There remained one crumpled up envelope (also from the paperbasket) but no letter that in any way corresponded with it.

It was addressed in a rather sprawling, eager, boyish hand.
"No letter of any sort to correspond ?" asked Figgis for the second time.
"No." "I think for the present we will keep it," said he.
* * * * * The little party at Mr.Taynton's was gay to the point of foolishness, and of them all none was more light-hearted than the host.

Morris had asked him in an undertone, on arrival, whether any more had been heard, and learning there was still no news, had dismissed the subject altogether.

The sunshine of the day, too, had come back to the lawyer; his usual cheerful serenity was touched with a sort of sympathetic boisterousness, at the huge spirits of the young couple and it was to be recorded that after dinner they played musical chairs and blind-man's buff, with infinite laughter.

Never was an elderly solicitor so spontaneously gay; indeed before long it was he who reinfected the others with merriment.