It is all very perplexing and I do so wish it had happened to any one but Roger! He is much hurt, I know, though he conceals it well, of course, in his quiet, steadfast sort of way. What a man he is! He would never be willing, I am sure, to go back to his profession in New York and leave Margarita alone in Europe, exposed to all the temptations and scandal and dangers that seem almost inevitable in the life she is preparing for. They might as well be completely and legally separated, in that case. He has money enough without practising law, of course, but he would never be idle--he loves his work--and as for hanging about as her business manager--I wish you could have seen his face when Madame suggested it! I explained to her it was not precisely the sort of thing his family were accustomed to do. She can't understand it, of course--she has the French idea of a lawyer. When I told her that Mr. Bradley was really _vrai proprietaire_ and well-to-do aside from his practice, she had more respect for him. "Then he will not need to occupy himself," she said triumphantly, "and all the better. Let him rent an estate and live _en gentilhomme_!" She has promised to go back to America for the summer for two months--she can learn her _roles_ there, she says, and Roger wants to go. _Eh bien!_ We shall have to wait. The child is beautiful--so strong and well, and so ridiculously the image of Roger. She is trying to stand now--think of it! My poor little rats were two years old before they could. _A vous toujours_, SUE. [FROM MY ATTORNEYS] SEARS, BRADLEY AND SEARS, Attorneys and Counsellors-at-Law. Cable Address, Valleshta. 2-- COURT STREET, BOSTON, MASS. March 10th, 188-- WINFRED JERROLDS, Esq., Cf., Coutts Bros., Cairo, Egypt. DEAR SIR: Pursuant to our letters to you of six weeks ago, we had our Mr. James go to the North Carolina plantation to investigate and report on the property. He was almost at once approached with offers to buy the property on terms which surprised him. He communicated with us and we took the responsibility of sending one of our best mining experts to look over the ground. We found that Pittsburg men had been making heavy purchases of land a few miles west across the range and had also been buying tracts adjacent to your lands both north and south; they had also had a party of engineers all over your lands under the guise of a fishing party.