--one from Julian, the other from the
woman herself. Fancy Mercy Merrick in correspondence with Lady Janet
Roy! addressing her as 'My dear Lady Janet,' and signing, 'Yours
affectionately!'

"I had not the patience to read either of the letters through. Julian's
tone is the tone of a Socialist; in my opinion his bishop ought to be
informed of it. As for _her_ she plays her part just as cleverly with
her pen as she played it with her tongue. 'I cannot disguise from myself
that I am wrong in yielding.... Sad forebodings fill my mind when I
think of the future.... I feel as if the first contemptuous look that
is cast at my husband will destroy _my_ happiness, though it may not
disturb _him_.... As long as I was parted from him I could control my
own weakness, I could accept my hard lot. But how can I resist him after
having watched for weeks at his bedside; after having seen his first
smile, and heard his first grateful words t o me while I was slowly
helping him back to life?'

"There is the tone which she takes through four closely written pages
of nauseous humility and clap-trap sentiment! It is enough to make one
despise women. Thank God, there is the contrast at hand to remind me of
what is due to the better few among the sex. I feel that my mother and
my sisters are doubly precious to me now. May I add, on the side of
consolation, that I prize with hardly inferior gratitude the privilege
of corresponding with _you?_

"Farewell for the present. I am too rudely shaken in my most cherished
convictions, I am too depressed and disheartened, to write more. All
good wishes go with you, dear Miss Roseberry, until we meet.

"Most truly yours,

"HORACE HOLMCROFT."

IV.

Extracts from the DIARY of THE REVEREND JULIAN GRAY.

FIRST EXTRACT.

...."A month to-day since we were married! I have only one thing to say:
I would cheerfully go through all that I have suffered to live this one
month over again. I never knew what happiness was until now. And better
still, I have persuaded Mercy that it is all her doing. I have scattered
her misgivings to the winds; she is obliged to submit to evidence, and
to own that she can make the happiness of my life.

"We go back to London to-morrow. She regrets leaving the tranquil
retirement of this remote sea-side place--she dreads change. I care
nothing for it. It is all one to me where I go, so long as my wife is
with me."

SECOND EXTRACT.

"The first cloud has risen. I entered