Cafe Conti--However I had better write the direction for you at full
length, for fear of a mistake. And be sure you take care of your
spelling, Aby, or I don't know what may happen. For I am told that many
of these French people are devilish illiterate, and I am sure they are
devilish cunning. Snap! They answer before they hear you! And, what is
odd enough, their answers are sometimes as pat as if they knew your
meaning. Indeed I have often thought it strange that your low poor
people should be so acute, and have so much common sense. But do you
direct your letters thus--

_A Monsieur Monsieur le Chevalier de St. Ives, Baronet Anglois,
an Cafe Conti, vis-a-vis le Pont Neuf, Quai Conti, a Paris._

And so, Abimelech, I remain

A. ST. IVES




LETTER XXVII

_Frank Henley to Oliver Trenchard_

_Paris, Hotel d'Espagne, rue Guenegaude_,

_Fauxbourg St. Germain_

The black forebodings of my mind, Oliver, are fulfilled! I have been
struck! The phantom I dreaded has appeared, has flashed upon me, and