h Allan is destined to be the victim, and that the prime
mover in the conspiracy is the vile woman who helped his mother's
marriage and who hastened his mother's death.

"Feeling this conviction, I have not hesitated to do, for Allan's sake,
what I would have done for no other creature in the world. I have left
my hotel, and have installed myself (with my old servant Robert) in
a house opposite the house to which I traced the two women. We are
alternately on the watch (quite unsuspected, I am certain, by the
people opposite) day and night. All my feelings, as a gentleman and a
clergyman, revolt from such an occupation as I am now engaged in; but
there is no other choice. I must either do this violence to my own
self-respect, or I must leave Allan, with his easy nature, and in his
assailable position, to defend himself against a wretch who is prepared,
I firmly believe, to take the most unscrupulous advantage of his
weakness and his youth. His mother's dying entreaty has never left my
memory; and, God help me, I am now degrading myself in my own eyes in
consequence.

"There has been some reward already for the sacrifice. This day
(Saturday) I have gained an immense advantage--I have at last seen the
woman's face. She went out with her veil down as before; and Robert kept
her in view, having my instructions, if she returned to the house, not
to follow her back to the door. She did return to the house; and the
result of my precaution was, as I had expected, to throw her off her
guard. I saw her face unveiled at the window, and afterward again in the
balcony. If any occasion should arise for describing her particularly,
you shall have the description. At present I need only say that she
looks the full age (five-and-thirty) at which you estimated her, and
that she is by no means so handsome a woman as I had (I hardly know why)
expected to see.

"This is all I can now tell you. If nothing more happens by Monday or
Tuesday next, I shall have no choice but to apply to my lawyers for
assistance; though I am most unwilling to trust this delicate and
dangerous matter in other hands than mine. Setting my own feelings
however, out of the question, the business which has been the cause of
my journey to London is too important to be trifled with much longer as
I am trifling with it now. In any and every case, depend on my keeping
you informed of the progress of events, and believe me yours truly,

"DECIMUS BROCK."

Midwinter s