“It is all easy!” David Lockwin says, and goes resolutely at work to save the remnants of his fortune.

For a year he turns the inertia of his love into his daily business.  Esther is building at Chicago, David will build at New York—­a fabric of love, airy, it may be, but graceful and beautiful.

Each night he indites in type-writer and addresses to Esther Lockwin an essay on the value of hope in great afflictions.  The tone grows familiar, as the weeks pass by.  “My dear madam” becomes “my dear Mrs. Lockwin,” and at last “my dear friend.”  To-night, far into the small hours, he pours out his advice and comfort: 

“Be brave, my dear friend,” he proceeds.  “Undreamed-of happiness may still be yours, if you can but come to place confidence in your faithful correspondent.  There are things more strange than anything which the books give us.  As a matter of fact, dear friend, the writers do not dare to make life as it is, for fear of outrunning the bounds of fiction.  Let me give you comfort, and at the proper time I shall be able, not to reveal myself, perhaps, but to offer you opportunity to give me a signal that my services are valuable to you.

“Preserve your health.  This admonition has been iterated in the hundreds of different treatises I have placed before you.  My diligence and patience must recommend themselves.  My hope must reinspire your drooping energies.  Until to-morrow at eventide, adieu!”

The time is ripe to learn the effect of these courteous ministrations.  David Lockwin dares not intrust his secret to a chance acquaintance like Corkey, who is completely devoted to Mrs. Lockwin.  What man can now be found who will support a possible relation of mutual friend in this singular case?

The thought of Dr. Tarpion comes again and again.

Clearly a lover cannot wait forever.  And he must know whether or not Esther reads the letters.  But, of course, she reads them!

“And they comfort her, God bless her!” cries the happy lover.  But he must not wait too long.  She needs him.  She must be rescued from Chicago.

Why not write to Dr. Tarpion?  He is a dear old friend.

He seems very dear, now that Lockwin needs him.  The doctor is the administrator of the estate, if we come to recollect.  Certainly!

Now, therefore, let David undertake an interrogatory, and tremblingly mail it to Dr. Tarpion.  To be sure, this is better.  Suppose David Lockwin the unknown monitor, had invited Esther to advertise in a newspaper, and the advertisement had been left out!  Or, suppose he had suggested a certain signal at her house, or in New York—­anywhere!  It would be a chance too great to take.  No lover should leave anything to fortune.  Dr. Tarpion will give the information.  He shall be the mutual friend—­the go-between to unravel this tangled web of deception.

If David Lockwin shall in future discover himself to Esther, he must have the aid of a discreet and loving friend.  Dr. Tarpion is the man.  This letter will open the way for further disclosures.  It is as follows: