hough, that I
have left it between a little daughter who was born six months ago, and
your son Mark. My own intentions are to stop out here until I get the
rank of general, and I have taken the measures that I have done in case
a bullet or a sharp attack of fever carries me off suddenly. I hope that
you will have carried out the provisions of my will, and I hope also
that I shall have come home and talked the whole matter over with you
before I go under.

"Your affectionate brother."

"A singular man," Mr. Prendergast said, as he laid the letter down on
the table beside him. "What trouble these crotchety people do give!
I suppose you have altogether put aside that folly of his about the
jewels?"

"Well, no, I can't say that I have, Mr. Prendergast. Do you know that
I have a fancy--it may only be a fancy, but if so, I cannot shake it
off--that I am watched by Lascars. There was one standing at the corner
of the street as I came up this morning, and again and again I have
run across one. It is not always the same man, nor have I any absolute
reasons for believing that they are watching me; still, somehow or
other, I do come across them more frequently than seems natural."

"Pooh, nonsense, Mark! I should have thought that you were too sensible
a fellow to have such ridiculous fancies in your head."

"Of course, I should never have thought of such a thing, Mr.
Prendergast, if it had not been for what my father told me, that my
uncle was desperately in earnest about it, and had an intense conviction
that someone watched his every movement."

"Don't let us talk of such folly any longer," the lawyer said irritably.
"Now that you have got the money, the best thing you can do is to go at
once and carry out what was the wish both of your father and your uncle,
and ask your cousin to marry you; that will put an end to the whole
business, and I can tell you that I am positively convinced that the
day she gets twenty-one she will renounce the property, and that if you
refuse to take it she will pass it over to some hospital or other. You
cannot do better than prevent her from carrying out such an act of folly
as that, and the only way that I can see is by your marrying her. I
gathered from what you said when I gave you the same advice at Reigate
that you liked her and should have done it had it not been for her
coming into the estate instead of you. Well, you are now in a position
to ask her to marry you without the possibil