reiterate the word diet to him, but it has little effect. My mother is excessively well, considering her great age. Has come through the winter with no more serious ailments than occasional attacks of wind on the stomach. Renny is in good health, as always, but is limping about on a stick as the result of a severe kick on the knee from a vicious horse. Luckily the veterinary was in the stable at the time and administered first aid.
"It is really at Renny's instigation that I am writing to you about our trouble. He is greatly upset in his mind, as indeed we all are, excepting perhaps Mama, who seems singularly callous about it all. I am sure that by now you are quite wrought up by curiosity, so I shall relieve it by coming to the point at once. Finch has disappeared.
"Knowing what a closely knit, affectionate family we are, you can imagine our state of mind.
"He has been gone four weeks and we are now thoroughly alarmed. Wakefield quite threw us into a state at the dinner table yesterday by suggesting that perhaps Finch has been murdered. What a dreadful word that is! I doubt if I have ever written any so low word in my correspondence hitherto.
"Renny has had a private detective on the search for Finch, and has traced him to New York. He now declares that, unless he is found inside of the week, he will publicly advertise for him. This would be very humiliating for us, as we have given out that he is away on a visit for his health. As a matter of fact, it was none too good. I think the poor boy worried a great deal over being denied access to a pianoforte, and I firmly believe this was at the root of the disaster.
"You are so sympathetic, dear Alayne. You understand, as no outsider could, our extreme devotion as a family, in spite of little surface flurries. I trust you will be able to send us some word of Finch. Remembering how fond he was of you, we think it quite probable that he has sought you out. Pray heaven we shall not have to go through the agony of publicly advertising for him. Renny has already gone to the length of writing a com-