Dorothy's Double. Volume 1 (of 3), Page 4

  CHAPTER III

  Mr. Hawtrey and his daughter were sitting at breakfast a fortnightlater, the only other person present being a cousin, Mrs. Daintree, whohad come up to stay with them for the season to act as chaperon toDorothy. She had been unwell and unable to form one of the party atEpsom. The servant brought in the letters just as they sat down,carrying them as usual to his master, as Dorothy was busy with the teathings. As Mr. Hawtrey looked through them his eye fell upon a letter.On the back was written in a bold handwriting, 'Unless the money is sentI shall use letters.--E. T.'

  He turned it over, it was directed to his daughter. He was about tospeak, but as his eye fell on Mrs. Daintree he checked himself, placedthe missive among his own letters, and passed those for his daughter andcousin across to them. He was very silent during breakfast. Dorothydetected by his voice that something was wrong with him, and askedanxiously if he was not feeling well. When the meal was over he said toher:

  'Before you go out, Dorothy, look in upon me in the library.'

  Ten minutes later she came into the room.

  'Dorothy,' he said, 'are you in any trouble?'

  'Trouble, father?' she repeated, in surprise. 'No; what sort of troubledo you mean?'

  'Well, dear,' he said kindly, 'girls do sometimes get into scrapes. Idid not think you were the sort of girl to do so, but these things aremore often the result of thoughtlessness than of anything more serious,and the trouble is that instead of going frankly to their friends andmaking a clean breast of it, girls will try and set matters rightthemselves, and so, in order to avoid a little unpleasantness, may ruintheir whole lives.'

  Dorothy's eyes opened more and more widely as her father went on.

  'Yes, father, I have heard of such things, but I don't know why you aresaying so to me. I have never got into any scrape that I know of.'

  'What does this mean then?' he said, handing her the envelope.

  She read it with an air of bewilderment, looked at the address, andre-read the words.

  'I have not the faintest idea, father.'

  'Open the envelope,' he said sternly. She broke the seal, but there wasno enclosure whatever. 'You do not know who this E. T. is? You have notwritten any letters that you would not care to have read aloud? You havehad no demand for money for their delivery? Wait a moment before youspeak, child; I don't mean for a moment that there could be anythingwrong in any letter that you have written. It can only be that in somecountry house where you have been staying, you have got into somefoolish flirtation with some one, and have been silly enough tocorrespond with him. I will not suppose that a man to whom you wouldwrite would be blackguard enough to trade upon your weakness, but theletters may have fallen into some one else's hands; his valet, perhaps,who, seeing your engagement to Lord Halliburn, now seeks to extort moneyfrom you by threatening to send your letters to him. If so, my dearchild, speak frankly to me. I will get the letters back, at whatevercost, and will hand them to you to burn, without looking at them, andwill never mention the subject again.'

  'There is nothing of the sort, father. How could you think that I coulddo anything so foolish and wrong? Surely you must know me better thanthat.'

  'I thought I did, Dorothy; but girls do foolish things, especially whenthey are quite young and perhaps not out of the schoolroom, and knownothing whatever of the world. They fancy themselves in love, and arefoolish enough sometimes to allow themselves to be entrapped intocorrespondence with men of whose real character they know nothing; it isa folly, but not one to deal hardly with.'

  'At any rate, father, I have not done so. If I had I would say so atonce. I have not the remotest idea what that letter means, or who wroteit. If it were not that it had my name and address on the other side, Ishould not have had an idea that it was meant for me. Except triflingnotes of invitation and that sort of thing I do not think that I hadever written to any man until I was engaged to Algernon.'

  'Well, that is a relief,' Mr. Hawtrey said, more cheerfully than he hadbefore spoken. 'It was a pain to me to think even for a moment that youcould have been so foolish. It never entered my head to think that youcould have done anything absolutely wrong. However, we must now look atthis rascally letter from another point of view. Here is a man writingto demand a sum of money for letters. Now, it is one of two things.Either he has forged letters in his possession, for which he hopes toextort money, or he has no letters of any kind, and his only intentionin writing in this manner on an envelope is in some way to cause youpain and annoyance. We may assume that the initials are fictitious;whoever wrote the letter would certainly avoid giving any clue to hisidentity. Sit down, Dorothy. We must talk the matter over quietly andsee what had best be done.'

  'But this is dreadful, father!' Dorothy said, as she seated herself inan arm-chair.

