dea was certainly likely to be verified. Mrs. Richardson had been
several times to the Manor House, she wrote, and had evidently taken a
fancy to Leah. A few days later there was still more satisfactory news.

"It is all arranged," she wrote triumphantly. "Mrs. Richardson has
engaged Miss Jacobi as a travelling companion, and will pay her a
handsome salary. They are to leave England in about ten days' time.
Mrs. Godfrey says that she and the Colonel will be quite sorry to lose
their guest--Miss Jacobi is so gentle and affectionate that they have
both grown fond of her; and Mrs. Godfrey predicts that Mrs. Richardson
will never part with her."

Malcolm paid his second visit to Oxford soon after the receipt of this
letter. Dinah was delighted to see him, and to hear that he intended to
spend a quiet Sunday with them.

"I was just going to write to you," she said, when the first greetings
had passed between them. "Cedric was so upset last night. He had a
letter from that odious man Jacobi. Such a letter! written on a dirty
scrap of paper in pencil. But I will show it to you; Cedric left it
here;" and Dinah unlocked her writing-case.

Malcolm frowned as he read it.

"I am up Queer Street, my boy," wrote Jacobi; "12 Gresham Gardens is in
the hands of the bailiffs, and every stick of furniture is to be sold;
and as England is rather too hot for me just now, I am going to make
tracks for New York. If I could see that sister of mine, I would give
her a piece of my mind. What a cursed fool the girl has been! But it is
all that fellow Herrick's fault. He is a deep one, and he has a game of
his own on hand; I am as sure of that as that my name is Saul Jacobi.
Well, ta-ta, old fellow, I will let you know my diggings later on. Hang
that fellow! if it had not been for him we should have pulled the job
through, and you would have had the handsomest wife in Europe. Well,
that game's played out, and I was never the one to cry over spilt milk.
'A short life and a merry one,' that's my creed.--Yours up to date,"

"SAUL MELCHIOR JACOBI."

"So we are rid of the brute for the present," observed Malcolm. The
expression seemed to alarm Dinah.

"For the present?" she repeated anxiously.

"My dear lady," he returned gravely, "do you suppose that we have seen
the last of Saul Jacobi?"

"Indeed--indeed, I hope so," very earnestly.

"Then 'hope told a flattering tale,' and you must not believe her,"
replie