. Stevenson could have found no cause for jealousy in the
matter of the letters. He might have objected to their being written at
all, but beyond that they were innocuous. For all the personality they
contained they might have been transcripts of Jimmie's reports to his
firm. He clung doggedly to his prescribed topics, and he could not have
devised a surer method of arousing the curiosity and the interest of
this spoiled young person. She spent hours, which should have been
devoted to the contemplation of approaching bliss, in reading between
the prosaic lines, in searching for sentiment in a catalogue of railway
stations, for tenderness in description of eccentric _tables d'hote_.
Finding no trace of his old gallantry in all the closely written pages,
she attributed its absence to obedience and accepted it as the higher
tribute to her power. She was forced to judge her lover's longing by the
quantity rather than by the ardor of his words, and to detect the
yearning of a true lover's heart through such effectual disguise as:

"Drewitt is a fine old chap; as placid and as bright as this country
and a great deal more so than anyone you'll see in the windows of the
Union League Club. He received me so cordially that I felt awkward about
introducing the object of my visit, but when I had admired everything in
sight from the mountains in the distance to the rug I was sitting on, I
finally faced the situation and did it.

"'Dear me,' said he, 'are those directors still troubling themselves
about their transaction with me?' I admitted apologetically that they
were; that their books refused to close over the gap left by the
vanishing of $50,000, and that he was earnestly requested to return to
New York and to lend his acknowledged business acumen, etc., etc. He
never turned a hair. Said they--and I--were very kind. Nothing could
give him greater pleasure. But the ladies preferred Japan. Therefore he,
etc., etc., etc. But he would be delighted to explain the matter fully
to me; to supply me with all the figures and information I desired. (And
that, of course, is as much as I am expected to bring back.) But he
would have to postpone his return until--and you should have seen the
whimsical, quizzical old eye of his--until the nations would agree upon
new extradition treaties. Then, of course, etc., etc., etc. Meanwhile,
as there was no immediate urgency about the matter, as he hoped that I
would stay with them for as long a time a