‘You know I asked for them back before you left Malta, and you wouldn’t give them to me,’ said Lady Ilfracombe, ‘and now it is much more important than it was then. I was a fool not to make my father insist on their return, but I was so dreadfully afraid that he would read them.’ ‘Ah, that wouldn’t have done, would it?’ returned Mr Portland carelessly. ‘You had better leave them with me, Nora. I’m their best custodian. The perusal of them gives me pleasure, whilst on others it might have a contrary effect, eh?’ ‘No, no, you have promised to return them to me, and you must keep your word,’ her ladyship was replying just as Mr Sterndale entered the room, and said,-- ‘Lord Ilfracombe sends his apologies to you, my lady, but one of the horses requires his attention and he has strolled out to the stables, but he desired me to tell you that he will not be absent more than a few minutes.’ END OF VOL. I. COLSTON AND COMPANY, PRINTERS, EDINBURGH. Transcriber’s Note: This book was written in a period when many words had not become standardized in their spelling. Words may have multiple spelling variations or inconsistent hyphenation in the text. These have been left unchanged. Jargon, dialect, obsolete and alternative spellings were retained. Misspelled words were corrected. Words and phrases in italics are surrounded by underscores, _like this_. Those in bold are surrounded by equal signs, =like this=. Obvious printing errors, such as backwards, upside down, or partially printed letters and punctuation, were corrected. Final stops missing at the end of sentences and abbreviations were added.