the man whose
sacrilegious hands robbed my dead son of that which he had left as
a sacred gift to his mother. May the curse of a widowed mother
attend him through life! Let me hear the letter again, Madgin; or
stay, I will read it myself: your French is execrable. Ha, ha!
Monsieur Paul Platzoff, we shall have our revenge out of you yet.'

"She read the letter through for the second time with a sort of
deliberate eagerness which showed me how deeply interested her
heart was in the affair. She dropped her eye-glass and gave a great
sigh when she came to the end of it. 'And what do you propose to do
next, Mr. Madgin?' she asked. 'Your conduct so far satisfies me
that I cannot do better than leave the case entirely in your
hands.'

"'With all due deference to your ladyship,' I replied, 'I think
that my next step ought to be to reconnoitre the enemy's camp.'

"'Exactly my own thought,' said her ladyship. 'When can you start
for Windermere?'

"'To-morrow morning, at nine.'

"After a little more conversation I left her ladyship. She seemed
in better spirits than I had seen her for a long time.

"I need not attempt to describe dear Mirpah's delight when I read
over to her the contents of Monsieur H.'s note. She put her arms
round me and kissed me. 'The five thousand pounds shall yet be
yours, papa,' she said. Stranger things than that have come to pass
before now. But I am working only for her and James. Should I ever
be so fortunate as to touch the five thousand pounds, one-half of
it will go to form a dowry for my Mirpah. Below is a free
translation of the business part of M.H.'s letter, which was simply
an extract from some secret ledger kept at the Embassy:--

"'Platzoff, Paul. A Russian by birth and a conspirator by choice.
Born in Moscow in 1802, his father being a rich leather-merchant of
that city. Implicated at the age of nineteen in sundry
insurrectionary movements; tried, and sentenced to three years'
imprisonment in a military fortress. After his release, left Russia
without permission, having first secretly transferred his property
into foreign securities. Went to Paris. Issued a scurrilous
pamphlet directed against his Majesty the Emperor. Spent several
years in travel--now in Europe, now in the East, striving wherever