The Duke of Gorleston finished signing his letters, then, as he pushed aside the last one, his secretary, who had served his father before him, said,
“There is a letter, Your Grace, which I think you will find slightly perturbing.”
The Duke raised his eyebrows.
He thought that a great many things had been perturbing since he had inherited and one more would make little difference to the sum total, which he found extremely worrying.
“It is almost the duplicate of another letter that came for Your Grace last week,” Mr. Hansard went on, “which I did not trouble you with.”
“What is it about?” the Duke enquired.
“It is about the library here, Your Grace, and it is from an American who is interested in collecting old books. It seems strange that it should arrive just after you told me that