  'Not dreadful, dear, though I admit that it is unpleasant, veryunpleasant; and we must, if possible, trace it to the bottom, for nowthat this annoyance has begun there is no saying how much farther it maybe pushed. Is there anyone you can think of who would be likely to havea spite against you? I do not say any of the four or five gentlemenwhose proposals you have declined in the course of the past year; allwere gentlemen and beyond suspicion. Any woman servant you may havedismissed; any man whose request for money for one purpose or anotheryou may have refused; anyone, in short, to whom you may have givenoffence?'

  'Not that I know of, father. You know my last maid left to get married,and I had nothing to do with hiring or discharging the other servants;they are all under the housekeeper. I really do not know of anyone whohas cause for ill-feeling against me.'

  'I shall write at once to the Postmaster General and request him to giveorders that no more letters of the kind shall be openly delivered.Peters can hardly have helped reading it; it has evidently been writtenin a large, bold handwriting, so that it can be read at a glance. Ofcourse, I shall speak to him, but he will probably have chatted about itdownstairs already. I shall go down to Scotland Yard and inform them ofthe annoyance, and ask their advice there, though I don't see that theycan do anything until we can furnish them with some sort of clue. We mayfind one later on; this envelope certainly gives us nothing to go on,but we may be sure others will follow.'

  'It is dreadful, father,' Dorothy repeated, as she rose, 'to think thatsuch malicious letters as this can be sent, and that they may be talkedabout among the servants.'

  'Well, I do not think there will be any more coming here, dear. I shouldimagine the Post Office authorities will have no objection to retainthem. If there should be any difficulty about it, I will have a lock puton the letter-box and keep the key myself, so that, at least, theservants here will know nothing about it. Are you going out with yourcousin this morning?'

  'I was going, but I shall make some excuse now; I could not bechattering about all sorts of things with her.'

  'That is just what you must do, Dorothy. It has taken the colour out ofyour cheeks, child, though I suppose cold water and a rub with a hardtowel will bring it back again, but, at any rate, do not go about as ifyou had something on your mind. You may be sure that the servants willbe looking at you curiously, whatever I may say to Peters; if they seeyou are in no way disturbed or annoyed, the matter will soon pass out oftheir minds, but, on the other hand, if they notice any change, theywill be saying to themselves there must be something in it.'

  As soon as his daughter had left the room Mr. Hawtrey touched the bell.

  'I am going out, Peters; if anyone calls to see me you can say that Ishall not be in till lunch-time. I may be detained at Scotland Yard. Iam going there to set the police on the track of the fellow who sentthat letter to Miss Hawtrey this morning. I suppose you noticed it?'

  'Yes, sir,' the man replied, in a hesitating tone; 'as I took theletters out of the box and laid them on the hall table, the envelope wasback upwards, and I could not help seeing what was on it.'

  'I can quite understand that, Peters, and am not blaming you. The wordswere evidently written with the intention that
they should be read byeveryone through whose hands it passed. It is evidently the work of somemalicious scoundrel, though we have not, of course, the slightest clueas to whom it may be, but I have no doubt the police will be able to geton his track. If you have mentioned it to any of the other servants,tell them that on no account is the matter to be spoken of outside thehouse. Our only chance of catching the scoundrel is that he should bekept entirely in the dark. Probably the fellow is in communication withsome one either in the house or acquainted with one of the servants. Ifhe hears nothing about it, he may suppose the letter has not attractednotice, as he intended it should do, and we shall have some more ofthem, and this will increase our chance of finding him.'

  'I have not mentioned anything about it, sir.'

  'All the better, Peters. Should another come do not bring it in with theother letters, but hand it in to me privately. Miss Hawtrey is naturallygreatly pained and annoyed, and I should not wish her to know if anymore letters come.'

  'It is hardly a matter that we can take up,' an inspector at ScotlandYard said when Mr. Hawtrey showed him the envelope and explained thematter. 'I suppose at bottom it is an attempt to extort money, thoughone does not see how the writer intends to go about it. If there shouldbe any offer to drop the annoyance on the receipt of a sum of money sentto a post-office or shop, to be called for, we would take it up, watchthe place, and arrest whoever comes for the letter. At present there isnothing to go upon, and I don't see that we can do anything in thematter. If you think it worth while you might put it into private hands,but it would cost you a good deal of money, and I don't see that anyonecould help you much.'

