Beyond the Rocks

Before she went to bed in her hotel in the Rue de Rivoli, Monica

Ellerwood wrote to her aunt.

"PARIS, May 15th.

"MY DEAR AUNT MILLY,--We have had a delicious little week,

Jack and I, quite like an old honeymoon pair--and to-day we ran

across Hector, who has remained hidden until now. He is looking

splendid, just as handsome and full of life as ever, so it does not

tell upon his constitution, that is one mercy! Not like poor Ernest

Bretherton, who, if you remember, was quite broken up by her last

year. And I have one good piece of news for you, dear Aunt Milly. I

do not believe he is so frantically wrapped up in this Esclarmonde

de Chartres woman after all--in spite of that diamond chain at

Monte Carlo. For to-night he took us to dine at

Armenonville--although Jack particularly wanted to go to the

Madrid--and when we got there we saw at once why! There was a most

beautiful woman dining there with a party, and Hector never took

his eyes off her the whole of dinner, Jack says--I had my back that

way--and he got rid of us as soon as he could and went and joined

them. Very young she looked, but I suppose married, from her pearls

and clothes--American probably, as she was perhaps too well dressed

for one of us; but quite a lady and awfully pretty. Hector was so

snappish about it, and would not tell her name, that it makes me

sure he is very much in love with her, and Jack thinks so too. So,

dear Aunt Milly, you need have no more anxieties about him, as she

can't have been married long, she looks so young, and so must be

quite safe. Jack says Hector is thoroughly able to take care of

himself, anyway, but I know how all these things worry you. If I

can find out her name before I go I will, though perhaps you think

it is out of the frying-pan into the fire, as it makes him no more

in the mood to marry Morella Winmarleigh than before. Unless, of

course, this new one is unkind to him. We shall be home on

Saturday, dear Aunt Milly, and I will come round to lunch on Sunday

and give you all my news.

"Your affectionate niece,

"MONICA ELLERWOOD."

Which epistle jarred upon Hector's mother when she read it over coffee

at her solitary dinner on the following night.

"Poor dear Monica!" she said to herself. "I wonder where she got this

strain from--her father's family, I suppose--I wish she would not be

so--bald."