'And why—why——'
'Did I not appear, you would ask?'
'Yes—though perhaps it was as well not now.'
'I was pinned by the leg by that accursed brute of your sister's.'
'Jack.'
'D—n him—yes! Pardon me; but there was something grotesque, humiliating, and exasperating in the whole episode.'
'I was certain it was thus; but—but why did you never write to me?'
'Never write to you!' exclaimed Sleath, with well-feigned surprise; 'you left—what's its name—Birkwoodbrae——'
'Early in September.'
'Exactly—that is the reason you did not get my letters.'