than I can fain persuade myself to hope, may I presume to
suggest that you should lose no time in repairing to Italy.
I cannot exaggerate the peril of his Lordship's state; in
fact, I am hourly expecting news of his death; and, the
_peculiar circumstances_ of the case considered, it is
highly important you should possess yourself of every
information the exigencies of the event may require. I beg
to enclose you a bank post-bill for two-hundred pounds,
payable at any banker's on your signature, and have the
honor to be, with sincere respect,

"Your humble Servant,

"Davenport Dunn.

"P. S.--I have reason to know that certain claims are now
under consideration, and will be preferred erelong, if
suitable measures be not adopted to restrain them."

"From which side do you hold your brief, Master Davenport Dunn? I should
like to know _that!_" said Davis, as he twice over read aloud this
postscript. He looked at Lady Lackington's letter, turned it over,
examined the seal and the postmark, and seemed to hesitate about
breaking it open. Was it that some scruple of conscience arrested his
hand, and some mysterious feeling that it was a sisterly confidence he
was about to violate? Who knows! At all events, if there was a struggle
it was a brief one, for he now smashed the seal and spread the open
letter before him.

With a muttered expression of impatience did he glance over the four
closely written pages indited in the very minutest of hands and the
faintest possible ink. Like one addressing himself, however, to a severe
task, he set steadily to work, and for nigh an hour never rose from the
table. We have no right, as little have we the wish, to inflict upon our
reader any portion of the labor this process of deciphering cost Davis,
so that we will briefly state what formed the substance of the epistle.
The letter was evidently begun before Lord Lackington had been taken
ill, for it opened with an account of Como and the company at the Villa
d'Este, where they had gone to resume the water-cure. Her Ladyship's
strictures upon the visitors, their morals, and their manners, were
pleasantly and flippantly thrown off. She possessed what would really
seem an especial gift of her class,--the most marvellous use of the
perceptive faculties,--and could read not alone rank and condition, but
character and individuality, by traits of breeding and manner that