"Why, when our excellent friend, Mr.Brown, presents the Duke's letter to-morrow morning to his chief, or to Mrs.Allistair's agent,--if he ever gets that far,--he will turn triumphantly over one sheet of Brentanos' very best notepaper--blank." "Blank ?" cried Mrs.De Peyster.
Mr.Pyecroft's right eyelid drooped in its remarkable wink; his mouth again tilted high to starboard in its impish smile.
"You see," he remarked, "the Duke's letter was written in an ink of my own invention.

One trifling idiosyncracy of that ink is that it fades completely and permanently in exactly twelve hours.".