the cunningest little moccasins.  She could not speak a word of English except her own name which is Nina.  She has blue eyes and all her second teeth.  The ladies here made a great fuss about her and sent her flowers and worsted afgans, but they did not do anything else for her and left her to us.

O dear old man you must let me have her!  You never refused me a thing yet and she is so like our Avonia Marie that my heart almost breaks when she puts her arms around my neck—­she calls me mamma already. I want to have her with us when we get the little farm—­and it must be near, that little farm of ours—­we have waited for it so long—­and something tells me my own old faker will make his hit soon and be great.  You cant tell how I have loved it and hoped for it and how real every foot of that farm is to me.  And though I can never see my own darling’s face among the roses it will make me so happy to see this poor dead mothers pet get red and rosy in the country air.  And till the farm comes we shall always have enough for her, without your ever having to black up again as you did for me the winter I was sick my own poor boy!

Write me yes—­you will be glad when you see her.  And now love and regards to Mrs. Barry and all friends.  Tell the Worst of Managers that he knows where to find his leading juvenile for next season.  Think how funny it would be for us to play together next year—­we havent done it since ’57—­the third year we were married.  That was my first season higher than walking—­and now I’m quite an old woman—­most thirty dear!

   Write me soon a letter like that last one—­and
   send a kiss to Nina—­our Nina.

   Your own girl,

   MARY.

   P.S.  He has not worried me since.

[Illustration:  Nina drew this herself she says it is a horse so that you can get here soon.]

PART THIRD: 

DOCUMENT NO. 16.

Letter from Messrs. Throstlethwaite, Throstlethwaite and Dick, Solicitors, Lincoln’s Inn, London, England, to Messrs. Hitchcock and Van Rensselaer, Attorneys and Counsellors at Law, 76 Broadway, New York, U.S.A.

   January 8, 1879.

   Messrs. HITCHCOCK & VAN RENSSELAER: 

GENTLEMEN:  On the death of our late client, Sir William Beauvoir, Bart., and after the reading of the deceased gentleman’s will, drawn up nearly forty years ago by our Mr. Dick, we were requested by Oliver Beauvoir, Esq., the second son of the late Sir William, to assist him in discovering and communicating with his elder brother, the present Sir William Beauvoir, of whose domicile we have little or no information.

After a consultation between Mr. Oliver Beauvoir and our Mr. Dick, it was seen that the sole knowledge in our possession amounted substantially to this:  Thirty years ago the elder son of