"I came just to look in on my old quarters and see my old friends for a few minutes, and then I must disappear again for more than a month, and I find a gentleman in possession."
We hastened to assure him that we had not expected him home for some time, and that the stranger was admitted but for a few days. We told him, each contributing something to the narrative, all about the shipwreck, and the reception of the forlorn survivor in the steward's house.
He listened without a word of comment, almost without breathing, and with his eyes fixed in deep attention on the floor.
"Has he made your acquaintance?" he asked, raising them to me.
"He introduced himself to me," I answered, "but Miss Grey has not seen him."
Something seemed to weigh heavily upon his mind.
"What is your father's present address?" he asked.
I told him, and he made a note of it in his pocket-book. He stood up now, and did at length take his leave.
"I am going to ask you to do a very kind thing. You have heard of sealed orders, not to be opened till a certain point has been reached in a voyage or a march? Will you promise, until I shall have left you fully five minutes, not to open this letter?"
I almost thought he was jesting, but I perceived very quickly that he was perfectly serious. Laura Grey looked at him curiously, and gave him the desired promise as she received the note. His carriage was at the door, and in another minute he was driving rapidly down the avenue. What had led to these odd precautions?—and what had they to do with the shipwrecked stranger?