Page:Herbert Jenkins - The Rain Girl.djvu/272

 expression of countenance, when I drink your coffee. Here, take them away, I don't like them put on my tray," he indicated the pile of letters that lay beside his coffee cup.

Hoskins took away the offending letters and placed them upon the dressing-table.

Lord Drewitt was possessed of a constitutional aversion from opening letters. "My executors have my sympathy," he had once remarked; "they will also have the bulk of my correspondence—unopened."

"There's a letter from Mr. Beresford, my lord; it's marked 'Immediate.'"

"You know I always refrain from opening letters marked 'immediate' or 'important,'" said Lord Drewitt reproachfully. "It means that they are immediate or important only to the writers, and not to the recipients. Your knowledge of the world should have taught you that. You may open it, however, and read it to me."

Hoskins opened the letter and read:—