morning I wrote for catalogues and prospectus to the
different schools, and I felt as if three old men of the sea had been
lifted from my shoulders.

CHAPTER XIX

_Which Has to Do with Some Letters_

One morning when I came down to my office, I found a letter postmarked
from the city in which Uncle Issachar lived addressed to me. I opened
it and found inclosed, with seal unbroken, the letter Silvia had
mailed to her uncle and which she had marked "personal." There was a
note addressed to me accompanying it:

"Dear Sir:

"I am returning herewith your personal letter to Mr. Innes, as he
has gone to South America and left no forwarding address. Should
such be received from him at any future date, you will be duly
notified thereof.

"Very truly yours,
"Chester K. Winslow,
"Secretary."

I read the above to Silvia at luncheon. She was grievously disappointed
because her uncle had not received her letter of explanation.

"It is most fortunate," she said, "that I sent it in one of your
office envelopes."

As usual, she had found the bright spot she always looked for and
generally discovered.

"I wouldn't care," she said, "to have Uncle Issachar's private
secretary or the dead-letter office know all our private affairs, but
I shall feel like an impostor until Uncle Issachar is undeceived."

"I feel a hunch," said Rob, "that Uncle Issachar will run across
Doctor Felix and his wife down there in Chili and find you out."

"He may run across the Polydores," I replied, "but he'll never find
out from them that they are the parents of Silvia's children. They
would not mention a subject in which they have so little interest."

"But," argued Beth, "naturally they'd tell him where they lived, and
then, of course, he'd say he had a niece living in the same town. They
would inquire her name and inform him that they were her near
neighbors, and then he'd tell them what fine sons you have, and then,
of course, the Polydores would claim their own."

"Which theory goes to show," said Silvia, "how little you know Uncle
Issachar and the Polydore seniors. He would not think of speaking to
strangers, and if he did, he wouldn't say any of those usual
conversational things you mentioned. The Polydores wouldn't be
interested, in the least, in knowing he had a niece unless she
happe