144 THE SILVER FOX 



sending on. Some one has shoved it behind 

 the card- tray." 



Hugh looked at the vulgar and rambling 

 handwriting, and mechanically tore open 

 the envelope. It was a letter clearly written 

 in close and crooked lines, and its purport 

 appeared to be a confused complaint of 

 " persecution " received from the hounds in 

 connection with the covert of Cahirdreen. 

 Hugh read on with a frowning brow. In 

 other days he would have asked his wife to 

 come and read it over his shoulder, but that 

 time seemed now very far away. 



Glasgow's name appeared in the letter, 

 with more complaints of persecution ; he 

 hardly tried to understand what it was all 

 about. All at once his wife's name seemed 

 to leap out from the paper, and to sink back, 

 indelible, irrevocable, linked to Glasgow's 

 by two or three gross and barbarous phrases, 

 by a warning not less crude, by a cunning 

 treatment of the matter as one of common 

 knowledge. There was no signature, no- 

 thing to sugo;est its connection with the 



