298
WYLDER'S HAND.
and also as pertaining to your own comfort and security,
that you should avoid communicating what you have just
mentioned to any other party. You understand?"
Larcom did understand perfectly, and so this little visit
ended. -jM.
Mr. Larkin took a turn or two up and down the room
thinking. He stopped, with his finger tips to his eye-
brow, and thought more. Then he took another turn,
and stopped again, and threw back "iis head, and gazed
for a while on the ceiling, and then he stood for a time
at the window, with his lip between his finger and thumb.
No, it was a mistake; it could £m be. It was Mark
Wylder's penmanship — he couJ^^swcar to it. There
was no trace of madness in bidHetters, nor of restraint.
It was not possible even that he was wandering from
place to place under Jtik coercion of a couple of keepers.
No; Wylder was an^nerg^tic and somewhat violent per-
son, with high animal courage, and would be sure to
break through any such machination. No, no; it was
quite out of the question — altogether visionary and im-
practicable. Persons like Larcom do make such absurd
blunders, and so misapprehend the conversation of edu-
cated people.
Mr. Larkin walked down direct to Gylingden, and paid
a rather awful visit to Mr. Driver, of the post-office. A
foreign letter, addressed to him, had most positively been
lost. He had called to mention the circumstance, lest Mr.
Driver should be taken by surprise by official investigation.
Was it possible that the letter had been sent by mistake
to Brandon — to Captain Lake? Lake and Larkin you
know, might be mistaken. At all events, it would be well
to make your clerks recollect themselves. (Mr. Larkin
knew that Driver's "clerks" were his daughters.) It
is not easy to meet with a young fellow that is quite hon-