“My Dear Father,--I am still inclined to stop in this place for a while. Nobody has the slightest suspicion that I am not a _bonâ fide_ English agent and that my name is not Gregory Staines. You still urge me to come home. I think your advice unwise, for I am sure that girl will leave no stone unturned to find me, and arrest would be very distasteful to me. I am very much better as I am. I live in comfort, have no tiresome business restrictions, and, so far, have won so much in an English gaming-house here that it has not been necessary to encroach on the money I have realised. You need not imagine that I am careless, or that I am courting recognition. Even if anyone who knew me was to come here, I am too well disguised to be identified, and even if identification were possible, it would be useless, as I am quite safe in Spanish territory. And I am not staying at an hotel either, but have taken lodgings in a quiet, respectable neighbourhood, with a good-looking young English widow, who seems inclined to be sweet on me. If I find that she has any money put by I may perhaps marry her, and settle down here. I don’t care much for swell society, so, if I can be made comfortable when at home, and I do not run out of spending money abroad, I shan’t need to grumble. In any case, I mean to give England a wide berth while that confounded woman is knocking around. I wish she would break her neck.” “No, I won’t break my neck,” said the individual to whom this pious wish applied. “But I’m hoping, after all, to stop your gallop, Mr. Stavanger, since you have so kindly put your new address in this letter; and the good-looking widow must be cured of her folly, too. I daresay you do feel yourself tolerably safe, and you are evidently free from qualms of conscience also. The latter, no doubt, will make themselves felt when you are brought to book for your crimes. Then you will, no doubt, be a pattern of pious repentance, since the gist of repentance, in convicted criminals, is to be measured by the poignancy of their regret at being found out. The exceptions to this rule are the very, very few who voluntarily own their culpability and surrender themselves to justice. As you are not likely to prove a voluntary repentant, I must force your hand. And now for my immediate plans.”