CHAPTER XV.--The Mark of Cain. 

Next morning Barton entered his sitting-room in very high spirits, and took up his letters. He had written to Maitland the night before, saying little but, "Come home at once. Margaret is found. She is going to be my wife. You can't come too quickly, if you wish to hear of something very much to your advantage." A load was off his mind, and he felt as _Romeo_ did just before the bad news about _Juliet_ reached him. 

In this buoyant disposition, Barton opened his letters. The first was in a hand he knew very well--that of a man who had been his fellow-student in Paris and Vienna, and who was now a prosperous young physician. The epistle ran thus: 

"Dear Barton.--I'm off to the West of Ireland, for a fortnight People are pretty fit, as the season has not run far. Most of my patients have not yet systematically overeaten themselves. I want you to do something for me. Martin & Wright, the lawyers, have a queer little bit of medical jurisprudence, about which young Wright, who was at Oriel in our time, asked my opinion. I recommended him to see you, as it is more in your line; and _my_ line will presently be attached to that eminent general practitioner, 'The Blue Doctor.' May he prosper with the Galway salmon! 

"Thine, 

"Alfred Franks." 

"Lucky beggar!" thought Barton to himself, but he was too happy to envy even a man who had a fortnight of salmon-fishing before him. 
was that going to be helpful for maitland?
very much to your advantage.