ek! I have
no patience with him; his bishop ought to interfere.

"Affectionately yours,

"MARIA OLDERSHAW."

2. _From Miss Gwilt to Mrs. Oldershaw_.

"West Place, June 20th.

"MY POOR OLD DEAR--How very little you know of my sensitive nature, as
you call it! Instead of feeling offended when you left me, I went to
your piano, and forgot all about you till your messenger came. Your
letter is irresistible; I have been laughing over it till I am quite
out of breath. Of all the absurd stories I ever read, the story you
addressed to the Somersetshire clergyman is the most ridiculous. And as
for your interview with him in the street, it is a perfect sin to keep
it to ourselves. The public ought really to enjoy it in the form of a
farce at one of the theaters.

"Luckily for both of us (to come to serious matters), your messenger is
a prudent person. He sent upstairs to know if there was an answer.
In the midst of my merriment I had presence of mind enough to send
downstairs and say 'Yes.'

"Some brute of a man says, in some book which I once read, that no woman
can keep two separate trains of ideas in her mind at the same time. I
declare you have almost satisfied me that the man is right. What! when
you have escaped unnoticed to your place of business, and when you
suspect this house to be watched, you propose to come back here, and
to put it in the parson's power to recover the lost trace of you! What
madness! Stop where you are; and when you have got over your difficulty
at Pimlico (it is some woman's business, of course; what worries women
are!), be so good as to read what I have got to say about our difficulty
at Brompton.

"In the first place, the house (as you supposed) is watched.

"Half an hour after you left me, loud voices in the street interrupted
me at the piano, and I went to the window. There was a cab at the house
opposite, where they let lodgings; and an old man, who looked like a
respectable servant, was wrangling with the driver about his fare. An
elderly gentleman came out of the house, and stopped them. An elderly
gentleman returned into the house, and appeared cautiously at the front
drawing-room window. You know him, you worthy creature; he had the bad
taste, some few hours since, to doubt whether you were telling him
the truth. Don't be afraid, he didn't see me. When he looked up, after
settling with the cab driver, I was behind the curtain. I have been
behind the curtain once or twice since;