"I pray you, my good young friend, that you will not discourse
of things other than business in your letters. It will doubtless
please your friends to know that you are well, and that you look
forward to getting home to them. Is it not so?" As he spoke he
handed me three sheets of note paper and three envelopes. They were
all of the thinnest foreign post, and looking at them, then at him,
and noticing his quiet smile, with the sharp, canine teeth lying
over the red underlip, I understood as well as if he had spoken
that I should be more careful what I wrote, for he would be able to
read it. So I determined to write only formal notes now, but to
write fully to Mr. Hawkins in secret, and also to Mina, for to her
I could write shorthand, which would puzzle the Count, if he did
see
