of communications and press clippings
indicative of the success of the daily, and in regard to other
innovations. The letters from women commendatory of our 'Woman's Page,'
thanking us for various house-keeping receipts, etc., strike me as
peculiarly interesting, as I admit that a 'Woman's Page' is always a
difficult matter for a man to handle without absurdity.

"Please do not think I mean to plume myself upon our various successes;
we attempted our innovations and enlargements at just the right time--a
time which you had ripened by years of work and waiting, and at the
moment when you had built up the reputation of the 'Herald' to its
highest point. Everything that has been done is successful only because
you paved the way, and because every one knows it is your paper; and the
people believe that whatever your paper does is interesting and right.

"Trusting that your recovery will be rapid, I am

"Yours truly,

"H. FISBEE."

Harkless dropped the typewritten sheets with a sigh.

"I suppose I ought to get well," he said wearily.

"Yes," said Meredith, "I think you ought; but you're chock full of
malaria and fever and all kinds of meanness, and----"

"You 'tend to your own troubles," returned the other, with an imitation
of liveliness. "I--I don't think it interests me much," he said
querulously. He was often querulous of late, and it frightened Tom. "I'm
just tired. I am strong enough--that is, I think I am till I try to move
around, and then I'm like a log, and a lethargy gets me--that's it; I
don't think it's malaria; it's lethargy."

"Lethargy comes from malaria."

"It's the other way with me. I'd be all right if I only could get over
this--this tiredness. Let me have that pencil and pad, will you, please,
Tom?"

He set the pad on his knee, and began to write languidly:

"ROUEN, _September 2d_.

"_Dear Mr. Fisbee_: Yours of the 1st to hand. I enti