A mysterious stranger, who declines to give his name, but is extremely anxious to see Colonel Orpington, and will take no refusal. Had been waiting there half an hour, and seemed inclined to wait on. Miss Orpington says, "How very odd!" The Colonel raises his eyebrows, and ejaculates, "Deuced!" then tells the servant to show the mysterious person into the library; and after the lapse of a few minutes he himself proceeds thither. On entering the room Colonel Orpington perceives the stranger to be a tall, good-looking young man belonging to the middle-classes, and with a curious expression on his face which reminds the Colonel of someone of his acquaintance whom he cannot immediately recollect. The man, who is standing, bows at the Colonel's entrance, but declines to take the seat to which he is motioned. "You wish to speak to me, I believe?" said the Colonel, stiffly. He had committed a stretch of courtesy by inviting a young man obviously in the commercial interest to take a seat, and was somewhat outraged at finding his civility not appreciated. "You are Colonel Orpington?" said the visitor. "I am. I understand you decline to give your name." "For the present, yes. When you have heard my business, if you do not by that time guess who I am, I shall be happy to tell you." "Deuced polite of you, I'm sure," said the Colonel with a grin. "Perhaps you'll tell me what your business is. Some account to be settled, I suppose? If so, I am not in the habit of discussing such matters. If the money is due, you can have it and go." "There is an account to be settled," said the visitor; "but it is not of the nature that you suppose." He spoke very quietly but very earnestly; so earnestly that the Colonel leaned forward in his seat and looked at him with an attention which he had hitherto not bestowed upon him. "Is this a plant?" said the wily old warrior to himself. "My friend here looks very much of the outraged-brother order; but I have had nothing of that kind on hand for years." Then aloud, "What is your business, then?" "I have come here, Colonel Orpington, to appeal to your feelings as a gentleman and a man of honour." "Monstrous good of you to take the trouble, I'm sure," said the Colonel, with the old grin. "Hear me out first, and then say what you please," said the visitor. "Depend upon it, I should not have come here on the chance of submitting myself to miscomprehension and indignity, if I had not some adequate motive." Again the Colonel noticed the likeness to someone in this man's face, and again he failed to trace it to its original. "There is no need to make a long story of what I have to say; it can be very shortly told. You will understand me at once, Colonel Orpington, when I tell you that my name is Merton, and that I am the brother of a young woman with whom you have been for some time past in communication."