Spit it out, my boy!" "Yes ...

er....

Well, the fact is, Dick, I begin to think it's time I settled down." Mahony gave a whistle.

"Whew! A lady in the case ?" "That's the chat.

Just oblige yours truly by takin' a squint at this, will you ?" He handed his friend a squarely-folded sheet of thinnest blue paper, with a large purple stamp in one corner, and a red seal on the back.
Opening it Mahony discovered three crossed pages, written in a delicately pointed, minute, Italian hand.
He read the letter to the end, deliberately, and with a growing sense of relief: composition, expression and penmanship, all met with his approval.