  'I do not care what it costs,' Mr. Hawtrey said hotly. 'Can yourecommend any of these private detectives?'

  The inspector shook his head.

  'There are some trustworthy men among them, sir, and some thoroughrogues, but we make a point of never recommending anyone. No doubt yourown solicitor would be able to tell you of some good man to go to.'

  Mr. Hawtrey hailed a cab when he went out and told the man to drive toEssex Street. Just as he turned down from the Strand he saw Danvers turnout from the approach to the Middle Temple. He stopped the cab andjumped out.

  'I was just going to my lawyer,' he said, 'but I dare say, Danvers, youcan save me the loss of time. It generally means at least half an hour'swaiting before he is disengaged. Can you tell me of a shrewd fellow whocan be trusted to undertake a difficult piece of business?'

  'That is rather vague, Mr. Hawtrey,' Danvers laughed. 'I might replythat such a man stands before you.'

  'No, I mean a sort of detective business.'

  'There are plenty of shrewd fellows who call themselves privatedetectives, Mr. Hawtrey. A good many of them are too shrewd altogether.Of course, I have been in contact with several of them, and the majorityare rogues of the first water. Still, there are honest men among them.If I knew a little more what sort of work you wanted done I should bebetter able to tell what kind of man you require for it.'

  'It is a deucedly unpleasant business, Danvers, but I will gladly tellyou what it is, for I want the advice of some one like yourself,accustomed to deal with difficult cases. Can you spare ten minutes?'

  'With pleasure. I have no case on to-day. Will you come to my chambers?It is not half a minute's walk, and they are on the ground floor.'

  'What do you think of it, Danvers?' Mr. Hawtrey asked, after he hadshown the envelope and related briefly his interview with his daughter.

  'I don't know what to think of it,' Danvers said after a pause. 'KnowingMiss Hawtrey as I have the pleasure of doing, I, of course, entertain nodoubt whatever of the truth of her denial, and believe she is ascompletely in the dark as yourself as to what this thing means. I mustown that it is not often that I should take a young lady's word soimplicitly in such a matter. I have seen and still more heard fromsolicitors of so many astounding cases of the troubles girls have gotinto, sometimes from thoughtlessness only, sometimes, I am bound toconfess, from what seems to me to be an entire absence of moralperception, that scarcely anything in that way would surprise me.

  'That Miss Hawtrey would do anything absolutely wrong is to me out ofthe question; though she might, from thoughtlessness, when a girl, asyou put it to her, have got into some silly entanglement, for suchthings happen continually; but after the line you took up with her I canbut dismiss this from my mind as altogether out of the question, and wemust look at the matter entirely from the point of view that it iseither an attempt to extort money, or is simply the outcome of sheermalice, an attempt to give pain, and to cause extreme annoyance. MissHawtrey is, you say, wholly unaware of having at any time given suchoffence to anyone as to convert him or her into an enemy. Of course,there are people who are just as bitter over an imaginary injury as overa real one, but I am more inclined to think that this letter is theresult of malice than an attempt to extort money.'

  'I do not see how money could be extorted by such a letter as this, whenthere is no foundation for the threat.'

  'Quite so, Mr. Hawtrey. No one who wanted to blackmail a young ladywould proceed in so clumsy a manner as this. He would write to her, tobegin with, a letter full of vague hints and threats, in the hope thatalthough he himself was ignorant of any occurrence in her life thatwould give him a hold upon her, her own conscience might bring to herremembrance some act of past folly or thoughtlessness which, with anengagement just made, she would certainly shrink from having raked up.For instance, she might have had some foolish flirtation, somesentimental correspondence, or stolen meeting--things foolish but in noway criminal--that at such a moment she would not wish to be brought tothe ears of the man to whom she was engaged. A cleverly but vaguelyworded letter might then cause her to believe that this affair was knownto the writer, and she would endeavour to hush it up by paying any sumin her power.

  'Having written two or three letters of this kind without success, herpersecutor might then send an envelope like this to show her that he wasthoroughly resolved to carry out his threats unless she agreed to histerms. But as a first move it can mean nothing; and the person to whomit is addressed, knowing that it has already been seen by the postman,the servants, and perhaps by others, would in any case be driven to handit over to her friends. Miss Hawtrey has received no preliminaryletters, therefore it is clear to me that this is not an attempt toextort money. We have nothing, therefore, to fall back upon but the ideaof sheer malice, and I have known so many cases of wanton and ingeniousmischief-making, arising from such paltry and insufficient causes, thatI can be surprised at nothing.'

