any name you may please, provided it be
not Smith or Brown, or such vulgarisms; and on the receipt of this
letter, write a note, and send it to my house in Portman Square, just
saying, `_So and so_ is arrived.' This will prevent the servants from
obtaining any information by their prying curiosity; and as I have
directed all my letters to be forwarded to my seat in Worcestershire,
I shall come up immediately that I receive it, and by your putting the
name which you mean to assume, I shall know whom to ask for when I
call at the hotel.

"Your affectionate Uncle,

"Windermear."

"One thing is very clear, Timothy," said I, laying the letter on the
table, "that it cannot be intended for me."

"How do you know, sir, that this lord is not your uncle? At all events,
you must do as he bids you."

"What--go for the papers! most certainly I shall not."

"Then how in the name of fortune do you expect to find your father, when
you will not take advantage of such an opportunity of getting into
society? It is by getting possession of other people's secrets, that
you will worm out your own."

"But it is dishonest, Timothy."

"A letter is addressed to you, in which you have certain directions; you
break the seal with confidence, and you read what you find is possibly
not for you; but depend upon it, Japhet, that a secret obtained is one
of the surest roads to promotion. Recollect your position; cut off from
the world, you have to re-unite yourself with it, to recover your
footing, and create an interest. You have not those who love you to
help you--you must not scruple to obtain your object by fear."

"That is a melancholy truth, Tim," replied I; "and I believe I must put
my strict morality in my pocket."

"Do, sir, pray, until you can afford to be moral; it's a very expensive
virtue that; a deficiency of it made you an outcast from the world; you
must not scruple at a slight deficiency on your own part, to regain your
position."

There was so much shrewdness, so much of the wisdom of the serpent in
the remarks of Timothy, that, added to my ardent desire to discover my
father, which since my quitting the gipsy camp had returned upon me with
twofold force, my scruples were overcome, and I resolved that I would
not lose such an opportunity. Still I hesitated, and went up into my
room, that I might reflect upon what I should do. I went to bed
revolving the matter in my mind, and turning over from