rm."

"Leaving me behind?"

"Leaving you behind. Somebody must stay with Blanche. After having only
been a fortnight married, must I remind you of that?"

"Don't you think Mr. Crum will write before Monday?"

"It will be such a fortunate circumstance for us, if he does write, that
I don't venture to anticipate it."

"You are down on our luck, Sir."

"I detest slang, Arnold. But slang, I own, expresses my state of mind,
in this instance, with an accuracy which almost reconciles me to the use
of it--for once in a way."

"Every body's luck turns sooner or later," persisted Arnold. "I can't
help thinking our luck is on the turn at last. Would you mind taking a
bet, Sir Patrick?"

"Apply at the stables. I leave betting, as I leave cleaning the horses,
to my groom."

With that crabbed answer he closed the conversation for the day.

The hours passed, and time brought the post again in due course--and the
post decided in Arnold's favor! Sir Patrick's want of confidence in the
favoring patronage of Fortune was practically rebuked by the arrival of
a second letter from the Glasgow lawyer on the next day.

"I have the pleasure of announcing" (Mr. Crum wrote) "that I have heard
from Miss Silvester, by the next postal delivery ensuing, after I had
dispatched my letter to Ham Farm. She writes, very briefly, to inform
me that she has decided on establishing her next place of residence in
London. The reason assigned for taking this step--which she certainly
did not contemplate when I last saw her--is that she finds herself
approaching the end of her pecuniary resources. Having already decided
on adopting, as a means of living, the calling of a concert-singer, she
has arranged to place her interests in the hands of an old friend of
her late mother (who appears to have belonged also to the musical
profession): a dramatic and musical agent long established in the
metropolis, and well known to her as a trustworthy and respectable man.
She sends me the name and address of this person--a copy of which you
will find on the inclosed slip of paper--in the event of my having
occasion to write to her, before she is settled in London. This is the
whole substance of her letter. I have only to add, that it does not
contain the slightest allusion to the nature of the errand on which she
left Glasgow."

Sir Patrick happened to be alone when he opened Mr. Crum's letter.

His first proceeding, after reading it, was to consult the rai