oming in?" said Mrs. Buckley. "Here is a letter for
you, which I ought to have given you before."

The Major went in and received the mysterious epistle which the captain
had brought the night before. When he saw it he whistled.

They sat waiting to know the contents. He was provokingly long in
opening it, and when he did, he said nothing, but read it over twice
with a lengthening visage. Now also it became apparent that there was
another letter inside, at the superscription of which the Major having
looked, put it in his pocket, and turning round to the mantel-piece,
with his back to the others, began drumming against the fender with his
foot, musingly.

A more aggravating course of proceeding he could not have resorted to.
Here they were all dying of curiosity, and not a word did he seem
inclined to answer. At last, Mrs. Buckley, not able to hold out any
longer, said,--

"From the Governor, was it not, my love?"

"Yes," he said, "from the Governor. And very important too," and then
relapsed into silence.

Matters were worse than ever. But after a few minutes he turned round
to them suddenly, and said,--

"You have heard of Baron Landstein."

"What," said Sam, "the man that the Doctor's always abusing so? Yes, I
know all about him, of course."

"The noble Landstein," said Alice. "In spite of the Doctor's abuse he
is a great favourite of mine. How well he seems to have behaved at Jena
with those two Landwehr regiments."

"Landsturm, my love," said the Major.

"Yes, Landsturm I mean. I wonder if he is still alive, or whether he
died of his wounds."

"The Doctor," said Sam, "always speaks of him as dead."

"He is not only alive," said the Major, "but he is coming here. He will
be here to-day. He may come any minute."

"What! the great Landstein," said Sam.

"The same man," said the Major.

"The Doctor will have a quarrel with him, father. He is always abusing
him. He says he lost the battle of Jena, or something."

"Be quiet, Sam, and don't talk. Watch what follows."

The Doctor was seen hurrying up the garden-walk. He put down his gun
outside, and bursting open the glass door, stepped into the room,
holding aloft a black bird, freshly killed, and looking around him for
applause.

"There!" he said; "I told you so."

The Major walked across the room, and put a letter in his hand, the one
which was enclosed in the mysterious epistle before mentioned. "Baron,"
he said, "here is a letter for you."