ool_, and thinks Mrs. A.
is the most beautiful woman in Yorkshire. Her dress, they say, was
_magnificent_, which I can hardly credit, as she usually goes
about in the _plainest_ tailor-made clothes. By the way. I
forgot to mention that the Anstruthers have restored our parish
church. The vicar, of course, is enraptured with them. I dislike
people who are so free with their money and yet reserved in their
friendship. It is a sure sign, when they _court_ popularity,
that they dread something leaking out about the _past_.

"_Do_ write soon. Don't forget 'Jenks' and 'Lord Ventnor';
those are the lines of _inquiry_.

"Yours,

"MATILDA.

"PS.--Perhaps I am misjudging them. Mrs. Anstruther has just sent
me an invitation to an 'At Home' next Thursday.--M.

"PPS.--Dear me, this letter will never get away, I have just
destroyed another envelope to tell you that the vicar came in to
tea. From what he told me about Lord Ventnor, I imagine that Mrs.
Anstruther said no more than he deserved.--M."

NOTE.--Colonel Anstruther's agents discovered, after long and costly
inquiry, that a Shields man named James Spence, a marine engineer,
having worked for a time as a miner in California, shipped as third
engineer on a vessel bound for Shanghai. There be quitted her. He
passed some time ashore in dissipation, took another job on a Chinese
river steamer, and was last heard of some eighteen months before the
_Sirdar_ was wrecked. He then informed a Chinese boarding-house
keeper that he was going to make his fortune by accompanying some
deep-sea fishermen, and he bought some stores and tools from a
marine-store dealer. No one knew when or where he went, but from that
date all trace of him disappeared. The only persons who mourned his
loss were his mother and sister. The last letter they received from him
was posted in Shanghai. Though the evidence connecting him with the
recluse of Rainbow Island was slight, and purely circumstantial,
Colonel Anstruther provided for the future of his relatives in a manner
that secured their lasting gratitude.

***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WINGS OF THE MORNING***

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