process of shaving. I
don't think they are very bad. I put them at the beginning of my
letter so as to make sure that you will read them, a process of
which I might reasonably be doubtful had I left them for the fag
end of my communication. Learn, sir, that you have a son who is a
born poet!!!

"But now to business.

"Don't hurry over my letter, dear dad; don't run away with the idea
that I have any grand discovery to lay before you. My epistle will
be merely a record of trifles and commonplaces, and that simply
from the fact that I have nothing better to write about. To me, at
least, they seem nothing but trifles. For you they may possess an
occult significance of which I know nothing.

"In the first place. On the day following that of your departure
from Windermere, I was duly inducted by Cleon into my new duties.
They are few in number, and by no means difficult. So far I have
contrived to get through them without any desperate blunder.
Another thing I have done of which you will be pleased to hear: I
have contrived to ingratiate myself with the mulatto, and am in
high favour with him. You were right in your remarks; he is worth
cultivation, in so far that he is all-powerful in our little
establishment. M. Platzoff never interferes in the management of
Bon Repos. Everything is left to Cleon; and whatever the mulatto
may be in other respects, so far as I can judge he is quite worthy
of the trust reposed in him. I believe him to be thoroughly
attached to his master.

"Of M. Platzoff I have very little to tell you. Even in his own
house and among his own people he is a recluse. He has his own
special rooms, and three-fourths of his time is spent in them.
Above all things he dislikes to see strange faces about him, and I
have been instructed by Cleon to keep out of his way as much as
possible. Even the old servants, people who have been under his
roof for years, let themselves be seen by him as seldom as need be.
In person he is a little, withered-up, yellow-skinned man, as dry
as a last year's pippin, but very keen, bright and vivacious. He
speaks such excellent English that he must have lived in this
country for many years. One thing I have discovered about him, that
he is a great smoker. He has a room set specially apart for the