But when one difficulty was removed, another started up in its place. There was something very remarkable in a letter being dropped out of the bag; but though it was barely possible that such mishap might have befallen one letter, it was by no means a supposable case that several letters in succession passing between the same persons should all have met with the same accident. In the interruption of these letters there was clearly design and intention; but what was the design, or who was the designer, Penelope could not conjecture. Her suspicions could not find an object to rest upon; she was not aware of having any enemies, and of course she could not imagine that any one but an enemy could have behaved so cruelly. She concluded, therefore, as far as in such a case any conclusion could be made, that the interruption of the correspondence must have been effected by some enemy of Robert Darnley. It was not very pleasant to have the idea of some concealed and unascertained enemy, but there was something gratifying to Penelope in having discovered that verily the cessation of the correspondence had not been voluntary on the part of her lover. Therefore, as it appeared from the letter which had been picked up that the young gentleman had not ceased to write, even after he had some ground to fear that the correspondence was discontinued by the young lady, and as it was also manifest from the letter addressed to Mr Primrose, that Robert Darnley was still desirous of an explanation of the young lady's silence, Penelope could not any longer resist her father's proposal that he should write to the young gentleman. The answer was accordingly sent to Robert Darnley, and the explanation which he sought was amply and fully given. He was also as much puzzled as the young lady was at the circumstance of the letter being picked up, and his conjectures found no resting place. His immediate impulse was to make direct enquiry of the post-boy, and to extort from him, if possible, some account of the very remarkable fact of a correspondence actually suppressed by the failure of three letters in succession. But there was a more interesting matter yet to attend to, and that was the meeting with Penelope after a long absence and an interrupted correspondence. Robert Darnley knew his father's temperament, and felt a difficulty in mentioning the subject to him, but still he could not think of renewing the acquaintance with a view to marriage, without explicitly informing his father of the intention.