, let this dear good charmer take her own time, provided
there's none given to affectation, or prudery, or coquetry; and from
all these, of course, she must be free; and of course I must be content.
ADIEU AU REVOIR.'

CHAPTER XVII

As Lord Colambre was returning home, he was overtaken by Sir Terence
O'Fay.

'Well, my lord,' cried Sir Terence, out of breath, 'you have led me a
pretty dance all over the town; here's a letter somewhere down in my
safe pocket for you, which has cost me trouble enough. Phoo! where is
it now?--it's from Miss Nugent,' said he, holding up the letter. The
direction to Grosvenor Square, London, had been scratched out; and it
had been re-directed by Sir Terence to the Lord Viscount Colambre, at
Sir James Brooke's, Bart., Brookwood, Huntingdonshire, or elsewhere,
with speed. 'But the more haste the worse speed; for away it went to
Brookwood, Huntingdonshire, where I knew, if anywhere, you was to be
found; but, as fate and the post would have it, there the letter went
coursing after you, while you were running round, and back and forwards,
and everywhere, I understand, to Toddrington and Wrestham, and where
not, through all them English places, where there's no cross-post; so I
took it for granted that it found its way to the dead-letter office,
or was sticking up across a pane in the d--d postmaster's window at
Huntingdon, for the whole town to see, and it a love-letter, and some
puppy to claim it, under false pretence; and you all the time without
it, and it might breed a coolness betwixt you and Miss Nugent.'

'But, my dear Sir Terence, give me the letter now you have me.'

'Oh, my dear lord, if you knew what a race I have had, missing you here
by five minutes, and there by five seconds--but I have you at last,
and you have it--and I'm paid this minute for all I liquidated of my
substance, by the pleasure I have in seeing you crack the seal and read
it. But take care you don't tumble over the orange woman--orange barrows
are a great nuisance, when one's studying a letter in the streets of
London, or the metropolis. But never heed; stick to my arm, and I'll
guide you, like a blind man, safe through the thick of them.'

Miss Nugent's letter, which Lord Colambre read in spite of the jostling
of passengers, and the incessant talking of Sir Terence, was as
follows:--

Let me not be the cause of banishing you from your home and your
country, where you would do so much good, and make so many