“Well, dear, the Dodgsons—­you remember the Leeds clothier people—­having contrived to enter county society, invited the Earl of Ventnor down for the ball.  He, it seems, knew nothing about Anstruther being M.F.H., and of course Mrs. Anstruther received.  The moment Lord Ventnor heard her name he was very angry.  He said he did not care to meet her, and left for London by the next train.  The Dodgsons were awfully annoyed with him, and Mrs. Dodgson had the bad taste to tell Mrs, Anstruther all about it.  And what do you think she said—­’Lord Ventnor need not have been so frightened.  My husband has not brought his hunting-crop with him!’

“I was not there, but young Barker told me that Mrs. Anstruther looked very impressive as she said this.  ‘Stunning!’ was the word he used, but young Barker is a fool, and thinks Mrs. A. is the most beautiful woman in Yorkshire.  Her dress, they say, was magnificent, which I can hardly credit, as she usually goes about in the plainest tailor-made clothes.  By the way.  I forgot to mention that the Anstruthers have restored our parish church.  The vicar, of course, is enraptured with them.  I dislike people who are so free with their money and yet reserved in their friendship.  It is a sure sign, when they court popularity, that they dread something leaking out about the past.

    “Do write soon.  Don’t forget ‘Jenks’ and ‘Lord Ventnor’;
    those are the lines of inquiry.

    “Yours,

    “MATILDA.

    “PS.—­Perhaps I am misjudging them.  Mrs. Anstruther has just sent
    me an invitation to an ‘At Home’ next Thursday.—­M.

“PPS.—­Dear me, this letter will never get away, I have just destroyed another envelope to tell you that the vicar came in to tea.  From what he told me about Lord Ventnor, I imagine that Mrs. Anstruther said no more than he deserved.—­M.”

NOTE.—­Colonel Anstruther’s agents discovered, after long and costly inquiry, that a Shields man named James Spence, a marine engineer, having worked for a time as a miner in California, shipped as third engineer on a vessel bound for Shanghai.  There be quitted her.  He passed some time ashore in dissipation, took another job on a Chinese river steamer, and was last heard of some eighteen months before the Sirdar was wrecked.  He then informed a Chinese boarding-house keeper that he was going to make his fortune by accompanying some deep-sea fishermen, and he bought some stores and tools from a marine-store dealer.  No one knew when or where he went, but from that date all trace of him disappeared.  The only persons who mourned his loss were his mother and sister.  The last letter they received from him was posted in Shanghai.  Though the evidence connecting him with the recluse of Rainbow Island was slight, and purely circumstantial, Colonel Anstruther provided for the future of his relatives in a manner that secured their lasting gratitude.