"By whom?"
"'That's my business," retorted Balscombe, with a scowl Ellersby laughed in a most irritating manner.
"So that is your first objection," he said lightly. "Pray what is your second?"
For answer Balscombe turned to his desk, and unlocking a drawer, took therefrom a bundle of old letters tied with a blue ribbon.
"This is my second objection," he said, holding them up. "Perhaps you recognise these letters?"
Spencer Ellersby turned pale and half rose from his seat.
"Where did you find them?"
"In the secret drawer of this desk," replied the baronet. "My wife, thinking I did not know the hiding-place, put them there for safety; but her father told me about the secret drawer when he gave me the desk, and one day I opened it idly, not expecting to find anything, when I found these."
Ellersby laughed discordantly.
"And what are those wonderful letters?"