m by
Mr. Dudgeon, my confidential clerk. I think I may promise"--with a
chuckle--"they will prove effectual. By your faces, gentlemen, I see
that you regard my appearance as something in the nature of a miracle.
Yet, M. le Vicomte at least should be guessing by this time that it is
the simplest, most natural affair in the world. I engaged my word, sir,
to have you watched. Will it be set down to more than ordinary
astuteness that, finding you in negotiations for the exchange of the
prisoner Clausel, we kept an eye upon him also?--that we followed him to
Dover, and though unfortunate in missing the boat, reached Paris in time
to watch the pair of you leave your lodgings this morning--nay, that
knowing whither you were bound, we reached the Rue du Fouarre in time to
watch you making your dispositions? But I run on too fast. Mr. Anne, I
am entrusted with a letter for you. When, with Mr. Alain's permission,
you have read it, we will resume our little conversation."

He handed me the letter and walked to the fireplace, where he took snuff
copiously, while Alain eyed him like a mastiff about to spring. I broke
open my letter and stooped to pick up a small enclosure which fell from
it.

"MY DEAREST ANNE,--When your letter came and put life into me again,
I sat down in my happiness and wrote you one that I shall never allow
you to see; for it makes me wonder at myself. But when I took it to
Mr. Robbie, he asked to see your letter, and when I showed him the
_wrapper_, declared that it had been tampered with, and if I wrote
and told you what we were doing for you, it might only make your
enemies the wiser. For we have done something, and this (which is
purely a business letter) is to tell you that the credit does not all
belong to Mr. Robbie, or to your Mr. Romaine (who by Mr. Robbie's
account must be quite a tiresome old gentleman, though well-meaning,
no doubt). But on the Tuesday after you left us I had a talk with
Major Chevenix, and when I really felt quite sorry for him (though it
was no use and I told him so), he turned round in a way I could not
but admire and said he wished me well and would prove it. He said the
charge against you was really one for the military authorities alone;
that he had reasons for feeling sure that you had been drawn into
this affair on _a point of honour_, which was quite a different thing
from _what they said_; and that he could not only ma