"Pshaw! your muff--who has heard of such a thing these twenty years? Muffs were out of fashion before you were born." "No matter, John," replied his sister; "when a woman wears a muff, especially a determined old maid like myself, it is a sign she has no intentions to scratch; and therefore the muff serves all the purposes of a white flag, and prevents the necessity of drawing on a glove, so prudentially recommended by the motto of our cousins, the M'Intoshes."[II-4] "Be it as you will, then," said Mowbray; "for other than you do will it, you will not suffer it to be.--But how is this!--another billet?--We are in request this morning." "Now, Heaven send his lordship may have judiciously considered all the risks which he is sure to encounter on this charmed ground, and resolved to leave his adventure unattempted," said Miss Mowbray. Her brother glanced a look of displeasure at her, as he broke the seal of the letter, which was addressed to him with the words, "Haste and secrecy," written on the envelope. The contents, which greatly surprised him, we remit to the commencement of the next chapter. FOOTNOTE: [II-4] The well known crest of this ancient race, is a cat rampant with a motto bearing the caution--"Touch not the cat, but [_i.e._ _be out_, or without] the glove." CHAPTER V. PRIVATE INFORMATION. ----Ope this letter; I can produce a champion that will prove What is avouched there.---- _King Lear._ The billet which Mowbray received, and read in his sister's presence, contained these words:-- "Sir,--Clara Mowbray has few friends--none, perhaps, excepting yourself, in right of blood, and the writer of this letter, by right of the fondest, truest, and most disinterested attachment, that ever man bore to woman. I am thus explicit with you, because, though it is unlikely that I should ever again see or speak to your sister, I am desirous that you should be clearly acquainted with the cause of that interest, which I must always, even to my dying breath, take in her affairs.