Yet, a bare fortnight after the arrival of this first budget, still another letter arrived, from Havana. The Clorinda had put in there unexpectedly, it appeared: the letter was from Captain Marpole.

“What a dear man he is,” said Alice. “He must have known how anxious we would be for every scrap of news.”

Captain Marpole’s letter was not so terse and vivid as the children’s had been: still, for the news it contained, I give it in full: