ifiorla's letters. It must be understood that it
had commenced with the lady rather than the gentleman. But that was a
fact of which he was hardly aware. She had written him a short note
in answer to some questions he had asked respecting Mrs. Western when
he had been in Exeter, and this she had done in such a manner as to
make sure of the coming of a further letter. The further letter had
come and thus the correspondence had been commenced. It was no doubt
chiefly in regard to Mrs. Western; or at first pretended to be so.
Miss Altifiorla thought it right to speak always of her old friend
with affectionate kindness;--but still with considerable severity.
The affectionate kindness might go for what it was worth; but it was
the severity, or rather the sarcasm, which gratified Sir Francis. And
then Miss Altifiorla gradually adopted a familiar strain into which
Sir Francis fell readily enough. In fact Sir Francis found that a
young woman who would joke with him, and appear to follow his lead in
her joking, was more to his taste than an austere beauty such as had
been his last love.

"Lady Grant is here at this moment," Miss Altifiorla said in one of
her letters. She had by this time fallen into that familiar style of
writing which hardly declared whether it belonged to a man's letter
or a woman's. "I suppose you know who Lady Grant is. She is your
fortunate rival's magnificent widowed sister, and has come here I
presume to endeavour to set matters right. Whether she will succeed
may be doubtful. She is the exact ditto of her brother, who of all
human beings gives himself the finest airs. But Cecilia since her
separation has given herself airs too, and now leads her lonely
life with her nose high among the stars. Poor dear Cecilia! her
misfortunes do not become her, and I think they have hardly been
deserved. They are all the result of your bitter vengeance, and
though I must say that she in sort deserves it, I think that you
might have spared her. After all she has done you no harm. Consider
where you would be with Cecilia Holt for your wife and guardian.
Hard though you are, I do not think you would have been hard enough
to treat her as he has done. Indeed there is an audacity about his
conduct to which I know no parallel. Fancy a man marrying a wife and
then instantly bidding her go home to her mother because he finds
that she once liked another man better than himself! I wonder whether
the law couldn't touch him! But yo