"DEAR M. LE MARQUIS,--I thank you for your kind little note
informing me of the pains you have taken, as yet with no result, to
ascertain what has become of my unfortunate uncle. My life since I
last wrote has been a very quiet one. I have been teaching among a
few families here; and among my pupils are two little girls of very
high birth. They have taken so great a fancy to me that their
mother has just asked me to come and reside at their house as
governess. What wonderfully kind hearts those Germans have,--so
simple, so truthful! They raise no troublesome questions,--accept
my own story implicitly." Here follow a few commonplace sentences
about the German character, and a postscript. "I go into my new
home next week. When you hear more of my uncle, direct to me at the
Countess von Rudesheim, Schloss -- ------, near Berlin."


"Rudesheim!" Could this be the relation, possibly the wife, of the Count
von Rudesheim with whom Graham had formed acquaintance last year?


LETTER III.

(Between three and four years after the date of the last.)

"You startle me indeed, dear M. le Marquis. My uncle said to have
been recognised in Algeria under another name, a soldier in the
Algerian army? My dear, proud, luxurious uncle! Ah, I cannot
believe it, any more than you do: but I long eagerly for such
further news as you can learn of him. For myself, I shall perhaps
surprise you when I say I am about to be married. Nothing can
exceed the amiable kindness I have received from the Rudesheims