Colin McKeith had been gone some time and Mrs Gildea, primed with fresh
ideas, had finished her article on the lines he suggested, before she
again tackled Lady Bridget's love-affair.

The second letter (there is no need to reproduce the page of daring
sentiment that closed the first) was dated from Castle Gaverick in
South Connemara, and plunged straight into the tragic culmination.

'It's all over, Joan--was over soon after my last letter, but I've
been too wretched ever since to write. If you had been in England you
might have read in one of last week's "MORNING POST'S" that a marriage
has been arranged and will shortly take place between Mr Willoughby
Maule, formerly confidential adviser to His Highness the Rajah of
Kasalpore--and Evelyn Mary, only daughter of the late John Bagallay,
Esq, and the late Mrs Bagally of Bagallay Court, Birmingham.

Rosamond tells me that Luke told her that Evelyn Mary has been throwing
herself at Will's head ever since they met last year on a P. & O.
steamer between Singapore and Colombo. She and her chaperon went on a
tour round the world, it seems, just before Evelyn Mary came of age. I
wonder they did not get engaged then, and can only conclude--as there
was no ME then to upset the apple-cart--that he did not know how rich
she was going to be. Anyway, I feel certain that it was Evelyn Mary who
was at the back of his plan for settling down as a respectable
stock-jobber. Molly Gaverick--who is a cat--said she knew for certain
Willoughby Maule came to England with the fixed intention of marrying
for birth and position or for money, and that he fancied, in me, he'd
found both--she says that he took his impressions of us from the