  'Still, I don't see how anyone could do such an infamous and cruel thingas this, Danvers, without some real cause for malice. My daughter isaltogether unconscious of having an enemy, there is nothing for us to goupon, and I do not see how the business of discovery is to becommenced.'

  'At present, certainly, we seem to have no clue to help us. The letterwas posted, you see, in London, but that is of no use whatever; were itfrom a small country town or rural district the matter would becomparatively easy, but London is hopeless. I have no doubt some moreletters of this kind will come, and I should say that although thepost-marks may afford you no information, the postal authorities mightbe able to help you. I do not know whether the stamps at all thedistrict post offices are identical, but it is possible that there maybe some private mark on them, some little peculiarity, by which thepost-office people would be able to tell you the office at which it wasposted.

  'But even this would help us but little, as the letters are collectedand sent to the central district office, and are there, I believe,stamped. At any rate, I see no use in your employing a man now, Mr.Hawtrey. If you get a clue, even the smallest, I have a fellow in mymind's eye who would, I think, suit you. He was at one time a clerk withBuller and Sons. They gave up the criminal part of their business whenthe eldest son, who had charge of that branch, died, and this man,Slippen, was no longer wanted. He then set up on his own account, as asort of private detective. He has been emplo
yed in two or three delicatecases in which I have held briefs, and is certainly a very shrewdfellow.'

  'It would be a relief to me to be doing something,' Mr. Hawtrey said. 'Ithink I should like to see the man.'

  Danvers was silent for a minute.

  'I think, Mr. Hawtrey,' he said at last, 'it would be better if you wereto entrust the matter to me. I will see him, and without mentioningnames state the facts, and say that he may be asked to undertake thecase later on. The fewer people know of the affair the better. Whisperswill get about, and whispers would be more unpleasant than if the wholestory were told openly in court. If you like I will send my clerk overto his place at once and make an appointment for him to come round herethis afternoon. If you are going to be at home this evening I will lookin and tell you what his opinion of the matter is, and whether he hasany suggestions to offer. If that will not suit you I will meet youto-morrow at any time you may appoint.'

  'This evening will do very well, Danvers. Dorothy is going with hercousin and a party to the theatre, so if you will come round any timeafter eight o'clock you will find me alone, and we can have our chatover a glass of port and a cigar.'

  * * * * *

  'Well, have you seen your man?' he asked, as Danvers came into his studythat evening. 'But do not answer until you have made yourselfcomfortable, and poured yourself out a glass of port; do not light yourcigar for a few minutes, the wine is too good to be spoilt.'

  'Yes, I have seen him,' Danvers replied, as he followed his instructionsdeliberately.

  'And what does he say?'

  'Well, you see, Mr. Hawtrey, he has not the advantage we have of knowingthe lady. He naturally has seen a good deal of the seamy side of life,and upon my stating the case to him, he said, without a moment'shesitation, "Of course the thing is as plain as a pikestaff, Mr.Danvers. The man has got hold of some secret, or is holding somecompromising letters, and has tried to get her to come to terms. Shehangs back and he shows his teeth, and writes her this open message,which, if it had not happened to fall into her father's hands, would nodoubt have brought her to her knees at once."

  'My assurance that it was absolutely certain that the lady in questionwas in entire ignorance of the whole affair, and was as much in the darkas we were as to the author of the letter, was received by him withincredulity. "I have been concerned in cases like this, or at least agood deal like it, a dozen--or, I might say, a score--of times. In everycase the lady maintained stoutly that she knew nothing about it, thatshe had never written a letter to any man whatever, and had receivednone previous to the one that happened to fall into the wrong hands. Inthree or four instances I was deceived myself, but there is no tellingwith women. When a man tells a lie, he either hesitates or stumbles, orhe says it off as if it were a lesson he had got by heart, or else he issulky over it, and you have to get it out of him bit by bit, just as if,though he had made up his mind to lie, he did not wish to tell more liesthan necessary. With a woman it is altogether different. When she makesup her mind to tell a lie, she does it thoroughly. Sometimes she isindignant, sometimes she is plaintive; but, anyhow, she is so naturalthat she would deceive Old Nick himself. Most of them are bornactresses, sir, and when they take up a part they do it with thedetermination of carrying it through thoroughly." Of course, I told himthat, whatever it might be generally, this case was altogether anexception; that it was a moral and absolute certainty that the lady hadnothing to do with it, and that the investigation, when it was onceundertaken, would have to proceed, say, on the line that the author ofthese communications was a man or a woman having a personal enmityagainst a lady, and instigated by a desire to annoy and pain her.

