rn to foggy London--(I hear you have had
terrible weather there)--you will see little or nothing of me. My Carrie
allows me to smoke (she permits me everything), but I should be a mean
brute if I took advantage of her boundless generosity. I smoke one cigar
_per diem_, and no more. And as for wine--the honey of the loved one's
lips is the true grape of the honeymoon. I must tell you that Carrie and
I have made a solemn compact. Her head was nestled against my waistcoat
as we made it. We are not going to live for the world, like foolish
people whom we know. For society my little wife needs me; and I, happy
man, shall be more than content for ever while the partner of my bosom
deigns to solace me with her gentle voice. She has friends without
number who will mourn her loss to society. Her dear friends the
Barcaroles will be inconsolable; her sister Theodosia will break her
heart. Life has its trials, however, which must be bravely borne; and
Carrie's friends must be consoled when they learn that she is happy with
the man of her choice. In the same way, be comforted, my dear Mac (for I
know how warmly you regard me), when I tell you that henceforth we shall
meet only at rare intervals. My life is bound up in that of the
celestial being who is knitting in the window, not an arm's length from
me.

"My dear Mac, we have drank our last gin-sling together. Recal me
affectionately to the memory of Joe Parkes, and young Square, and all
friends of her Majesty's Pugilistic Department; and may they all
speedily be as happy as I am. How the wretches will laugh when you tell
them that Flowerdew has reformed his ways, and has blackened his last
Milo; but I think, my dear fellow, I have convinced you that I write
after cool reflection. We have taken a cottage four miles south of my
office. A sixpenny omnibus will take me back at four o'clock daily, to
my little haven. My Carrie is fond of a garden; and I shall find her, on
summer afternoons, waiting at the gate for me, in her garden hat, and
leaning upon the smartest little rake in the world. You, and Joe, and
the Pugilistic Department fellows may laugh; but this is the happy life
I have chalked out for myself. As I have told you, some men marry with
their eyes shut; but I live only to congratulate myself on my sagacity.
To think that I, of all men, should have won Caroline Cockayne!

"We shall remain here for another week, when we go to Fontainebleau, and
thence we return to London. I