ned to his watch. I didn't say much then, but in Monte Carlo I
bought him quite a decent one for fifty dollars (he really does deserve
it), and gave it to him this morning with a "merry Christmas." You've no
idea how pleased he was. He seemed quite touched.

There! a bell somewhere is striking midnight. Good-bye, dearest. My
thoughts have been full of you all day.

Your
Molly.

JIMMY PAYNE TO CHAUNCEY RANDOLPH

Grand Hotel, Rome, _December 27_.

Dear Mr. Randolph,

I find myself in a difficult position, but I am going to take the bull
by the horns and write to you of certain things which seem to me of
importance. I trust to your friendship and your knowledge of my feelings
and desires towards Molly to excuse me if you consider that I am being
officious. You will understand when I have explained that I cannot hope
to make her see the matter in its true light; but you, as a man and her
father, will do so, and will comprehend that my motive is for her
protection.

I have thanked you already for answering my letter, in which I begged
that you would let me know in which part of Europe Molly was travelling,
and she has told me that she wrote you of our meeting at Pau. I reached
there a couple of days sooner than she and Miss Kedison did. In fact, I
saw their arrival in the famous automobile of whose adventures you must
have heard much. The minute my eyes lighted upon the _chauffeur_ I felt
an instinctive distrust of the man, and I have learned through
experience not to disregard the warnings of my instinct. It has served
me more than one good turn in the street when the markets were wobbling.
Now I have been a good deal chaffed about a resemblance to Sherlock
Holmes, the great detective of fiction, but I acknowledge and am proud
of that resemblance. I venture to think that it is not wholly confined
to externals. A certain detective instinct was born in me. It began to
show itself when I was a little boy at school, and since then I have
trained and cultivated it, as a kind of higher education of the brain.
In several instances I have been able to expose frauds, which, but for
the purely impersonal, scientific interest I took in the affairs, might
have remained undetected. In these experiments I have made enemies of
course; but what matter?

The inte