eserve it. Don't be surprised at this genial outburst.
All enthusiastic natures must explode occasionally; and _my_ form of
explosion is--Words.

"Everything you wanted me to do is done. The house is taken; the name is
found; and I am personally acquainted with Mrs. Lecount. After reading
this general statement, you will naturally be interested in possessing
your mind next of the accompanying details. Here they are, at your
service:

"The day after leaving you in London, I traced Mr. Noel Vanstone to
this curious little seaside snuggery. One of his father's innumerable
bargains was a house at Aldborough--a rising watering-place, or Mr.
Michael Vanstone would not have invested a farthing in it. In this house
the despicable little miser, who lived rent free in London, now lives,
rent free again, on the coast of Suffolk. He is settled in his present
abode for the summer and autumn; and you and Mrs. Wragge have only to
join me here, to be established five doors away from him in this elegant
villa. I have got the whole house for three guineas a week, with
the option of remaining through the autumn at the same price. In a
fashionable watering-place, such a residence would have been cheap at
double the money.

"Our new name has been chosen with a wary eye to your suggestions. My
books--I hope you have not forgotten my Books?--contain, under the
heading of _Skins To Jump Into,_ a list of individuals retired from this
mortal scene, with whose names, families, and circumstances I am well
acquainted. Into some of those Skins I have been compelled to Jump, in
the exercise of my profession, at former periods of my career. Others
are still in the condition of new dresses and remain to be tried on. The
Skin which will exactly fit us originally clothed the bodies of a family
named Bygrave. I am in Mr. Bygrave's skin at this moment-and it fits
without a wrinkle. If you will oblige me by slipping into Miss
Bygrave (Christian name, Susan); and if you will afterward push Mrs.
Wragge--anyhow; head foremost if you like--into Mrs. Bygrave (Christian
name, Julia), the transformation will be complete. Permit me to inform
you that I am your paternal uncle. My worthy brother was established
twenty years ago in the mahogany and logwood trade at Belize, Honduras.
He died in that place; and is buried on the south-west side of the local
cemetery, with a neat monument of native wood carved by a self-taught
negro artist. Nineteen months afterward hi