  '"Well, sir," he said, "of course, if you employ me in this matter itwill be my business to carry it out according to instructions; but I amafraid that it is not likely anything will come of my search."

  '"But," I said, "there is nothing impossible or improbable in the factthat someone should have a grudge against her; she has just becomeengaged to be married."

  '"That alters the case altogether," he said quickly; "there may be someother woman who wants to marry the man, or there may be some one who mayconsider that she will be left in the lurch if this marriage comes off;and either of these might endeavour to make a scandal, or to get up aquarrel that might cause the engagement to be broken off. If you hadmentioned about the engagement before, that is the first idea that wouldhave occurred to me. There are very few things a jealous woman willstick at. The case looks more hopeful now, and when I come to know theman's name, I ought very soon to be able to put my finger on the writerof the letter, if it is a woman. At any rate, if there is no other clue,that is the one I should take up first."

  'That brought our interview to an end. I paid him a couple of guineasfor his advice, and he fully understood that he might, or might not, becalled in on some future occasion.'

  'It is a confounded nuisance,' Mr. Hawtrey said thoughtfully; 'is thefellow really trustworthy, Danvers?'

  'He can be trusted to keep the matter to himself,' the barrister said;'these men are engaged constantly in delicate business, such as gettingup divorce suits, and it would ruin their business altogether were theyto allow a word to escape them as to the matter in hand. At any rate, Iknow enough about Slippen to be able to answer for his discretion.However, I hope that there will be no occasion to move in the matter atall. Of course you will not do so unless there is a repetition of theannoyance?'

  'I have little hope there will not be, Danvers,' Mr. Hawtrey groaned;'whoever wrote that letter is certain to follow it up. Whatever effectit was intended to produce he could hardly count on its being effectedby a single attack.'

  'I own that I am afraid so, too,' Danvers agreed. 'You will, I hope, letme know if it is so.'

  'That you may be sure. I am afraid that now you have taken the troubleto aid me in the matter, you will have to go through with it altogether.This is utterly out of my line; anything connected with poaching orstealing fruit, or drunken assaults, my experience as a countymagistrate enables me to treat with something like confidence, but hereI am altogether at sea and your experience as a barrister is of thegreatest benefit to me. What time do you get to your chambers in themorning?'

  'I am almost always there by half-past nine, and between that hour andhalf past ten you are almost certain to find me; but if you come latermy clerk will be able to find me in the courts, and unless I am engagedin a case being tried I can always come out to you.'

  'I have been wanting to see you, father,' Miss Hawtrey said, as soon asthe latter returned home, 'I expect Lord Halliburn will be here soonafter lunch, and cousin Mary and I are going with him to the Botanical.Had I better tell him about this or not?'

  'That is a difficult question to answer, Dorothy, and I should be sorryto offer any advice about it. You know Lord Halliburn a good deal betterthan I do, and can best judge how he will take a matter like this; hemust certainly be told sooner or later, for even if there is norepetition of this before your marriage there may be afterwards. Manymen would laugh at the whole thing, and never give it a moment'sthought, while others, although they would not doubt the assertion ofthe woman they were engaged to, would still fret and worry over itamazingly.'

  'I am sure he would not doubt me for a moment, father, but I shouldthink that he really might worry over it.'

  'That is rather my opinion too, Dorothy; still, it is clear that he mustbe told either by you or me. However, there is no occasion to tell himto-day. A flower show is not the place you would choose for the purpose,even if you had not Mary Daintree with you. We shall see if anotherletter comes or not; if it does he must be told at once.'

  Dorothy looked a little relieved at the necessity for telling LordHalliburn being postponed for the day.

  'It is of no use worrying over it, my dear,' her father said kindly. 'Itis an annoyance, there is no denying, but it is nothing to fret over,and as the insinuations are a pack of lies the cloud will blow awaybefore long.'


  The next morning, as soon as breakfast was over, Mr. Hawtrey drove tothe central post office, where the postal authorities had promised theday before that they would retain any communications of the kind hedescribed. He had been introduced to the official in charge of thedepartment where complaints of stolen letters were investigated andfollowed up.

