DEAR PERRYGREEN: Your letter has made me cry dredfully. I cannot bear to think of you so lonly because I am lonly to. I cannot bear to think of you on your nees I would rather think of you as I saw you last so brave and determined. Pray for me as I pray for you only don't rite to me or I shall run back to you because I am not very brave and want you so. O dear Perrygreen always love YOUR DIANA. "You're looking confoundedly glum, Perry; I hope the _billet_ is quite sufficiently _doux_?" "Quite--indeed, quite!" said I, starting out of my reverie. "It is a letter such as only Diana could have written--" "Then your woe undoubtedly proceeds from stomach; for the emptiness of same I prescribe ham, shall we say mingled--judiciously blended--with beef--" "Abhorrent thought!" I exclaimed. At this moment, after a discreet knock on the door, my valet Clegg entered. "Sir," said he in his soft and toneless voice, "the groom is below; shall you ride or drive this morning?" "Neither!" I answered, whereupon Clegg bowed and withdrew. "Excellent!" nodded Anthony. "Nothing like walking to make an empty stomach aware of its vacuity. By the way, queer article that Clegg fellow of yours--face like a mask! Where did you pick him up?" "I don't remember. He had excellent references, I believe. Why do you ask?" "Fancy I've seen him before. Come, let us adventure forth in search of your appetite." To us in the hall came Clegg to bring our hats and canes. "Were you ever in the service of a Captain Danby?" enquired Anthony, his keen gaze on Clegg's impassive face. "Yes, sir, I was valet to Captain Marmaduke Danby--two years ago." "I saw you with him once at a small inn called 'The Jolly Waggoner.'" Clegg bowed deferentially, but when he looked up his pale eyes seemed to glow strangely and his pallid cheek was slightly flushed. "Yes, sir, Captain Danby sent for me to attend him there--I found him in bed exceedingly--unwell. He was--suffering, sir. He suffered quite a--good deal of--pain, sir--of pain." Saying which, Clegg bowed us out into the street with a deeper obeisance than usual. "Strange!" said Anthony, taking my arm. "You have probably forgotten this Danby, the fellow I had the pleasure of thrashing, Perry?" "I shall never forget how you stood on him and wiped your boots, Anthony." "I did chastise him somewhat severely, I remember. But I learned something more of his villainy from Barbara, as we drove away, and I returned next day to give him another dose but found him in bed bandaged like a mummy and this Clegg fellow of yours beside him. I learned afterwards that he was friend to that same scoundrel Barbara's father was forcing the sweet soul to marry, damn him!" "The world seems full of unhanged villains!" said I, through shut teeth. "Oh, is it, begad?" "It is!" "You're devilish gloomy, Perry." "I fear I am."