The letters, directed alternately
to Colonel Roseberry and to the Honorable Mrs. Roseberry,
contained a correspondence between the husband and wife at a time
when the Colonel's military duties had obliged him to be absent
from home. Mercy tied the letters up again, and passed on to the
papers that lay next in order under her hand.
These consisted of a few leaves pinned together, and headed (in a
woman's handwriting) "My Journal at Rome." A brief examination
showed that the journal had been written by Miss Roseberry, and
that it was mainly devoted to a record of the last days of her
father's life.
After replacing the journal and the correspondence in the case,
the one paper left on the table was a letter. The envelope, which
was unclosed, bore this address: "Lady Janet Roy, Mablethorpe
House, Kensington, London." Mercy took the inclosure from the
open envelope. The first lines she read informed her that she had
found the Colonel's letter of introduction, presenting his
daughter to her protectress on her arrival in England
Mercy read the letter through. It was described by the writer as
the last efforts of a dying man. Colonel Roseberry wrote
affectionately of his daughter's merits, and regretfully of her
neglected education--ascribing the latter to the pecuniary losses
which had forced him to emigrate to Canada in the character of a
poor man.
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