pistle which Polly
would desire suppressed; yet, for some obscure reason, he would rather
have read it. But his promise was given. Polly, in turn, promised to
write another letter for him as soon as possible.

So they drove in a hansom, through a night which washed the fog away,
to Kennington Road, and whilst Polly kept her place in the vehicle
Gammon ran upstairs. There lay the letter on his dressing-table. He
hastened down with it, and before handing it to its writer kissed the
envelope.

"Go along!" exclaimed Polly, in high good humour, as she reached out
with eager fingers.

Late as it was he accompanied her to Shaftesbury Avenue, and they
parted tenderly after having come to an agreement about the next
evening.

CHAPTER XVIII

LORD POLPERRO'S REPRESENTATIVE

By discreet inquiry Mr. Gammon procured an introduction to "Debrett,"
who supplied him with a great deal of information. In the first place
he learned that the present Lord Polperro, fourth of that title, was
not the son, but the brother of the Lord Polperro preceding him, both
being offspring, it was plain, of the peer whose will occasioned a
lawsuit some forty years ago. Granted the truth of scandalous rumour,
which had such remarkable supports in facial characteristics, the
present bearer of the title would be, in fact, half-brother to Francis
Quodling. Again, it was discoverable that the Lord Polperro of to-day
succeeded to the barony in the very year of Mrs. Clover's husband's
second disappearance.

"Just what I said," was Gammon's mental comment as he thumped the
aristocratic pages.

Now for the women. To begin with, Lord Polperro was set down a
bachelor--ha! ha! Then he had one sister, Miss Adela Trefoyle, older
than himself, and that might very well be the lady who was seen beside
him at the theatre. Then again, though his elder brother's male
children had died, there was living a daughter, by name Adeline,
recently wedded to--by jorrocks!--Lucian Gildersleeve, Esquire. Why,
here was "the whole boiling of 'em!"

Mr. Gammon eagerly jotted down the particulars in his notebook, and
swallowed the whisky at his side with gusto. Not once, however, had he
asked himself why this man of guiles and freaks chose to mask under the
name of Clover, an omission to be accounted for not by any lack of wit,
but by mere educational defect. He could not have been further from
suspecting that his utterance of the name Clover had given his
genealogical