  'I have an envelope for you, Mr. Hawtrey,' that gentleman said, when heentered, 'and have been more fortunate than I expected, for I can tellyou where it was posted; it was dropped into the letter-box at No. 35Claymore Street, Chelsea. It is a grocer's shop. In tying up the bundlesthe man's eye fell on this; it struck him at once as being an attempt toannoy or extort money, and he had the good sense to put it into anenvelope and send it on here with a line of explanation, so as to leaveus the option of detaining it if we thought fit.'

  'I am very pleased to hear it,' Mr. Hawtrey said. 'It is a great thingto know there is at least one point from which we can make a start.'

  'It is not much, but it may assist you. You must remember, however, thatit is scarcely likely that the next letter will be posted at the sameoffice; fellows of this kind are generally pretty cautious, and the nextletter may come from another part of London altogether. I have sent anote to the man at this post office, telling him that he did right instopping the letter, and that he is to similarly detain any others ofthe same kind that may be posted there. I will send them on to you. Themen on your round have been already ordered not to deliver any lettersof the kind, but to send them back here. I sincerely hope, Mr. Hawtrey,that you may succeed in getting hold of the fellow, but if you do I amafraid it will not be through our department; the chances againstdetecting a man posting a thing of this kind are almost infinite.'

  It was just half past ten when Mr. Hawtrey reached Danvers' chambers. Hefound that the occupier had not yet gone to the Court.

  'There is another of them,' Mr. Hawtrey said, throwing the letter downbefore him. 'I got it at the central office.' It was in the samehandwriting as that on the previous day: 'Unless you agree to my termsyour letters will be sent to Lord H----.' 'The post-office people havediscovered that this letter was posted at a receiving office at ClaymoreStreet, Chelsea.'

  'That would be valuable, Mr. Hawtrey, if there were any probability ofthe next being posted at the same place. I could make an arrangement tohave a boy placed inside by the box so that he could see each letter asit fell in. Then he would only have to run out and follow whoever hadposted it. I should probably require some special order from thePostmaster-General for this, but I dare say I could get that. At anyrate, we can wait a day or two. If the next letter is posted there wewill try that plan; if it is posted elsewhere it will, of course, beuseless.'

  Mr. Hawtrey next drove to Lord Halliburn's, in Park Lane.

  'I have come on very unpleasant business, Halliburn,' he said. 'Dorothywould have told you herself about it yesterday, but I thought it betterto let it stand over for a day, especially as she would not have anopportunity of discussing it with you,' and he then laid the two lettersbefore him, and told him the steps he had taken and the conjectures thathe and Danvers had formed on the subject of the sender.

  Lord Halliburn was a young man of about nine-and-twenty. He somewhatprided himself on his self-possession, and, although generally liked,was regarded, as Danvers had told his friend, as somewhat of a prig. Hisface expressed some annoyance as he heard the story.

  'It is certainly unpleasant,' he said. 'I am, of course, perfectly surethat Dorothy is in no way to blame in the matter. This can be only amalicious attempt to annoy her. Still, I admit it is annoying. Things ofthis sort are sure to get about somehow. I am certain that everyone whoknows Dorothy will see the matter in the same light as we do, but thosewho do not will conclude that there is something in it. Probably enoughere long there will be a mysterious paragraph in one of those societypapers. Altogether it is certainly extremely annoying. The great thingis to find out who sent them. I quite agree with you it cannot be anattempt to extort money; had it been so, the demands would have beensent under seal and not in this manner. I suppose you have no idea ofanyone having any special enmity against either you or her?'

  'Not the slightest. The man who, as I told you, Danvers consultedwithout mentioning any names, was of opinion that it might be the workof some woman, and was intended to cause unpleasantness between you andDorothy. Of course, in that case you might be more able to form an ideaas to the writer than I can be.'

  'No, indeed, there is no woman in my case,' Lord Halliburn said. 'I havealways been perfectly free from entanglements of that kind; nor have Iever had anything like a serious flirtation before I met Miss Hawtrey;indeed, as you know, I have been travelling abroad almost constantlysince I left college. I can assure you, on my honour, that I cannotthink of anyone who could have a motive, however slight, for makingmischief between us. Of course, it would be out of the question thatmischief could be made out of such things as these; they are toocontemptible for notice, beyond the fact that they are naturallyannoying. I shall see Dorothy this afternoon, and shall tell her not togive the matter a thought, but at the same time I shall be extremelyglad if you can put your hand on the sender of these things.'