you will always believe her
a friend to whom your proffered devotion was an honor, and will
be--if you will subdue it to her deserts--a grateful thing to
remember. We shall remain in Warsaw a fortnight longer, as I think
yourself will agree that it is better we should not
immediately return to the castle. Jean, who must carry a fresh
order already, will bring you this, and we hope to have good news
of Henri. I send back the papers, which were unnecessary; we never
doubted you, and we shall of course keep your secret so long as you
choose to wear it.
"AMELIE DE----"

The more light I seemed to obtain, the more inexplicable the
circumstances became. The diploma and the note of salary were grounds
for supposing that "Otto" occupied the position of tutor in a noble
Polish family. There was the receipt for a box addressed to Count
Ladislas Kasincsky, and I temporarily added his family name to the
writer of the French letter, assuming her to be his wife. "Jean"
appeared to be a servant, and "Henri" I set down as the son whom Otto
was instructing in the castle or family seat in the country, while the
parents were in warsaw. Plausible, so far; but the letter was not such
a one as a countess would have written to her son's tutor, under similar
circumstances. It was addressed to a social equal, apparently to a man
younger than herself, and for whom--supposing him to have been a tutor,
secretary, or something of the kind--she must have felt a special
sympathy. Her mention of "the papers" and "your secret" must refer to
circumstances which would explain the mystery. "So long as you choose to
WEAR it," she had written: then it was certainly a secret connected with
his personal history.

Further, it appeared that "Jean" was sent to him with "an order." What
could this be, but one of the nine orders for money which lay before my
eyes? I examined the dates of the latter, and lo! there was one written
upon the same day as the lady's letter. The sums drawn by these orders
amounted in all to four thousand two hundred rubles. But how should a
tutor or secretary be in possession of his employer's money? Still, this
might be accounted for; it would imply great trust on the part of the
latter, but no more than one man frequently reposes in another. Yet, if
it were so, one of the memoranda confronted me with a conflicting
fact: "Dinner with Jean, 58 rubles." The