"MADAM--I thought you might like to know as how there is a gentleman, named Reuben Dare, lodging here at my aunt's, as seems to have a secret interest in Beechfield. I think, but I am not quite sure, that he spent a few days at the Beechfield inn not long ago. He is tall and thin and brown, with white hair and beard and very black eyes. He will not talk much about Beechfield, and yet seems to know it well. Says he comes from America. He was walking for a long time in Kensington Garden this morning with a young woman that goes by the name of Cynthia West and is a singer. She calls; him 'Father.' Madam, I take the liberty of informing you that Mr. H. Lepel visits her constant, and is said to be going to marry her. She is what gentlemen call good-looking, though too dark for my taste. It does not seem to be generally known that she has a parent living. "Yours respectfully, "SABINA MELDRETH." Mrs. Vane read this letter with considerable surprise. She meditated upon it for some time with closed lips and knitted brows; then she rang the bell for Parker. "Parker," she said, "can you tell me whether any strangers have been visiting Beechfield lately?" "Oh, yes, ma'am! There was an old gentleman at the 'Crown' a few days ago. The post-office woman told me that he came from America." "Do you know his name?" "Yes, ma'am--'Mr. Dare.'" "The woman at the post-office told you that? Did you ever see him?" "Yes, ma'am. He spoke to me one evening when I'd run out with a letter, and asked me the way to the Hall." "And then?" "He said he'd heard of a Mr. Lepel at Beechfield, ma'am," said Parker, rather reluctantly, "and that he knew a Mr. Lepel and wondered, whether it was the same. But it wasn't. The Mr. Lepel he knew was short and fair and was married; the Mr. Lepel that came here, as I told him, was dark and tall and engaged to Miss Vane." "You had no right to tell him that, Parker; it is not public property." "I beg your pardon, I'm sure, ma'am! I'd heard it so often that I thought everybody knew." "What else did this Mr. Dare say?" "I don't remember, ma'am." "Did he ask no other questions? Did he ask, for instance, whether Mr. Lepel was not very fond of Miss Vane?" "Well, yes, ma'am; now you mention it I think he did--though how you came to guess it----" "Never mind how I came to guess it. What did you say?" "I said that he worshipped the ground she trod upon, and that she was just the same with him." "And pray how did you know that?"--Parker shuffled. "Well, ma'am, I couldn't rightly say; but it's what is general with young ladies and young gentlemen, and it wouldn't have looked well, I thought, to ha' said anythink else." "Oh, I see! The remark was purely conventional," said Flossy cynically. "I congratulate you, Parker, on always doing as much harm as you can whenever you take anything in hand. Did he seem pleased by what you said?"