"SIR,

"Permit me to ask you as an old friend of your father's if you are
aware that your sister Margaret is the lover of the lord of the
manor? Everybody seems to see it, but yourself. I have reason to
know that the very day you receive this she will be meeting him at
about 7.30 P.M. under the old elm in the beech-wood near the Hall-
park.

"ONE WHO SHALL BE NAMELESS".

Hogarth received it by post the next morning.

He had to think, as he worked, of something to say at the service
that night on the text: "God's way is in the Sea", but the glare of
forge and heated metal swam vaguely, a fog of red, about his
consciousness. And mixed with those recurring words: "the old elm",
"God's way", something with a voice shouted inside him--a name--
_Margaret!_ Anon his face flushed to a dusky turbulence, and he
hurled the sledge high to shatter the earth, like Thor.

Suddenly he had the thought that he would clean his rifle, and,
dropping a hot iron which vanished with a stifled cry into black
water, he tossed his tongs clattering, and almost ran toward the
cottage.

He had not, however, reached the back door when he heard his name
called from behind.