'I was greatly amused to see in the _Examiner_ of this week one of
Newby's little cobwebs neatly swept away by some dexterous brush. If
Newby is not too old to profit by experience, such an exposure ought
to teach him that "Honesty is indeed the best policy."

'Your letter has just been brought to me. I must not pause to thank
you, I should say too much. Our life is, and always has been, one of
few pleasures, as you seem in part to guess, and for that reason we
feel what passages of enjoyment come in our way very keenly; and I
think if you knew _how_ pleased I am to get a long letter from you,
you would laugh at me.

'In return, however, I smile at you for the earnestness with which
you urge on us the propriety of seeing something of London society.
There would be an advantage in it--a great advantage; yet it is one
that no power on earth could induce Ellis Bell, for instance, to
avail himself of. And even for Acton and Currer, the experiment of
an introduction to society would be more formidable than you,
probably, can well imagine. An existence of absolute seclusion and
unvarying monotony, such as we have long--I may say, indeed,
ever--been habituated to, tends, I fear, to unfit the mind for lively
and exciting scenes, to destroy the capacity for social enjoyment.

'The only glimpses of society I have ever had were obtained in my
vocation of governess, and some of the most miserable moments I can
recall were passed in drawing-rooms full of strange faces. At such
times, my animal spirits would ebb gradually till they sank quite
away, and when I could endure the sense of exhaustion and solitude no
longer, I used to steal off, too glad to find any corner where I
could really be alone. Still, I know very well, that though that
experiment of seeing the world might give acute pain for the time, it
would do good afterwards; and as I have never, that I remember,
gained any important good without incurring proportionate suffering,
I mean to try to take your advice some day, in part at least--to put
off, if possible, that troublesome egotism which is always judging
and blaming itself, and to try, country spinster as I am, to get a
view of some sphere where civilised humanity is to be contemplated.

'I smile at you again for supposing that I could be annoyed by what
you say res