d the 'Miss,' and had never
failed to spend two or three hours alone with her every day. Though
his manner had not changed much, and he treated her with a sort of
queer formality, much as he would have behaved if she had been twenty
years old instead of nine, she had been growing more and more sure
that he loved her and would give her anything in the world she asked
for, though there was really nothing she wanted; and in return she
grew gratefully fond of him by quick degrees, till her affection
expressed itself in her solemn proposal to 'give him a kiss.'

Not long after that Mr. Van Torp found amongst his letters one from
Lady Maud, of which the envelope was stamped with the address of her
father's country place, 'Craythew.' He read the contents carefully,
and made a note in his pocket-book before tearing the sheet and the
envelope into a number of small bits.

There was nothing very compromising in the note, but Mr. Van Torp
certainly did not know that his butler regularly offered first and
second prizes in the servants' hall, every Saturday night, for the
'best-put-together letters' of the week--to those of his satellites,
in other words, who had been most successful in piecing together
scraps from the master's wastepaper basket. In houses where the
post-bag has a patent lock, of which the master keeps the key, this
diversion has been found a good substitute for the more thrilling
entertainment of steaming the letters and reading them before taking
them upstairs. If Mrs. Dubbs was aware of Mr. Crookes' weekly
distribution of rewards she took no notice of it; but as she rarely
condescended to visit the lower regions, and only occasionally asked
Mr. Crookes to dine in her own sitting-room, she may be allowed the
benefit of the doubt; and, besides, she was a very superior person.

On the day after he had received Lady Maud's note, Mr. Van Torp rode
out by himself. No one, judging from his looks, would have taken him
for a good rider. He rode seldom, too, never talked of horses, and was
never seen at a race. When he rode he did not even take the trouble to
put on gaiters, and, after he had bought Oxley Paddox, the first time
that his horse was brought to the door, by a groom who had never seen
him, the latter could have sworn that the millionaire had never been
on a horse before and was foolishly determined to break his neck. On
that occasion Mr. Van Torp came down the steps, with a big cigar in
his mouth, in his ord