You will be surprised to learn that I am no longer Mrs. Bonard Davis [She forgot, or chose to ignore, the fact that she could not ever have been legally Mrs. Bonard Davis.] You will have heard of the gold fever that has made this coast populous. Bonard, my late husband, did not, alas, “strike it lucky” in the gold fields. He did, however, have considerable luck at the gaming tables which were, as he himself always said, more to his fancy than the “donkey and the pick and the pan” of the prospector! However, his luck seemingly ran out a little more than a month ago. He was accused of cheating at cards—a lie, of course! He was too clever and skillful to need to cheat at any game. But that can be neither here nor there. His accuser, who was said to be drunk at the time, left the gaming room and presently returned with a gun and shot him through the heart. He died instantly, the hand of cards he was holding (and, I was told, a winning hand!—but that may have been in sentimental kindness to me) falling face down on the table.

I was, as you will conceive, inconsolable. However, Fate walks in through strange doors, and we never know what will happen next! Well! Bonard was no more than laid to rest when—but I shall spare you the suspenseful details! Let me say immediately that before the month was out, in fact only five days ago, I consented to become the wife of a Mr. Robb Quale Tilly!—whose (to some) amusing name is given dignity by the fact that he is a rich man. He is, my dear Sarah, very rich, and I am very rich! Don’t you envy me?

There had been more, much more, but Leon’s mind when he read the letter retained only the fact that Bonard was dead. Now Felix was dead too. He thought over all the years his uncle had been understanding of and amused by his peccadilloes, and the memory of one incident leading back to the one preceding it, he finally arrived at the time of their first complicity—and Felix had not even known of it! He wished he had told him at some moment when they were drinking and laughing together; it would have added to their merriment. It was the summer of 1820 when he and Clovis—when he and Floyd and Clovis had at first met together—then he and Clovis alone. She had asked for a reward, and he’d finally given her the gold piece Felix had given him the Christmas before.

How long ago it was. How young they all—even Felix—had been.