Truth to tell, I loved her with a fond, passionate love, and had, only after months of trepidation and uncertainty, succeeded in obtaining her declaration that she reciprocated my affection, and her promise to be my wife. Yet within a month of my new-born life in happiness supreme, all these untoward events had, alas! occurred, stifling my joy, replacing confidence by doubt, and driving me to despair. While I stood there alone, Lord Warnham hastily approached the post-office window with a telegram, and, seeing me, exclaimed,-- "Ah! I want you, Deedes. An hour ago I sent telegrams everywhere for you. Come with me to my room." He handed in his telegram, and together we went along the corridors to his own private room, where, in an armchair, with some papers in his hand, sat the Marquis of Maybury, Prime Minister of England. We had met before many times when the burly, elderly peer had been a guest at Warnham Hall, and on many occasions I had acted as his secretary when he had been alone. "Well, Deedes," he exclaimed gravely, looking up suddenly from the papers, "Lord Warnham has explained to me the mysterious theft of the secret convention, and I am anxious to see you regarding it." The Foreign Minister seated himself at his table in silence, with folded arms, as the world-renowned statesman proceeded to question me closely regarding the events of that memorable day when the document had been so ingeniously stolen. "Have you not the slightest clue to the culprit, even now?" Lord Maybury asked at last, stroking his full grey beard. "Remember that England's honour and her future depends absolutely upon the issue of this serious complication. If you can furnish us with any information, it is just possible that diplomacy may do something, even at the eleventh hour. You see we have lost the original of the convention, and this, if produced in Petersburg, is sufficient evidence against us to upset all our protestations." "I have told Lord Warnham all I know," I answered calmly. "To him I have explained my suspicions." "That this friend of yours called Ogle, who died mysteriously on that very same day, was the actual spy," he observed. "Some of the facts certainly point to such a conclusion; but, now tell me, did Ogle enter your room at the Foreign Office on that day?" "Certainly not," I replied. "No one is allowed in my room except the clerks." "Could he have seen the envelope sticking out of your pocket?" "No," I answered. "I am confident he could not, because, on placing it in my pocket, a deep one, I took precaution to notice whether it were visible." "Then, if such is the case, I maintain that Ogle could not possibly have known what designation you had written upon the envelope," the Premier observed; adding, "Did you meet anyone you knew during your walk to the Ship, or while you were in Ogle's company?" "No one whatever," I said. "I know the Ship. At which table did you sit?"