, took these gloomy prophecies and editorial
vapourings much to heart and strove valiantly to confound the man's
detractors and to put the spur to the man himself. He would not believe
that the end had come, that his mental powers had run suddenly against a
dead wall beyond which there was no possibility of proceeding. Something
was weighing upon his mind and damping his spirits that was all; and it
must be the business of those who were his friends to take steps to
discover what that something was and, if possible, to eliminate it. He
therefore sought out Dollops and held secret conclave with him; and
Dollops dolefully epitomized the difficulty thus: "A skirt--that's
what's at the bottom of it, sir. No letter at all these ten days past.
She's chucked him, I'm afraid." And with this brief preface told all
that he was able to tell; which, after all, was not much.

He could only explain about the letter that used to come off and on in
the other days and which brought such a flow of high spirits to the man
for whom it was intended; he could only say that it was addressed in a
woman's hand and bore always the one postmark; and when Narkom heard
what that postmark was and recollected where Lady Chepstow's country
seat lay, and who was with her, he puckered up his lips as if he were
about to whistle and made two slim arches with his uplifted eyebrows.

"Sir, if only you could sneak off and run down there without his knowing
of it--it wouldn't do to write a letter, Mr. Narkom: he'd be on to that
before you could turn round, sir," the boy ventured hopefully; "but if
only you could run down there and give her a tip what she's a doing of
and what she's a chuckin' away, what a Man she's a throwin' down, maybe,
sir, maybe--"

"Yes, 'maybe,'" agreed the superintendent, after a moment's reflection.
"At any rate it's worth a trial." And went, forthwith.

Not that it was a prudent thing to do; not that it is wise for any man
at any time to interfere, even with the best intentions, with the course
of another man's love affairs; and, finally, not that it was at all
necessary or had any influence whatsoever upon the events which
succeeded the step. Indeed, he might have spared himself the trouble,
for he had barely covered a fifth of the distance when the country post
was delivered in London, and Cleek, rocketing up in one sweep from the
Pit to the Gateway, stood laughing huskily with a letter from Ailsa in
his hand.

He ripped off t