eight letters from the package and began to devour their contents,

heedless of the cold.

By the dates, these letters were from five to seven years old. They were

all from Major Lackland to Mr. Hawkins. The substance of them was, that

some one in the east had been inquiring of Major Lackland about a lost

child and its parents, and that it was conjectured that the child might

be Laura.

Evidently some of the letters were missing, for the name of the

inquirer was not mentioned; there was a casual reference to "this

handsome-featured aristocratic gentleman," as if the reader and the

writer were accustomed to speak of him and knew who was meant.

In one letter the Major said he agreed with Mr. Hawkins that the inquirer

seemed not altogether on the wrong track; but he also agreed that it

would be best to keep quiet until more convincing developments were

forthcoming.

Another letter said that "the poor soul broke completely down when he saw

Laura's picture, and declared it must be she."

Still another said:

He seems entirely alone in the world, and his heart is so wrapped

up in this thing that I believe that if it proved a false hope, it

The Gilded Age