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e, I recalled myself to Mrs. Greyle here, whom I had known many years ago, and I walked back to this house with her and her charming daughter, and--don't be angry, Mrs. Greyle--while the mother's back was turned--on hospitable thoughts intent--I got the daughter to lend me--secretly--a letter written by the present Squire of Scarhaven. Armed with that, I went home to my lodgings in Norcaster, found the letter written by the American Marston Greyle, and compared it with them. And--here is the result!" The old actor selected the two American letters from his papers, laid them out on the table, and placed the letter which Audrey had given him beside them. "Now!" he said, as his three companions bent eagerly over these exhibits, "Look at those three letters. All bear the same signature, Marston Greyle--but the hand-writing of those two is as different from that of this one as chalk is from cheese!" CHAPTER XIV BY PRIVATE TREATY There was little need for the three deeply interested listeners to look long at the letters--one glance was sufficient to show even a careless eye that the hand which had written one of them had certainly not written the other two. The letter which Audrey had handed to Mr. Dennie was penned in the style commonly known as commercial--plain, commonplace, utterly lacking in the characteristics which are supposed to denote imagination and a sense of artistry. It was the sort of caligraphy which one comes across every day in shops and offices and banks--there was nothing in any upstroke, downstroke or letter which lifted it from the very ordinary. But the other two letters were evidently written by a man of literary and artistic sense, possessing imagination and a liking for effect. It needed no expert in handwriting to declare that two totally different individuals had written those letters. "And now," observed Mr. Dennie, breaking the silence and putting into words what each of the others was vaguely feeling, "the question is--what does all this mean? To start with, Marston Greyle is a most uncommon name. Is it possible there can be two persons of that name? That, at any rate, is the first thing that strikes me." "It is not the first thing that strikes me," said Mrs. Greyle. She took up the typescript which the old actor had brought in his packet, and held its title-page significantly before him. "That is the first thing that strikes me!" she exclaimed. "The Marston Greyle who sen
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