.

_66 Bedford Row,
London, W.C.
11th March, 1921._

_Dear Sir,_

Anthony Lyveden, Esq.

_We understand that this gentleman was recently in your service._

_We have to make to him a communication of the utmost importance, and
one which it will be to his great advantage to receive._

_Since, however, we have already addressed to him one letter c/o
yourself, to which we have had no reply, and since we have reason to
believe that he has quitted your service, we shall be much obliged if
you will be so good as to inform us where he may now be found, or,
failing that, the address to which he proceeded on leaving your house.
If you should be unable to give us this information, we shall be
grateful for any suggestion you may be in a position to make as to the
probability of his present whereabouts._

_We are, dear sir,
Yours faithfully,
BULRUSH & Co._

_Joseph Bumble, Esq.,
The Shrubbery,
Hawthorne,
Hants._

Mr. Slumper was in the act of preparing to fold the letter before
inserting it in the envelope which he had carefully addressed, when he
saw the words "Anthony Lyveden."

For a moment he stared at them. Then, glancing furtively round, for it
was no business of his to read the letters for whose dispatch he was
responsible, he subjected the sheet to a hurried perusal.

What he read excited him. There was no doubt about that. In a moment
his nerves were at leapfrog. Fingers and lips and eyelids all
flickered and fidgeted in a manner painful to see. Twice he half rose
from his chair, only to sink back upon the edge, twittering.... Here
was an intention with no drive behind it. The truth is, the back of
Mr. Slumper's will was broken in twain.

The exact moment at which the fracture had occurred cannot be stated
with any certainty. A sentence of three months' imprisonment in the
second division was not responsible. The smash was before that.
Probably it came with the realization that he stood beneath the shadow
of the Criminal Law. Be that as it may, the ex-financier emerged from
prison a broken man. But for the interest of Mr. Blithe, the senior
partner of Bulrush & Co., who had had him met at the gates and
straightway sent him for a month to the seaside, poor Mr. Slumper must
have sunk like a stone. When he was fit to follow an occupation, he
was encouraged to accept a living wage, the work of an office-boy, and
a tiny room to himself....

Here,