your own benefit. He was sorry he
could not help me to find you. He seemed, indeed, quite
distressed about you and sympathised with me in my trouble.

"My poor Morgan! How could a genius like you be bothered with
having to manage money? What is the use of a man like you having
a rich father if his riches are not for you to enjoy! If you had
only said a word! It was hopelessly foolish of me to imagine you
had suddenly developed the ability to husband your resources. But
you seemed so comfortable and cheerful when I last saw you that I
did not suspect anything. And then my attention was so
concentrated on my book that I scarcely had a thought for
anything else.

"You must forgive me for having called a private detective to my
aid. What else could I do? The anxiety was terrible, and I hadn't
slept for nights. He was a long time about it, and he ought to
have done it sooner, for I gave him a very good photo of you to
work with. But he assumed you had gone further afield, and sought
to find you in the provinces. So your wife is an actress! The
detective assures me she stood naked on the stage before a whole
theatre full of people. That isn't true, I hope.

"As I have already said, I was too late when I called at your
address, and the landlady said she couldn't forward letters, as
no new address had been left with her. But it struck me that
perhaps she had her reasons for making that statement, and so now
I write in the hope that my letter may be forwarded after all. If
it is, then write at once to your dear father, who, if you have
made a mistake, will help you to live it down. I implore you not
to keep away from me any longer.

"Of course, I have seen the Medhursts several times. John and
Kate feel the blow quite as much as I do, though they have done
their best to console me. Margaret, too, poor girl, is very pale.
She shuts herself up in her studio and pretends to be working.
But I'm hanged if I can make out what she's at. There is just a
mass of blackfish wax, and, though I always find her shaping it
with her fingers, it always seems to look the same. The
composition of my book has progressed fairly well, but I am
looking forward to your helping me with it a tremendous lot."

Though he was twenty-eight, Morgan felt he still had in him a