lieve that not
many men have higher or more varied gifts for such a mission
than myself. My first task on reaching Calcutta shall be to
report progress to you.

"I don't mind exposing a weakness to an old friend, and so I
own to you I fell in love here. The girl had the obduracy
and wrong headedness not to yield to _my_ suit, and so I had
no choice left to me but to persist in it. I know, however,
that if I could only remain here a fortnight longer I should
secure the inestimable triumph of rendering both of us
miserable for life! Yes, Drayton, that pale girl and her
paltry fifteen thousand pounds might have spoiled one of the
grandest careers that ever adorned history! and lost the
world the marvellous origin, rise, progress, and completion
of the dynasty of the great English Begum Calvert in Bengal.
Count upon me for high office whenever penny-a-lining fails
you, and, if my realm be taxable, you shall be my Chancellor
of the Exchequer!

"You are right about that business at Basle; to keep up a
controversy would be to invest it with more interest for
public gossip. Drop it, therefore, and the world will drop
it; and take my word for it, I'll give them something more
to say of me, one of these days, than that my hair trigger
was too sensitive! I'm writing this in the most romantic of
spots. The moonlight is sleeping--isn't that the
conventional?--over the olive plain, and the small silvery
leaves are glittering in its pale light. Up the great Alps,
amongst the deep crevasses, a fitful flashing of lightning
promises heat for the morrow; a nightingale sings close to
my window; and through the muslin curtain of another
casement I can see a figure pass and repass and even
distinguish that her long hair has fallen down, and floats
loosely over neck and shoulders. How pleasantly I might
linger on here, 'My duns forgetting, by my duns forgot.' How
smoothly I might float down the stream of life, without even
having to pull an bar! How delightfully domestic and
innocent and inglorious the whole thing! Isn't it tempting,
you dog? Does it not touch even _your_ temperament through
its thick hide of worldliness? And I believe in my heart it
is all feasible, all to be done.

"I have just tossed up for it Head for India, and head it